Page 14 - Defence Forces Pictorial History

1923/1939
Between the Wars
Óglaigh na hÉireann
The Defence Forces

n the autumn of 1923 it was decided to reduce the strength
of the army and to reorganise it for peacetime. This entailed
I a reduction of 30,000 personnel. A small group of offcers,
led mainly by former members of Collins intelligence unit,
attempted to resist the efforts to demobilise offcers. This
evolved into what has been called the Army Mutiny of March
1924. Its importance is not in what actually happened but that
when it was resolved the supremacy of democratic control was
established over the Defence Forces.

At the end of the Civil War the new state set about providing
a legal status for its armed forces. Under the Defence Forces
(Temporary Provisions) Act, 1923 the Executive Council
formally established Óglaigh na hÉireann on 1 October 1924.

A Military Mission was sent to the USA in 1926 to study
organisation and training methods. As a result training was
placed on a proper footing with the establishment of a Military
College, Corps and Service Schools.

The Eucharistic Congress, held in Dublin in 1932, saw a heavy
ceremonial and administrative commitment by the Defence
Forces. The Mounted Escort (popularly known as the Blue
Hussars) frst appeared in public at the Congress.

As the Permanent Defence Force was being reduced, a policy
of building up Reserves was pursued which culminated with the
formation of the Volunteer Force in 1934.

A Pictorial History of Óglaigh na hÉireann, the Defence Forces of Ireland