Cavalry Corps Today
The Cavalry Corps today is approximately equivalent in size to two typical cavalry regiments; however the Irish Army has never utilised the regimental structure (although there was an attempt during 1942 to organise units into a cavalry regiment). Instead, cavalry operates as independent squadrons. Today, the army has a total of three cavalry squadrons:
- 1st Cavalry Squadron
- 2nd Cavalry Squadron
- 1st Armoured Cavalry Squadron
The 1st, 2nd Squadrons are standard light cavalry units equipped with the Mowag Piranha AFV and Panhard AML armoured car. One squadron is attached to each of the army's two infantry brigades to act as light armoured support. In addition to their regular duties, 2nd Cavalry Squadron also operates as the Presidential Motorcycle Escort, a task inherited from the Blue Hussars in 1948. The 1st Armoured Cavalry Squadron was formed in 1998 by the amalgamation of the 1st Armoured Car Squadron and the reformed 1st Tank Squadron. This operates the FV101 Scorpion in the armoured reconnaissance role; 1st Armoured Cavalry Squadron is an independent unit that is stationed at The Curragh.
Disbanded (Defence Forces Re-org 2012)
- 4th Cavalry Squardron, Athlone (2012)
- 31st Reserve Cavalry Squadron, Cork (2012)
- 54th Reserve Cavalry Squadron, Longford (2012)
- 62nd Reserve Cavalry Squadron, Dublin (2012)
Read more about this topic: Cavalry Corps (Ireland)
Famous quotes containing the words cavalry, corps and/or today:
“To fight aloud is very brave,
But gallanter I know,
Who charge within the bosom
The Cavalry of Woe.”
—Emily Dickinson (1830–1886)
“The Washington press corps thinks that Julie Nixon Eisenhower is the only member of the Nixon Administration who has any credibility—and, as one journalist put it, this is not to say that anyone believes what she is saying but simply that people believe she believes what she is saying ... it is almost as if she is the only woman in America over the age of twenty who still thinks her father is exactly what she thought he was when she was six.”
—Nora Ephron (b. 1941)
“The greatest felony in the news business today is to be behind, or to miss a big story. So speed and quantity substitute for thoroughness and quality, for accuracy and context. The pressure to compete, the fear somebody else will make the splash first, creates a frenzied environment in which a blizzard of information is presented and serious questions may not be raised.”
—Carl Bernstein (b. 1944)