The number of recruits paying to get out of the Defence Forces before their training has even finished confirms claims that the retention crisis can't be overcome just by major recruitment drives alone.

As Electric Picnic 2019 drew to a close, festival organisers hailed the event as one of their most successful years to date and said there was room for Ireland’s largest music festival to grow further.

That is over 700 less than the recommended level and a new record low, according to Fianna Fáil.

A former senior chief petty officer in the Naval Service has said he never thought he would see the day when two ships had to be tied-up indefinitely because of manpower shortages.

Many of those men and women served overseas in conflict zones, as well as at home during the Troubles.

The Civil Defence is expected to hear today whether it will be allowed continue to provide emergency medical services at hundreds of community festivals.

The organisation which represents enlisted personnel in the Defence Forces says it's "very sceptical" about the Department of Defence's claim that it will address the accommodation crisis at Naval Service headquarters "as a matter of urgency".

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said he and his government must heed the "stinging criticisms" made by Commandant Barry about the state of the Defence Forces.

A former Defence Forces general has criticised the Government’s approach to security along the border in the light of Brexit, warning the operational knowledge of the border has been lost by organs of the State tasked with security.

The deepening crisis in the Defence Forces will be laid bare at a conference

A ceremony takes place at Dublin Castle today to mark 60 years of Irish peacekeeping.

Defence Forces bosses want the Government to establish an independent pay review board, similar to ones in Britain and Australia, to curtail the exodus of highly trained personnel who are leaving for better wages and conditions elsewhere.

A request under the Freedom of Information Act has been lodged with the Department of Defence in an attempt to establish why a Naval Service ship was delayed by more than three weeks from leaving her base to save migrants in the Mediterranean Sea.

Defence lawyers at a dissident republican's murder trial are challenging the evidence of an accused man who turned prosecution witness.

Revolutionary, diplomat, humanitarian, poet, traitor, nationalist, homosexual, rebel — just some of the terms used to describe the complex figure that was Roger Casement.

Around 130 people have been arrested in Baton Rouge as demonstrations continue over shootings by police.

Crosshaven will be thronged with thousands of people over the next few days as sailing events for Volvo Cork Week kick off surrounded by onshore entertainment and with a special flypast by the air corps.

The Taoiseach’s recent claims about deploying the Army to man ATMs at the height of the banking crisis appear to be true. So what would such a situation entail, asks Tom Clonan

The number of Freedom of Information requests lodged with the Department of Finance to date this year outstrips the entire number of requests made in 2014.

An investigation of alleged child sex abuse by French soldiers in the Central African Republic has begun, Paris prosecutors said.

A calendar quirk will bring an extra payday for thousands of workers and social welfare recipients in 2015 and add €200m to the cost of running the country.

Some 180 recruits are about to be taken into the Army just as the overall funding for Department of Defence will be cut by €1m, next year.

A member of the Defence Forces appeared in court last night on explosives charges.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has vowed not to rest until the Government has restored Ireland’s economic sovereignty.

The head of a private ambulance firm involved in all of the State’s organ transport missions has called on HIQA to probe what he said has become a “chaotic” organ transport co-ordination system.

Egypt has brokered a ceasefire between Palestinian militant factions and Israel after four days of violence, an Egyptian security official said today.

The body of the skipper of a trawler which sank three weeks ago has been recovered during a shoreline search by his brother.

RELATIVES of three UN peacekeepers murdered in 1989 have hailed an independent inquiry into the incident as enough to expose a 22-year army cover-up.

CAPTAIN Aileen Leonard is in charge of the Defence Forces’ mortar troops in the Lebanon. Standing in the midday 35C heat at the Irish headquarters in Camp Shamrock, the Cork woman explained that she was in charge of 30 Irish soldiers in her unit.

Casey Anthony, the Florida mother cleared of killing her two-year-old daughter, has been jailed for four years for lying to investigators.

Defence lawyers for former Liberian ruler Charles Taylor say they will call a final witness at his war crimes trial.

Defence lawyers for a man on trial for murder, assault and hijack, have argued that the prosecution's main witness has lied in his statements to gardai and in his evidence to the court.

The former Defence Forces Chief of Staff Dermot Earley has died, it was announced today.

Defence giant BAE Systems today said profits had been torpedoed by the loss of a key US contract and hefty fines to settle bribery allegations.

Defence giant BAE Systems is to pay £286m (€327m) in fines and plead guilty to two criminal charges to settle corruption claims in the UK and US.

THE head of the Irish Air Corps last night paid tribute to two pilots killed on a training mission.

Defence giant BAE Systems is to face prosecution over bribery allegations, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) in the UK said today following a long investigation.

More than 1,000 people turned out in Cork last night to attend the latest regional meeting organised by the new group set up to oppose cutbacks in the public sector.

THE Army will today erect a bailey bridge across the Grand Canal in Athy, Co Kildare, to facilitate pedestrian access to the site of the three-day National Ploughing Championships, which begin tomorrow.

The former Defence Forces Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Tadhg O'Neill, died at a hospital in Dublin today.

A viable improvised explosive device has been made safe by army bomb disposal experts in Dublin.

Irish forces serving in Chad will receive Christmas presents from their families in the coming days.