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Opinion Women have shown time and time again that they are a more deadly species than the male

Security expert Tom Clonan explains why armies across the world need female soldiers and officers, in all positions.

OVER THE NEXT two years, the Irish Defence Forces will recruit about 1,450 young men and women for general military service.

There are approximately 9,500 soldiers in the Irish armed forces between army, naval service and air corps. However, only about 6% of the strength of our military is female.

This compares poorly with participation rates for women in the international military.

Almost 20% of the US military is comprised of women soldiers.

The French armed forces is approximately 20% female.

The NATO average for women’s participation as soldiers is around 15%.

This places Ireland close to the bottom of the international league table for gender equality within the military.

There are historical and cultural reasons for this within Ireland.

Women were effectively de-barred from the Irish Defence Forces until the early 1980s.

Recruitment during subsequent decades was sporadic and the numbers of women within the Irish military was kept artificially low by discriminatory policies and practices adopted by a cautious and deeply conservative general staff.

Unfortunately, Irish female soldiers experienced unacceptably high levels of discrimination, bullying, harassment and sexual violence during this period.

In 2000, as a serving Captain in the Army, I researched and wrote a comprehensive doctoral thesis on the equality culture of the Irish Defence Forces.

It contained stark findings as it applied to equality of opportunity and widespread allegations of sexual harassment and sexual assault against female soldiers.

This prompted the then-Minister for Defence, Michael Smith TD, to order an independent government enquiry into the status and roles of women in the Irish Defence Forces.

The ‘Study Review Group’ reported in 2003 and the Defence Forces implemented the majority of its recommendations and findings as it applied to both female and male soldiers, sailors and aircrew.

As a consequence, the Irish Defence Forces is now considered to be one of the most equality-friendly workplaces in the international military and considered an exemplar of equality of opportunity and dignity in the workplace for all of its personnel, irrespective of gender, ethnicity or sexual orientation.

New campaign

It is against this background that Minister for Defence, Simon Coveney directed that women be specifically targeted for enlistment to the Defence Forces during the current recruitment drive.

DFMagazine / YouTube

Women have been enlisted to the international military in ever greater numbers for more than a century. During World War 1, Tsar Nicholas II conscripted thousands of women into the Russian military to engage in brutal trench warfare. Their ferocity in hand-to-hand combat and close-quarter fighting earned female units the term “battalions of death”.

Russian women were conscripted by the Communists to the Red Army during World War 2 in order to fight the German Wehrmacht and Nazi SS military formations.

Up to one million Russian women fought in uniform in desperate circumstances along the Eastern Front.

The gender-integrated units of the Red Army and Air Force eventually defeated the Germans.

Female soldiers participated in the final assault on Berlin – the centre of Hitler’s patriarchal ‘Fatherland’.

During this conflict, hundreds of thousands of women fought as partisans in France, Italy and Yugoslavia. Over 40,000 women were killed in action in the Balkans.

In these bitter conflicts, where mass murder, torture and ethnic cleansing were features of the battlefield, women were especially prized by military commanders for their physical strength, endurance and calmness in the field and their ability to resist torture and ill treatment.

In subsequent conflicts during the Cold War, women time and time again proved their mettle in combat.

Cambodia Cambodian Troops Women Soldiers Original caption from August 1970: A girl soldier totes a Chinese-made machine-gun into combat during an operation across the Mekong River from Phnom Penh in the Prek Tameak area, the scene of heavy fighting between Cambodian troops and Viet Cong/North Vietnamese forces. The girl is one of many who serve in the rapidly expanded army as regular soldiers and medics. AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

 

In Vietnam, approximately 40% of North Vietnamese Army (NVA) commanders were women. Along with their gender-integrated allies the Viet Cong, they comprehensively defeated an almost exclusively male and technologically superior enemy in the US military.

By 1975, Vietnamese women and men effectively drove the US military out of Vietnamese territory.

The US military itself has incrementally recognised the value of female soldiers.

In Operations Desert Watch and Desert Storm, the US and its allies deployed 43,000 female troops against Saddam Hussein’s elite all-male Republican Guard.

Outperforming all-male units

The women performed well in combat alongside their male peers and after-action reports and detailed research conducted by the US, British and Israeli military demonstrate conclusively that ‘mixed-gender’ units – on land, sea and in the air – consistently outperform all-male units in combat conditions.

In the current Global War on Terror, about a quarter of a million female soldiers in the US military have passed through Shannon Airport on their way to combat in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Since 2003, 161 American women have been killed in action with over 10,000 wounded in combat operations.

The US Air Force in particular has benefitted from increased participation rates by female pilots and crew.

Combat experience and military aviation research has shown that female pilots are particularly skilled at flying in stressful, high-noise and high-vibration environments whilst simultaneously operating weapons systems and communications systems. 

In short, women are effective at multi-tasking and have shown time and time again that they are indeed a more deadly species than the male.

Army Rangers Women US Army Capt. Kristen Griest, left, stands in formation during an Army Ranger School graduation ceremony AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

In 1916, approximately 300 Irish women fought in the Rising in order to bring about the liberation of the State.

One hundred years later, it is fitting that the Defence Forces are seeking to recruit and harness the full potential of Irish women in our armed forces – both at home and abroad.

Women are absolutely essential to the continued success of both domestic security operations in the Republic to the peace enforcement and peacebuilding missions overseas for which the Irish Defence Forces are renowned.

Young women who join the Irish Defence Forces today will find an equality-friendly workplace which promotes the fullest participation of women and men alike in a life less ordinary – from refugee rescue operations in the Mediterranean to ground operations in the Golan Heights in Syria.

Dr Tom Clonan is a former Captain in the Irish armed forces. He is a security analyst and academic, lecturing in the School of Media in DIT. You can follow him on Twitter here.   

Related: Irish Defence Forces to recruit 1,450 new staff 

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    Mute Drew TheChinaman :)
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    May 5th 2016, 8:13 AM

    Don’t let the fact that they DON’T WANT to serve in the armed forces in same numbers as men get in the way of your army of super female soldiers…

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    Mute Malachi
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    May 5th 2016, 8:17 AM

    What’s that? They don’t WANT to serve in the same numbers men do? Let’s ignore that preference and introduce quotas because women can’t have real preferences.

    They are unable to make their own decisions about where they work, and must be forced to have equal representation in every field.

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    Mute Mary Costello
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    May 5th 2016, 8:25 AM

    My friends daughter always wanted to be a Garda and has applied time and time again to no avail. Fewer than one-in-five new garda recruits are women!! I bet it is the same with the armed forces.

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    Mute Drew TheChinaman :)
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    May 5th 2016, 8:35 AM

    Her and 25,000 other applicants rejected for a few hundred open positions in the most recent recruitment drive…

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    Mute the asian nightmare
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    May 5th 2016, 8:42 AM

    It’s definitely because she’s a woman is it Mary? She should sue for discrimination if it is. Wonder how Noreen and the rest of the Bean Gardai managed to sneak in?

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    Mute Nathan Wheeler
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    May 5th 2016, 9:28 AM

    From a sociological point of view I guess the argument that men are far more expendable than women is constantly reiterated. The argument does have quite a lot of merit if one looks at it historically (as opposed to modern times). If a tribe for example, were to lose half its men in war time, that’s not a massive set back to the tribe as the women can produce more people (men to replace those who were lost and women to continue the lineage of the tribe) and thus the tribe can bounce back in one generation.

    However if a tribe loses half its women in a war time scenario then the capacity to bounce back is massively limited. The next generation is much smaller, it’s perhaps this thinking that influenced early military thinking that women should be protected (White knight syndrome) and that men who are expendable should go off and fight and thus protect the tribal ability to multiply.

    Considering we are essentially animals whose primary urge is to eat, sleep and fornicate then this thinking is perhaps for primal that we would like to admit. Now this is not acepted in modern times for obvious reasons but makes sense historically.

    I for one am all for women joining the army and doing their bit, I am not however in favour of lowering standards for any member seeking to join. In a combat scenario incoming rounds do not discriminate based on your gender and any squad is as weak as its weakest part. This is not to say that women are the weakest part far from it, but if standards are lowered it can be assumed that their readiness and ability to fight is compromised by their limited conditioning from military training.

    Keep the standard high across the board and all will be well. You will have a much lower amount of women as the standard is very high (I assume) and physically the difference in gender biology and physicality will be exposed.

    I don’t see this as a feminist issue (although I happily wear that title) rather an issue of common understanding of accepting that those who physically can should (both men and women) and those who physically cant shouldn’t not (again both men and women).

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    Mute Pat Morrissey
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    May 5th 2016, 9:50 AM

    In the later stages of the hundred years’ war, polygamy was allowed temporarily because of the shortage of males.

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    Mute Nathan Wheeler
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    May 5th 2016, 9:53 AM

    @Pat I did not know taht :P Fun fact of the day !

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    Mute Shawn O'Ceallaghan
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    May 5th 2016, 9:54 AM

    Anyone notice the women in the stock photo have no ammo? Symbolic much.

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    Mute Pat Morrissey
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    May 5th 2016, 10:09 AM

    My error: it was the thirty years war: Temporary exceptions to this doctrine (monogamy) have been found, however, under extreme circumstances, such as the loss of men due to extended warfare. Such a situation was reported by Jensen (1980), following the Thirty Years War: On February 14, 1650, the parliament at Nürnberg decreed that because so many men were killed during the Thirty Years’ War, the churches for the following ten years could not admit any man under the age of 60 into a monastery. Priests and ministers not bound by any monastery were allowed to marry. Lastly, the decree stated that every man was allowed to marry up to ten women. The men were admonished to behave honorably, provide for their wives properly, and prevent animosity among them.

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    Mute Tomás Ó Briain
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    May 5th 2016, 11:06 AM

    And how was your scientific survey structured?

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    Mute Louis Jacob
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    May 5th 2016, 11:10 AM

    Love seeing old military guys getting confused about gender equality… It’s hilarious.

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    Mute Louis Jacob
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    May 5th 2016, 11:11 AM

    Women: A completely different species…

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    Mute Fifty Shades of Sé
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    May 5th 2016, 1:21 PM

    @Pat that’s one reason why I would’ve given two fingers to anyone who tried to recruit me.

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    Mute Daithí Ó'Céileachair
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    May 5th 2016, 2:19 PM

    What are the obvious reasons why this is no longer accepted?

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    Mute KaRule T
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    May 5th 2016, 8:11 AM

    There are large numbers of women in the Kurdish armed forces fighting ISIS in Iraq as well.

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    Mute Awkward Seal
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    May 5th 2016, 8:44 AM

    Apparently they are highly effective because ISIS think it’s shameful to be killed by a women (something about losing their 21 virgins or something). They would rather retreat. I’m not sure it’s true but I hope it is because it’s hilarious.

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    Mute Captain kirk
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    May 5th 2016, 8:59 AM

    When you are fighting for your lives it’s all hands on deck, big difference to send women abroad to fight

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    Mute Nathan Wheeler
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    May 5th 2016, 9:09 AM

    Dont mention that FGM is rampant within the kurdish culture. Women soldiers as long as they have no pleasure from sex or maintain their individuality.

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    Mute Peter Cavey
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    May 5th 2016, 10:12 AM

    You are correct. They are the widows of fallen Syrian soldiers. By all accounts, they are the most effective army in Syria.

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    Mute B-Egan
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    May 5th 2016, 11:40 AM

    If Tom has daughters he will surely encourage them to sign up and go fight the jihadists in a desert somewhere. Also the populations of France is nearly 65 million so thats 30 million plus ladies in Ireland 2 million plus. You would have to think about these Carsonesque idiots and who pays them to encourage Irish people to be cannon fodder for old men with a insatiable lust for greed and conflict. Sign up your daughters Tom Conlan if you have any if not your sons will do. Or are we just talking about broke working class men and women shafted out of a normal life by the same buckos that pay you to write this crap.

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    Mute B-Egan
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    May 5th 2016, 11:43 AM

    Tom ! Has Simon Coveney and his pimp Peter Sutherland been sending you Christmas cards ? White Paper Christmas Tom .

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    Mute Matty Reese
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    May 6th 2016, 1:30 PM

    The Kurds are far more repressive of women than the Sunni Arabs were (until ISIS came along)

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    Mute Patrick Agnew
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    May 5th 2016, 8:21 AM

    I remember when this thesis of his was being worked on. He sent out a questionnaire to soldiers asking loaded questions. The only people who answered were those with a gripe against the system. The was the general consensus that the whole process was deeply flawed. The Minister made cosmetic changes only because of media pressure, not because a massive injustice needed righting. Female members of the Defence Forces have always been paid the same as their male colleagues. This article is a load of nonsense.

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    Mute Reg
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    May 5th 2016, 9:09 AM

    There’s some real pearls on nonsense there alright. Here’s an example: “In Operations Desert Watch and Desert Storm, the US and its allies deployed 43,000 female troops against Saddam Hussein’s elite all-male Republican Guard.”

    25 years ago, during Desert Storm, hardly any combat roles were filled by women.

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    Mute Patrick Brompton
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    May 5th 2016, 10:24 AM

    And Saddam Hussein kept his elite Republican Guard in reserve, so nobody fought them, male or female.

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    Mute EmmaQ@gmail.com
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    May 5th 2016, 7:54 PM

    Yeah this is one of the most ridiculous PC articles that I have read on here yet, and that is saying something.
    I don’t think any woman alive would of been able to Yomp across the falklands in 82 with a 50kg rucksack on her back.
    Not to mention what would happen to any front line western female combat troops taken POW by ISIS and the power it would wield on public opinion.
    There is an agenda here and it stinks…

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    Mute Brendan O'Brien
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    May 5th 2016, 10:41 AM

    Women are not a species.

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    Mute Michael Sands
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    May 5th 2016, 11:07 PM

    They act like another species lol.

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    Mute Liam Mac Roibin
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    May 8th 2016, 10:24 PM

    Yes they are, an alien species from the planet Entitlement.

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    Mute Ó Muirí Oisín
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    May 5th 2016, 8:58 AM

    Tom would do anything to get people on his side. As a former serving captain also, I can categorically state that he is talking absolute manure here. His writings have become a joke tbh

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    Mute John Gleeson
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    May 5th 2016, 11:55 AM

    Women are allowed to be slower and weaker than men when it comes to the admission into the military, i have no issue with women joining but they should be held to the exact same standard as men.

    It is the only way to garner equal respect. If women do join the armed forces under this quota program then they will always face the stigma of being a diversity hire. Personally i would rather join the army honestly and take the real respect that comes with it.

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    Mute Awkward Seal
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    May 5th 2016, 8:36 AM

    The US Marines did a comprehensive review of women in combat and they found the overall fighting effectiveness of a group was reduced when it included women. Anecdotally, one of my best friends is a soldier and he told me that women tend to get preferential treatment. They can’t carry as much so aren’t expected to. In one big exercise the women were such a hindrance they were ordered to stay in the jeep.

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    Mute Awkward Seal
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    May 5th 2016, 9:08 AM

    Here’s an overview of their study http://qz.com/499618/the-us-marines-tested-all-male-squads-against-mixed-gender-ones-and-the-men-came-out-ahead/ It’s not a perfect study but it does raise doubts about full integration. Using examples of women fighting effectively in history is a bit misleading and doesn’t prove the overall thesis of this article; that women are more deadly than men. In cases where women fought it was generally more out of desperation. They can definitely shift the balance in a war but that doesn’t mean they would be generally more effective than men in their place. From a purely physical perspective men perform better on average. You will get some women that will make the cut but forcing in gender quotas and lowering the bar so more women pass is not the way to go. Let the women in if they want to join and are capable. It’s that simple.

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    Mute Get Lost Eircodes
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    May 5th 2016, 9:12 AM

    Same with the guards when there’s a mill…think banners wade into break up a fight?

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    Mute Tomás Ó Briain
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    May 5th 2016, 11:12 AM

    Dear Awkward Seal, I have marched thousands of miles, mostly in the company of women. Men with whom I have marched often declined to march with the women again due to the women’s superior stamina and speed. This has happened tine and time again.

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    Mute liam
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    May 5th 2016, 2:28 PM

    Tomas O’Brien, the grand old duke of York’s most trusted lieutenant.

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    Mute Tomás Ó Briain
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    May 5th 2016, 8:47 PM

    Liam, if you are responding to Tomás Ó Briain at least get the spelling correct. It would be more like the Duchess’s sergeant, rather than the Duke’s Lieutenant, make of that what you Will.

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    Mute Shawn O'Ceallaghan
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    May 5th 2016, 8:13 AM

    Now if only they did the same fitness requirements as men. None of these knee press ups.

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    Mute Anne Marie Devlin
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    May 5th 2016, 8:52 AM

    A bugbear of mine – the Soviet Union and Russia are not synonymous. During WW2, the Soviet Army recruited women from all over the Soviet Union – not just Russia. Of the most famous, Lyudmila Pavlichenko was Ukrainian and Manshuk Mametova was Kazakh. It’s akin to calling Irish people English.

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    Mute Peter Fechter
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    May 5th 2016, 9:58 AM

    Anne Marie..you know Russian military history?

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    Mute Cal McLaughlin
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    May 5th 2016, 8:05 AM

    ‘In 1916, approximately 300 Irish women fought in the Rising in order to bring about the liberation of the State.’
    No they didn’t.
    Talking a lot is not ‘Fighting’.

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    Mute Armin Tamzarian
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    May 5th 2016, 8:06 AM

    It is in my house!!!

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    Mute Anton Friendo
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    May 5th 2016, 10:21 AM

    Ah sure I heard they went on to defeat Germany by themselves after they left the GPO

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    Mute Shawn O'Ceallaghan
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    May 5th 2016, 8:21 AM

    If women cant reach the standard, sure they’ll just drop the requirements http://nypost.com/2014/12/11/fdny-drops-physical-test-requirement-amid-low-female-hiring-rate/

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    Mute John Doyle
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    May 5th 2016, 8:30 AM

    Woman are definitely more deadly when cycling thru dublin city centre. My bus has easily nearly squashed 10 of them. . Look over your shoulders when changing lanes and get off your phone ya gobsheens

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    Mute Peter Cavey
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    May 5th 2016, 8:11 AM

    I hope this isn’t smoke and mirrors to hide gender quotas.

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    Mute Boganity
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    May 12th 2016, 7:02 AM

    Groaaaan !

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    Mute postman pat
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    May 5th 2016, 9:05 AM

    I can still never understand how is it there is only a push for gender equality in the good jobs, why do you never hear of a recruitment drive for bin women etc. why is it always the army or management etc.

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    Mute Portia
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    May 5th 2016, 9:10 AM

    I would not call killing people a “good” job. as war begets war.

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    Mute postman pat
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    May 5th 2016, 10:43 AM

    I mean pay wise

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    Mute eastsmer
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    May 5th 2016, 8:09 AM

    The Army was OK until the civilians started joining…

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    Mute Derek Walsh
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    May 5th 2016, 9:59 AM

    There isn’t an army until civilians start joining.

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    Mute UndieGrundy
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    May 5th 2016, 11:38 AM

    He must have missed what happened in the Isreali army when they had mixed gender units. They had to stop it as the casuakity rate was multiple the times of men only and women only units. Why? The men kept trying to protect the women at risk to their own safety and the missions success. There was a well0kniwn case of an Israeli male soldier short as he tried to lift his female comrade over a wall. She was too short, couldn’t jump high enough, and didn’t have the upper body strength to pull herself over the wall. So he stopped to help and got shot.

    Another case of an Israeli soldier hit by a mortar and later under gunfire and the female solder couldn’t drag his injured body to safety like any other male soldier could have done.

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    Mute Mjhint
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    May 5th 2016, 1:15 PM

    Yes undie & it has also been shown that in a conflict situation that if female soldiers were killed within mixed units it is detrimental to moral in that unit amongst male soldiers. All female units fair better in these circumstances.

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    Mute Joe Murphy
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    May 5th 2016, 8:28 AM

    Female spies were supposed to be best in wartime, not surprisingly..

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    Mute Cal McLaughlin
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    May 5th 2016, 8:32 AM

    Men like to talk after sex.

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    Mute Stephen murphy
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    May 7th 2016, 8:47 PM

    The never got to exercise their tongue back then, during sex and it needed a stretch after sex back then.

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    Mute Rob Hynes
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    May 5th 2016, 10:20 AM

    “after-action reports and detailed research conducted by the US, British and Israeli military demonstrate conclusively that ‘mixed-gender’ units – on land, sea and in the air – consistently outperform all-male units in combat conditions.”

    Can anyone provide a source on this? I can only find information from a year long study conducted in 2014-2015 done by the US Marine Core that suggest all male squads performed better consistently vs female integrated squads.

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    Mute Eamonn
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    May 5th 2016, 10:43 AM

    Another article made up of facts from our resident ex Army head Tom Clonan. Remember when he tried to tell us the IRA were going to blow up Dublin during the Rising commemorations. This man is irrelevant. I hear their is a vacancy at the Sindo.

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    Mute Helen Purcell
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    May 5th 2016, 8:14 AM

    And it took 3 comments here before a tit joke/comment. Better then I thought actually, I expected it to be the first one.

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    Mute Patrick Agnew
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    May 5th 2016, 8:34 AM

    Why can women not measure? It’s because men have always told them that this little bit is 6 inches.

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    Mute Daffy the Bear
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    May 5th 2016, 1:35 PM

    Why wasn’t this this comment funny? Because you got the setup and the punchline wrong..

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    Mute Liam Mac Roibin
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    May 8th 2016, 10:34 PM

    Speaking for yourself Paddy?

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    Mute Aoife
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    May 5th 2016, 8:37 AM

    So has Simon encouraged his own wife and kids to sign up?

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    Mute Fiona deFreyne
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    May 5th 2016, 9:27 AM

    That comments says more in a few words than my long winded comments.

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    Mute Web Governance
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    May 5th 2016, 10:42 AM

    “Shoot the women first”

    An interesting book based on advice given to German security forces
    when tackling red brigade terrorists.

    ‘Shoot the women’ because if present,
    they are (in general) more miltant – & male miltants are
    unlikely to surrender whilst they live.

    The book profiles women from the usual suspects: red brigades, ETA, PLO,
    Corsica, IRA, etc.

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    Mute Fiona deFreyne
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    May 5th 2016, 8:14 AM

    Generally speaking and with the exception of the upper echelons in military forces, it is the under privileged and the poorer sectors of society who are disproportionately represented in the ranks of the sacrificial pawns in armed conflict. All wars are brutal, cruel, horrific in effect, psychologically damaging to the survivors and fought for the benefit of those who don’t participate.,

    I dislike war mongering, national chauvinism and the unhealthy preoccupation with militarism. To each their own, I suppose, but, as a pacifist in a preface ful,country, I don’t see any progress in adding women to the ranks of those whose lives are placed at stake.

    Of ciurse, if women can volunteer for a direct participatory role in the butchery of armed conflict, that will facilitate the compulsory conscription on women as well as men for future armed conflicts. The price of equality.,

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    Mute Patrick Agnew
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    May 5th 2016, 8:33 AM

    The Irish women in the Defence Forces cab certainly hold their own when it comes to demanding equal pay and conditions.

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    Mute Karl Sullivan
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    May 5th 2016, 8:47 AM

    Fiona this was the most vile, ill informed comment I’ve read on thejournal in sometime which really goes to show how I feel about it.

    Under privileged? Poorer sections? Never met those guys during my time. Just a bunch of guys and girls with an interest in serving their country and having a steady job they were proud of. Truth of the matter is the men and women who serve in the Defence Forces come from all backgrounds and trying to paint them as the dregs of society who had no choice but to join is actually quite insulting.

    If you feel like adding any more of your stereotyped opinions to this article at least have the courtesy to provide me with a bucket to get sick in after I read them

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    Mute Fiona deFreyne
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    May 5th 2016, 9:27 AM

    The greatest obscenity, in my view, is the intentional killing of human beings. I value human life.

    The Irish Force are peace keepers, not human exterminators.

    If you look at the socio-economic demographic profile of the U.S. forces, especially Army and Navy, the “grunts” join the armed forces in order to escape poverty to fight for causes which do them no benefit.

    Here is your sick bucket. By all means immerse your head in it or in another orifice of your choice.

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    Mute Harry Whitehead
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    May 5th 2016, 6:18 PM

    “Generally speaking and with the exception of the upper echelons in military forces, it is the under privileged and the poorer sectors of society who are disproportionately represented in the ranks of the sacrificial pawns in armed conflict. All wars are brutal, cruel, horrific in effect, psychologically damaging to the survivors and fought for the benefit of those who don’t participate.”

    That’s not strictly true Fiona. In WW1 for example the British Army’s casualty rate for junior officers, most of whom were ex-public schoolboys and sons of the upper-crust, was notoriously appalling – 17% against 12% for the ordinary rank and file (officers were expected to lead by example and be the last to retreat). Among Old Etonians who served the death toll ran over 20%.

    The Prime Minister himself lost his eldest son (Raymond Asquith) during the Battle of the Somme.

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    Mute Boganity
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    May 12th 2016, 7:06 AM

    Fiona your comments are a gross insult to anyone who served

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    Mute Romauld O'Falluin
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    May 5th 2016, 9:14 AM

    Using murderous aggression to argue for gender equality is just bizarre. How far we have not come. F#%k ur wars.

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    Mute CuzzyRah
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    May 5th 2016, 1:12 PM

    Women are never going to be as good soldiers as men. Deal with it, its evolutionary fact.

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    Mute John Payne
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    May 5th 2016, 11:15 AM

    “There are approximately 9,500 soldiers in the Irish armed forces between army, naval service and air corps. However, only about 6% of the strength of our military is female. This compares poorly with participation rates for women in the international military”
    “This places Ireland close to the bottom of the international league table for gender equality within the military”

    And then:

    “As a consequence, the Irish Defence Forces is now considered to be one of the most equality-friendly workplaces in the international military and considered an exemplar of equality of opportunity and dignity in the workplace for all of its personnel, irrespective of gender, ethnicity or sexual orientation”

    Contradict ourselves much Tom?

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    Mute Daffy the Bear
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    May 5th 2016, 1:33 PM

    I’ve read several of Tom’s ‘expert’ opinion pieces before; they’re always riddled with inconsistency, contradiction and unsubstantiated statistical claims. Tom is an idiot.

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    Mute Portia
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    May 5th 2016, 9:08 AM

    All this talk of world peace and here we are talking about having killer women because they are considered more deadly.

    There is money in war and not in peace and profit runs this patriarchal world at the moment.

    The female of most species is the deadliest- when someone tires to harm her family.

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    Mute Eamon Mac Gowan
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    May 5th 2016, 11:00 AM

    They’ll be great as long as there’s no war, it doesn’t make any difference who you enlist into a non fighting army.

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    Mute Chris Kirk
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    May 5th 2016, 9:39 AM

    I used to work with a woman who was an ex- British Army tank driver. She was deadly when driving around Dublin and on more than one occasion I remember her shouting at male drivers to; “save your horn for your wife”…..

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    Mute Stephen murphy
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    May 5th 2016, 8:09 AM

    We need little proof of that, I know a few that’d send tingles up your spine and they should be sent up against ISIS.

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    Mute Bognor regis
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    May 5th 2016, 1:02 PM

    How does this clonan guy get so much air time?

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    Mute Zmeevo Libe
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    May 5th 2016, 10:56 AM

    What do you think those young girls who volunteered to drive ambulances and be field nurses during ww1 and ww2 did? Google it.

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    Mute John Mullan
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    May 5th 2016, 8:28 AM

    Women don’t commit as many murders as men so if they are highly effective when trained as soldiers it is most likely just the fact that the more psychopathic women find the army attractive, same as the men.

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    Mute Anton Friendo
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    May 5th 2016, 10:24 AM

    Just go for the knees, everyone knows women have week knees. :-O

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    Mute Michael Sands
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    May 5th 2016, 11:10 PM

    Abortion comes to mind after reading that?

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    Mute Liam Mac Roibin
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    May 8th 2016, 10:29 PM

    Women kill more children than men do. Or do kids not count?

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    Mute Debi Nikita
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    May 5th 2016, 10:39 AM

    Oh no, the secret is out! Beware.

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    Mute Liam Mac Roibin
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    May 8th 2016, 10:27 PM

    Your house is on fire. You are trapped inside with your children. You have a choice to call an all male or an all female fire brigade. Equal response time etc etc.
    Which one would you choose?

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    Mute RealIrish
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    May 5th 2016, 8:22 AM

    Exactly they are a more deadly specie.

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    Mute Patrick Lavery
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    May 5th 2016, 2:12 PM

    As members of the Irish Citizen Army women were accorded the same rights as men, all equal and fought as equals during the Rising.

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    Mute Patrick Agnew
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    May 5th 2016, 8:22 AM

    Sorry about the typos

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    Mute Michael Sands
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    May 5th 2016, 11:09 PM

    To be in any military, you have to be bit of a nutcase. Could anyone really kill another person, look at those coming from Iraq and Afghanistan as on average per day 3 U.S. soldiers kill themselves after being there… Who would be in the army?

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    Mute FlopFlipU
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    May 6th 2016, 8:23 AM

    You’d want to see the mother when she got the dander up ,I tell ye it was terrifying

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    Mute Gerry Fallon
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    May 6th 2016, 12:27 AM

    Ah jaysus, tell us something we don’t know will ye! There bleedin lethal but we love dem!

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