One of the toughest mental, physical and emotional tests of their army careers - the Defence Forces on special training manoeuvres
At oh nine hundred hours Monday morning, while most of us were either at work or still on our daily commute, an army convoy was snaking its way through the outskirts of Cork city towards Cobh.
Waiting for it was a large ship with a crew readying to set sail.
Unfortunately for the 38 soldiers cracking jokes in the back of the Collins Barracks trucks heading towards Deepwater Quay, the ship was no cruise liner.
And its destination could not have been further from the paradise hotspots people usually get transported to.
Waiting for them instead was the LÉ Niamh to ferry them to the windswept ruins of Fort Davis, a military base near Whitegate that dates back to the 1600s but rebuilt by the British in the 1860s.
Overlooking the entrance to Cork Harbour, the 74-acre site has been home for the Defence Forces since 1938.
It would be more hell than holiday there for the next five days for the surviving members of the Defence Forces’ 20th All Arms Potential Non Commissioned Officers (PNCO) course.
A six-month course, this week is the final week of a five-week-long tactical course designed to test their leadership abilities while under pressure.
It is one of the toughest mental, physical and emotional tests of their army careers - and the course - to date.
By the end of the first day, Monday, for example, three of them suffered injuries and needed medical care.
Just under 60 started the course when it began in February before it was postponed due to Covid-19 in March.
It is now the first training course of its kind to be operational during the pandemic, having re-started in June, and is a growing sign of the Defence Forces returning to some kind of normality.
All those taking part have had to isolate themselves away from their families and their home units in Cork, Galway, Kilkenny and the Curragh, Co Kildare.
Waiting for them on the beach in the distance were a team of elite instructors.
All of them have served abroad, including Company Sergeant (CS) Gordon Fitzgerald, the highest-ranking non-commissioned officer in 1 Brigade Training Centre (1 BTC).
As well as the PNCO Course, the unit - whose motto is Feabhas san Oiliúint (excellence in training) - is also a centre for excellence for the army’s three-month light support weapons training.
It is also the Defence Forces' Urban Warfare Centre of Excellence.
DS Fitzgerald has served multiple tours to places including Liberia, Lebanon, Mali and Kosovo over more than 30 years service.
He has also served in Afghanistan and, like his colleagues, experienced first hand the dangers he is training younger soldiers to deal with.
Commandant Robert Moriarty, who joined in 2002, was another instructor waiting for them.
He has one tour of Congo and two of Lebanon behind him.
He was also chosen to be part of an elite quick reaction overseas EU Battle Group force that was based at Collins Barracks and was on three-day notice to deploy wherever there was a UN mandate for a six-month period in 2014.
Because of the army’s reluctance to talk about its exploits abroad, it’s impossible to say what experiences these men hide behind their dead-eye stares and - at times - emotional detachment.
Polite and self-assured with a quick wit and as relaxed in their own company as they are with others, something about the way they carry themselves suggests they are not to be crossed.
Commandant Moriarty said: “The course is a physically and mentally challenging course.
“The purpose of the tactical block is to develop leadership or their ability to influence people by providing purpose, motivation and direction.
“They learn and develop our core values – respect, loyalty, selflessness, integrity, and both moral and physical courage.”
He added: “NCOs occupy a unique position in the Defence Forces as they are the glue that holds the organisation together and the oil that keeps the cogs moving.
Noticeable among the troops earlier as they were ferried over to the island aboard the Le Niamh, however, was the jokey banter and relaxed bonhomie.
But then it started to trail off as the Rigid Inflatable Boats (RIBs) were lowered into the water for them to board before their beach landing.
There was a brief lull as everyone sat quietly in their RIBs as they bobbed up and down with the waves under the shadow of LÉ Niamh's bow before they suddenly set off at speed.
Ice-cold waves crashed into the soldiers as the RIBs sped along.
A few metres from the beach, the RIBs slowed and stopped and the soldiers quickly took off their life jackets, grabbed their guns and plunged into the water up to their waist and waded ashore.
That probably seems easy enough, if all you have on is a wetsuit.
But when you add up the extra 30kg weight of their weapons, their backpacks, their body armour and their spare ammunition, they were also carrying just over a third of their own body weight.
After arriving soaked through on the beach, they had little time to check their equipment and rest before they then had to march up the steep slopes up to the fort ahead.
On the way, they had to work their way through a small and dark network of tunnels before reaching the outskirts of the main fort.
Once there, they have to fight their way from room to room in what is Ireland’s main urban warfare centre.
And it was at this point that many of the candidates had more than their share of rude awakenings.
Watched at all times by their instructors and safety officers, they face barrage after barrage of shouted commands and admonishments.
One candidate might lead a number of soldiers into a potentially deadly situation and have to endure having their foolhardiness shouted about at length in front of the rest of the candidates.
Time and time again the exercise had to stop due to one person’s ill-thought-out actions.
One of the worst incidents was when a candidate was spotted where they shouldn’t have been minutes before a controlled explosion.
The volume of the telling off they got may well have reached as far back to Deepwater Quay and that time earlier in the day when everything was altogether more relaxed.
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