IRISH SOLDIERS COULD be deployed on peacekeeping missions to the Balkan region or even to Ukraine should a peace deal with Russia emerge, an Irish Army officer has said.
The Irish Defence Forces will begin their two year stint in the German-led EU Battlegroup on New Years Day. They will join other EU militaries from nations such as Hungary, Lithuania, Croatia, Sweden and Belgium as a quick reaction force.
There are 172 troops – that is made up of 139 in a mechanised infantry company, which means that they are foot soldiers working in armoured personnel carriers.
There are also 29 troops in a support element which handles logistics and communications.
Among those troops are Irish Defence Forces personnel with skills in European languages including German, Hungarian, Ukrainian and Russian.
The big question is what will the Irish soldiers be doing and what will a deployment with the EU Battlegroup look like.
“Deployments will be as a peacekeeping force, and that comes out of the European security defense policy, which has shaped the model for the Battlegroup,” Comdt Liam McDonnell said.
“There are two regions of operations that we will probably be deployed into and that is the Middle East to support operations say in Lebanon but most likely, it’s probably going to be Europe, if it does happen.
“And within Europe, you’re looking at either the Balkans or recently now you could be looking at a deployment to Ukraine. However, that is not a soldier decision. It’s not a military decision, it’s a political decision,” he added.
Speculation among defence and diplomatic sources that The Journal spoke to is that any peace deal in Ukraine may need a force to act as peacekeepers and take up positions along the frontlines in the east of the country.
It is unlikely to be a NATO force to achieve that due to tensions between Russia and the alliance but those sources believe that an EU force may be palatable to both sides.
Earlier this month, Irish troops flew on board Belgian air force aircraft to a massive military training base in Bergen, Germany where they participated in an exercise.
During that event they acted as the force protection, or security element, for their fellow troops, manning checkpoints, the main gate and securing the compound.
It was an opportunity for the 2,000 soldiers who will participate in the EU Battlegroup 2025 to test how they integrate and work together.
A major logistics mission has been undertaken to move the Irish MOWAG armoured personnel carriers and other vehicles and equipment from their base in Ireland to Germany.
One of the soldiers involved is Commandant Liam McDonnell who is tasked with leading troops in operations. He has just returned to Ireland from Germany. He has previously served on foreign deployments in Lebanon, Syria and in Kosovo.
“It is important to contextualise that we have deployed with other multinational forces since 1958 so operating with other forces is not alien to us,” McDonnell said.
“However, working with European nations does take us into a different league, it is as if we are now playing premiership football.
“What we found over there was that they are very efficient and very professional in the methodology ofhow they do their business but we also found that we were equally as efficient as them.
“That’s one of the key takeaways that we’ve identified, that our own systems, our internal education is on par with international best practice,” he said.
The Irish troops carried out the work of securing the base but also participated in exercises to test how they would respond to incidents while on deployment.
Working with other EU militaries is not without its challenges, McDonnell said, and one key issue is languages. To combat that the Irish have a diverse group of soldiers who can speak languages such as Arabic, Hungarian and Ukrainian. McDonnell has also spent the past 18 months learning German.
“While it is led by German troops, the working business language is English over there, which is also a key enabler for us, but at the same time also identifies that we don’t have the multilingual disciplines as the rest of the Europeans.
“This is something that I am personally working on. But we do have people that can speak Hungarian, they can speak Bosnian, they can speak Ukrainian, they can speak Russian due to the ethnic background and diversity of our force. These are the unseen enablers we have in the Defence Forces,” he explained.
The Irish have got new kit for the mission which includes more suitable body armour and uniform as well as modern radio systems which enable the soldiers to communicate better amongst themselves and with other units.
They are also using new night vision equipment which better enables Irish soldiers to operate in the hours of darkness.
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