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Major military drill today at Dunree 24.07.08

by Liam Porter, Inishowen Independent

FORT Dunree will relive some of its glory days today when eighteen troops from the 58th Infantry Battalion of the Reserve Defence Forces arrive at the clifftop facility for a military exercise.
The Reserve Defence Force Platoon exercise will involve the 58th Infantry Battalion Reserve Defence Forces (RDF) Integration Platoon.
Lieutenant Rory Quinlan who has organised the exercise explained that the 58 Infantry Battalion covers Sligo, Leitrim and Donegal and range in rank from officer, to NCO to private
The exercise is not the first to have been staged at the famous Inishowen fort, but it is the first in several years.
“It is the ideal location for this exercise and we checked it out and found out that we’d be able to get access to the fort which was ideal,” he said.
Fort Dunree Troops were expected to arrive in the Buncrana area last evening for today’s exercise, which is expected to commence early.
The training exercise will aim to skill troops in offensive tactics and prepare Reserve Defence Forces Infantry Personnel to assume appointments at Platoon level.
It is believed that at around 9am offensive orders will be given
and an offensive attack will commence which is set to challenge the skills of Reserve Defence Force Officers, NCOs and men in a tactical environment.
Military exercises of course were not uncommon in the Dunree area in years gone by. In 1957 one such exercise saw 150 FCA men manage to break through enemy lines and hold onto the strategic stronghold of Fort Dunree, while up in the skies parachutists descended like flakes of snow.
A newspaper report at the time said the men were harassed by enemy troops all the way from Cockhill to Fort Dunree, but fortunately, casualties were few.
The enemy soldiers the FCA men managed to thwart were members of the regular army of the 6th Battalion, Athlone, under the leadership of Lieutenant Connor Burke.
Until the 1980s Dunree maintained its role as an important military base, often housing training camps and exercises for the FCA and a few years ago another training exercise was held at the camp.
Today's training exercise is expected to incorporate some of the latest equipment displaying the ongoing success of the Defence Forces' integration framework.
While the exercise will take place on the fort grounds Lieutenant Quinlan said there will no danger to the public from Thursday’s event.
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