During a time of high tension, terror and fear, the Irish Defence Forces faced the very real threat of the Irish State being plunged into a savagely sectarian civil war. The southern state faced a breakdown of law and order, severely challenged as it was by manhunts, prison breaks, shoot-outs, kidnappings, bank robberies, subversive training camps, bomb-making factories, illegal weapons shipments, and border operations. Our world today is currently facing deadly attacks from fanatical Islamic fundamentalist terrorists, but the Irish Defence Forces have battled against hardened, sophisticated, subversive paramilitary groups for decades. Ireland has its own story of defending democracy, protecting its people and securing the state, countering self-appointed ruthlessly determined, clever and committed republican and loyalist paramilitaries prepared to kill and otherwise use violence to achieve their aims. This is a first-hand account of the Irish Defence Forces' story of 'soldiering against subversion' - straight from the horse's mouth.
