Northern Ireland still plays a key role in the highly trained UK armed forces

On pages 18 and 19 we have stories about two military matters.

In one of the stories, the Royal Irish Regiment has laid down its old regimental colours, some years after picking up its new ones.

This might seem like an arcane ritual, yet military colours are a much treasured tradition around the world, under which soldiers are led into battle.

In the other story, a company from Two Rifles, which is based in Thiepval in Lisburn, is training in the desert in Jordan to improve its operability in different conditions.

The company is on standby for Ukraine.

The associations with, and role of, the British army in Northern Ireland are now under-stated. So under-stated, indeed, due to excessive sensitivity about widely differing perceptions of the armed forces across the Province, that military assistance in NI during Covid was downplayed, rather than celebrated.

But it is encouraging to be reminded that NI still plays a key role in the highly trained UK armed services, as the country has done sine its creation in 1921.

From the Second World War, when Northern Ireland was an important region strategically, through the Korean war and Falklands and the two Gulf wars, servicemen and women from here have put themselves in harm’s way alongside troops from Great Britain. This might yet happen in Ukraine.

No-one thinks that the UK will play a pivotal, or even direct, role in any conflict there. But the British military, while much diminished from only decades ago, is still respected round the world and the UK is a key ally for many nations.

Some countries in Europe have been accused of not pulling their weight in terms of helping to defend western values, but that cannot be said of the UK (Britain still pays a notable 2.7% of GDP on defence, despite military cutbacks over the years). You could say that this reflects a degree of both soft power and raw power in the UK.

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