'Our ultimate hell': Ex-army rangers tell how poor pay forced them out

Alan O’Brien, Ger Reidy, Robert Stafford, and Ray Goggin say they would have stayed in the Army Ranger Wing if the pay was ‘half-decent’  Picture: Eddie O’Hare

It costs an estimated €1m and four years for the Defence Forces to train a soldier to become a member of the elite Army Ranger Wing.

Highly trained and skilled, they are hugely well-regarded by other special forces across the globe. It is a gruelling and dangerous career, which is why four former members of the Army Ranger Wing say they find it almost incomprehensible that they were so poorly paid for putting their lives on the line.