Queries about Army 'nauseating'

FORMER TAOISEACH Liam Cosgrave warned last night a viable army needed to be maintained in case peace was broken.

“Conditions look relatively peaceful now, but if you reflect back, every five or 10 years violence breaks out,” he said.

Mr Cosgrave was speaking at the publication of the The Irish Defence Forces, 1940-1949: The Chief of Staffs Reports held at the Irish Manuscripts Commission office in Dublin. “We have to make sure that those who do that will be confronted by the Army at every stage,” Mr Cosgrave said.

“It’s very important that we maintain a viable army because on a previous occasion the Army had to be brought back from UN service because of the shortage of troops for Border duty,” he said.

Maybe it was “a bit pessimistic, but when you are bitten once you are twice shy”, he said, terming recent calls on “why we need an army” as “nauseating nonsense”.