Sixteen Irish players are on board for the 2020 AFL season set to start on Thursday. Dingle’s Deividas Uosis will join the contingent next season and possibly Donegal starlet Oisín Gallen too.

Its 30 degrees in Melbourne and the sports mad city is abuzz as it bids farewell to the record breaking Women’s T20 Cricket World Cup and looks forward to the upcoming Australian Rules season, writes Maurice Brosnan.

The equivalent of a ship’s crew has left the naval service since it was forced to tie up two vessels due to manpower shortages.

More than 120 people working for the Defence Forces are on such low pay they have to rely on benefits to make ends meet.

PDForra has reacted angrily after some of its Naval Service delegates were refused permission by military management to attend the association's annual delegate conference.

Junior Defence Minister Paul Kehoe has refused to rule out using a veto to prevent the association representing enlisted personnel, PDForra, from becoming affiliated to ICTU.

The association representing the country’s frontline Defence Forces has sought affiliation with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) so it can be involved collectively in national pay talks.

The exodus from the Defence Forces continues unabated with 70 personnel bailing out of the Army, Naval Service and Air Corps last month - 16 of whom were recruits in training.

Concerns have been raised that plans to provide proper accommodation at Haulbowline Naval base won't be enough to bring an end to sailors sleeping on ships on their days off.

Military representative associations fear more than 800 members could leave the Defence Forces this year, the highest number ever.

The positive publicity surrounding the Naval Service’s role in saving trafficked migrants from drowning in the Mediterranean Sea was responsible for an increase in people joining the force.

Male naval personnel were forced to change on the side of a road and female colleagues in a mini-bus with no curtains before Sunday’s national commemoration events after a room set aside for them was allegedly used for a “VIP reception”.

Junior officers in the naval service were regularly ‘acting down’ to fulfill duties normally carried out by ordinary and able seamen due to staff shortages months before two vessels were docked due to staff shortages.

The two representative associations for the Defence Forces are set to have their national executive meeting within days to consider the fall-out from the Public Service Pay Commission (PSPC) report.

More than 1,400 officers and personnel have left the military in the past year, the vast majority of them voluntarily, according to the association representing defence forces officers.

The naval service is to tie-up two of its ships in port indefinitely due to a deepening manpower crisis.

A record number of sailors are bailing out of the Naval Service and fears have been raised that it will be the worst year on record for departures of highly trained personnel.

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".

Up to 50 sailors are sleeping onboard ships during their time off, because they can't afford soaring rents and there is not enough proper accommodation at the naval base in Cork.

Irish Naval patrol ship captains are being forced to seek ‘volunteers’ to crew their vessels due to decreasing numbers available.

130 members of the Defence Forces are, for the second time in a year, unable to return home to their families tomorrow.

Moving to year-round recruitment won’t solve the ever-decreasing numbers in the Defence Forces and it’s being claimed it’s akin to “rearranging the deckchairs on a still sinking Titanic.”

The Naval Service has contacted members of its reserve in an attempt to lure them into full-time service to fill posts left vacant due to a major crisis in retention and recruitment.

Tohill Jnr is a towering figure at 6’6’’ tall despite being just 18.

The escalating manpower crisis in the naval service has led to reservists being called up to ensure ship crew numbers do not fall below required safety limits.

The naval service is facing a personnel crisis, having failed to secure sufficient numbers for its latest recruitment class.

A European ruling has criticised the Government for excluding soldiers, sailors, and aircrew from full engagement in national pay talks, potentially opening the way for further court action.

More than 30 members of the naval service have asked to apply for discharge from the force in the past month, which has been described as “unprecedented” and “worrying” by their representative organisation.

The head of a military representative association has described as “disgraceful” the failure to pay many young recruits to the Defence Forces for several weeks their pay and allowances.

Naval officers organised a whip-around to bail out a number of recruits who have not been paid for weeks.

Naval officers organised a whip-around to bail out a number of recruits who have not been paid for weeks.

Five of Ireland's U20 rugby squad have suffered injuries which will prevent them from playing any further part in the World Championships in Georgia.

The organisation that represents the vast bulk of Defence Forces personnel is “preparing to go to war” in the new round of pay talks, writes Sean O'Riordan and Stephen Rogers.

The organisation that represents the vast bulk of Defence Forces personnel is “preparing to go to war” in the new round of pay talks. It wants treatment comparable to the Garda representative associations, which have clawed back pay and allowances.

A paperwork blunder has forced an Irish Naval refugee rescue ship to remain berthed in Cork Harbour, days after it was due to set sail for the Mediterranean.