Irish Military Intelligence Service
The Irish Military Intelligence Service is the military intelligence branch of the Irish Defence Forces, and the national intelligence service of Ireland. Previously known as the Directorate of Military Intelligence until July 2025, the organisation has responsibility for the safety and security of the Irish Defence Forces, its personnel, and supporting the national security of Ireland. The service operates domestic and foreign intelligence sections, providing intelligence to the Government of Ireland concerning threats to the security of the state and the national interest from internal and external sources.
Military Intelligence is a constituent part of Defence Forces Headquarters and is the intelligence section of all Defence Forces branches. IMIS is a joint service and draws military staff from the Army, Naval Service and Air Corps. The Irish military special operations forces, the Army Ranger Wing, carries out physical tasks in support of Military Intelligence in Ireland and overseas, and the Communications and Information Services Corps provides technical and electronic support. IMIS works closely with the Garda Síochána Special Detective Unit, the national police counter-terrorism and counter-espionage unit.
Mission and organisation
The primary roles of IMIS are;IMIS members are drawn from the entire Defence Forces, both permanent and reservist military personnel and civilians who then serve with IMIS. Military Intelligence personnel regularly train, liaise and deploy with foreign intelligence, government and non-government agencies to share knowledge and best practices. This ensures they keep abreast of threats and are able to collate essential intelligence to further protect the state, the Defence Forces and its interests.
The service is under the command of a Brigadier General, known as the Director of Military Intelligence, who provides regular intelligence briefings to the Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces. The Director provides a monthly intelligence briefing in-person to the Minister for Defence. The Chief of Staff briefs the cabinet on matters of state security, as well as the secretive National Security Committee.
The organisation's number of employees and budget are classified, with a further 150-200 operatives in the Army Ranger Wing, who can conduct missions at the behest of Military Intelligence. Funding comes from the overall Department of Defence budget. The only publicly known funding is that for the budget to pay confidential informants, through the "Secret Service" budget, which is shared with the Garda Crime & Security Branch. In 2024, this figure was €2 million.
Operatives from Military Intelligence can carry firearms on operations both at home and abroad, and those in the service may not wear uniforms on operations. The Garda Special Detective Unit works closely with the Intelligence Branch on domestic matters. Military Intelligence operates out of a number of locations in Dublin and County Kildare, and their headquarters are understood to be based at McKee Barracks, Dublin and the Department of Defence Headquarters in Newbridge, County Kildare. The latter is rumoured to house sophisticated modern technology for espionage; the building was completed in 2010 after a number of years of construction, at a cost of €30 million. Intelligence and language training takes place at the Military College, Defence Forces Training Centre, Curragh Camp.
In Ireland, national security is primarily the responsibility of the Garda Síochána, while the Defence Forces are responsible for intelligence.
Structure
Intelligence School
The Defence Forces Intelligence School is based at the Defence Forces Training Centre, Curragh Camp in County Kildare and was formalised in 2025. It is responsible for professionalising standards and training in the development of joint military intelligence capabilities for IMIS and the delivery of specialised capabilities for IMIS, such as HUMINT, SIGINT, GEOINT and OSINT. The development of the standalone school was a result of the recommendations from the Report of the Commission on Defence Forces. It establishes a professional pathway for military intelligence careers within IMIS. The Intelligence School is responsible for ensuring the Defence Forces remain aligned with international best practice and emerging technologies to identify and counter potential hostile threats.Defence Intelligence Section
The Defence Intelligence ' Section' is staffed by military commissioned and non-commissioned officers. It is tasked with providing intelligence support to the Defence Forces. Staff actively monitor relevant political, economic, social and military situations globally to produce intelligence reports and strategic studies to support operations. Personnel in this section can be found briefing all the way up to the Minister for Defence. IMIS is responsible for conducting background checks of all Defence Forces personnel through close cooperation with the Garda National Vetting Bureau. The Defence Intelligence Section is tasked with keeping members of the Defence Forces safe, be it in Ireland or abroad during active military engagements. The Army Ranger Wing Intelligence Section deploys in foreign countries alongside Military Intelligence soldiers during Irish military deployments, which are generally peacekeeping missions on behalf of the United Nations, European Union and NATO, due to Ireland's policy of military neutrality.National Security Intelligence Section
The National Security Intelligence Section deals with threats to the state and the Defence Forces. This includes identifying, monitoring and assessing possible threats to the state and Irish national interests at home and abroad, be it by hostile intelligence services, terrorist groups and/or criminal organisations. Counter-intelligence forms a large part of the section's remit, in addition to fulfilling counter-terrorist, counter-subversion, counterinsurgency, counter-sabotage roles, and physical security of critical infrastructure. The National Security Intelligence Section works very closely with the Garda SDU and Garda National Surveillance Unit to spy on potential terrorism threats, particularly from Islamic terrorists and dissident republicans. Military Intelligence has a number of Arabic speakers in their ranks as a result of Defence Forces deployments overseas.Separately, outside of Defence Forces Headquarters, the Naval Service maintains a Naval Intelligence Cell within its Intelligence and Fishery Section at Naval Operations Command, Haulbowline Naval Base, Cork Harbour, which is responsible for the collection, collation and dissemination of Naval Intelligence. The Air Corps maintains an Air Intelligence Section at its HQ at Casement Aerodrome, Baldonnel, County Dublin responsible for aviation intelligence.
During 2025, a number of designated regional IMIS intelligence "hubs" were established at military installations in Ireland, reporting centrally into IMIS.
History
Founded in the mid-1920s following the Anglo-Irish Treaty, the Office of the Directorate of Intelligence was originally the intelligence arm of the Irish Army, hence its code-name "G2", which is a designation in NATO's continental staff system used to refer to an army intelligence, security, and information branch. Later, the Directorate became the intelligence service for the entire Irish armed forces; it was then referred to as "J2" and took on more national security roles. G2 spent much of its early efforts combating the Anti-Treaty IRA, in the Republic of Ireland, and also operated in Northern Ireland.World War II
G2 first came to public attention during World War II, known in Ireland as The Emergency. Although Ireland had a policy of military neutrality and was "non-belligerent" during WWII, G2 formed secret agreements with the United Kingdom's Military Intelligence Section 5 and the United States' Office of Strategic Services, the predecessor to the Central Intelligence Agency. During this period, G2 intercepted German naval and aerial communications through listening stations located across Ireland, sharing the information with Allied forces. Under Colonel Daniel "Dan" Bryan, Director of Intelligence, G2 apprehended all thirteen Nazi spies sent to Ireland, notably Hermann Görtz, and broke German codes during the war, under the supervision of cryptologist Richard J. Hayes.During this period, G2 also undertook intelligence operations in Europe, including a notable covert mission in April 1943 where G2 officers travelled to neutral Portugal by flying boat, using the cover of the Irish Red Cross delivering supplies to refugees in Spain, in order to gather information on the Irish minister in Madrid whom the Irish government had become increasingly suspicious about, due to his close links with Germany. Leopold H. Kerney had been visited by Edmund Veesenmayer, a senior Waffen-SS officer, who was one of the main Nazis involved in plotting secret Nazi operations in Ireland. G2 made contact with British spies in Lisbon and Madrid and concluded that Kerney was in fact neutral.
The Troubles in Northern Ireland
G2 was involved throughout The Troubles, and Army officers were sent across the border into Northern Ireland on intelligence-gathering missions from 1969.In August 1969 Taoiseach Jack Lynch asked Irish Army Intelligence to draft proposals for a military intervention and guerrilla operations in Northern Ireland in order to protect Irish nationalists there from sectarian attack from Ulster loyalist mobs, under a plan known as Exercise Armageddon. However, it was deemed unworkable and was not adopted by the cabinet. Nationalist areas were later given a form of protection by British forces under Operation Banner.
In 1970, the Arms Crisis and subsequent trial engulfed the state in a political scandal in which Irish Army intelligence officer Captain James Kelly was implicated in an unauthorised covert operation with the knowledge of Minister for Finance Charles Haughey and Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries Neil Blaney whereby £50,000 of a secret Irish government humanitarian fund of £100,000 was diverted and used to illegally import and smuggle arms and ammunition for the Provisional Irish Republican Army. The Garda Special Branch became aware of the unsanctioned operation and informed Minister for Justice Mícheál Ó Móráin and Taoiseach Lynch, who were slow to take action. Sensing this inaction, the Special Branch leaked the information to the press and the leader of the opposition Fine Gael leader Liam Cosgrave, who put pressure on Lynch to act. This resulted in Ministers Haughey and Blaney being sacked from their posts, Captain Kelly was forced to resign, and the subsequent trial of all three in which the case collapsed and they were cleared of charges.