Corps of Engineers (Ireland)


The Corps of Engineers is the military engineering branch of the Defence Forces of Ireland. The Corps is responsible for combat engineering, construction engineering, and fire fighting services within the Defence Forces. The main role of the combat engineers is to provide engineering on the battlefield; the Corps has successfully leveraged its skill and expertise in several of the Irish Army's deployments on United Nations operations.

History

Following the establishment of the Irish Free State on 6 December 1922 General Routine Orders were issued which laid down the organisation of the first centralised Defence Forces. From an engineering point of view there were three particular problem areas to be overcome:-
To meet these requirements three Corps were set up:
  • The Works Corps - to carry out repairs and reconstruction.
  • The Salvage Corps - to recover materials from damaged buildings for use elsewhere.
  • The Railway Protection, Repair and Maintenance Corps - to rebuild the railway system.
The Corps of Engineers was established and took over from these three Corps with effect from 1 October 1924. In 1931 Field Engineer Companies and the School of Military Engineering were added to the establishment.

Roles

The Corps has a wide variety of roles, covering conventional warfare, and training for the Defence Forces. With such a wide range of skills, the Engineer Corps provide a variety of support to the Army. This support includes anything from the provision of:

Missions

The Corps have seen active service in UNMIK, Somalia, Congo, Lebanon, Liberia & Chad - where the Engineer Corps was deployed to construct Camp Ciara in advance of a contingent of more than 500 troops.
Army engineers were deployed alongside personnel from the Naval Service and NSR in early 2020 as part of Ireland's response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Equipment

Corps of Engineers Units (2013)

Disbanded (Defence Forces Re-org 2012)

Future developments

As in all aspects of society, legislative changes and technological advances have required workforces to become more specialised and more highly skilled. The Irish Defence Forces is no exception - requiring specialist skilled engineers.
Compared with Defence Forces in other countries e.g. British and French Armies, the number of engineers in the Irish Defence Forces is low, 5.5% against 8.8% and 12.8% respectively.