Boxes of love for our troops abroad

What do our soldiers serving abroad long for at Christmas time? Their spouses know best, as Helen O’Callaghan discovered, when she spoke to army wives busy wrapping their present-filled giftboxes

THE British Ministry of Defence two months ago warned the public not to send Christmas presents to troops in Afghanistan, because packages require convoys to deliver them and convoys put troops’ lives at risk.

Plus, multitudes of Christmas presents from strangers delay soldiers getting parcels from loved ones. The Irish Defence Forces don’t have such a warning. “We don’t generally have the same numbers serving overseas as the British Army, so there’s no recommendation [about] posting of unsolicited parcels, as this hasn’t been a problem in the past,” says Sgt Rena Kennedy.