The Army Ranger Wing selection course is physically and mentally rigorous.
March 17 is, of course, St. Patrick’s Day (known in Gaelic as Lá Fhéile Pádraig, i.e., “the Day of the Festival of Patrick”), a feast day which honors the Patron Saint of Ireland, and accordingly, I am pleased to wrap up The National Interest’s three-part St. Patrick’s Day Special series on Celtic warriors.
We started by telling the stories of two Irish-American units of the tenth century. Namely (1) La Batallón de San Patricio (“Saint Patrick’s Battalion“) of the 1846 ad (2) the legendary “Fighting 69th,” i.e. Meagher’s Irish Brigade of the American Civil War.
Now we wrap up this series with a present-day military unit that fights for the Republic of Ireland itself. Say Erin Go Bragh to the elite Army Ranger Wing (ARW) of the Irish Defence Forces, the special forces of the Emerald Isle.
Army Ranger Wing Basics
The ARW was officially activated on March 16, 1980 (which means that these very words are being typed on the unit’s forty-fifth birthday). Although an Army unit, personnel from the Naval Service and Air Corps are also eligible to join, provided they meet the rigid qualification standards (more on this in a bit). According to the ARW’s official info page:
“This Unit is officially designated ‘Sciathán Fianóglach an Airm’ which is translated as ‘The Army Ranger Wing’ (ARW). There is no direct English translation of the term ‘Fianóglach’ so the designation Ranger is the accepted version. ‘Fianóglach’ links the traditions of ’Na Fianna’*, legendary Irish warriors, with the present day* Óglaigh na hÉireann*, the Defence Forces. Qualified members of the unit wear the* Fianóglach shoulder flash insignia.
The Unit motto is taken from an old Fianna poem and continues the link with which the name is associated. It is written in the Irish language;
Glaine ár gCroí, Neart ár nGéag, Agus beart de réir ár mbriathar
*The cleanliness of our hearts, The strength of our limbs, And our commitment to our promise.*”
Though Ireland is one of the four European Union countries that are not part of NATO—in keeping with Ireland’s traditional policy of neutrality—the ARW nonetheless trains with special operations forces (SOFs) of a number of NATO member nations, including (but not limited to):
Like the U.S. Army Special Forces and the British Royal Marine Commandos, Irish Rangers wear a green beret as their official headgear. Irish Rangers have participated in overseas missions from Somalia to East Timor to Chad to Mali to Chad to the Central African Republic (CAR), along with Syria, Iraq, Libya, and Afghanistan. Domestically, the unit has participated in missions against the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA, aka the “Provos”).
Army Ranger Wing Selection Course
As can be expected of SOF units in any country, the selection course for the ARW is physically and mentally rigorous, most definitely not for the faint of heart. Officially labeled the ARW Special Operations Force Qualification Course (SOFQ), it is thirty-six weeks long and is divided into five distinct modules:
Module 1: Assessment & Evaluation (assesses the candidate’s levels of physical fitness, motivation, and suitability to progress onwards to the remaining modules; culminates in a 60-km cross-country march carrying a 65-lb. combat load.
Module 2: Skills & Leadership
Module 3: SOF Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs) (the ‘Fianoglach’ tab is awarded upon successful completion of this module)
Module 4: Counter Terrorism TTPs (the green beret is awarded upon successful completion of this module)
Module 5: Continuation training
Modules 2 through 5 cover topics such as weapons and marksmanship; live-fire tactical training; combat water survival; survival, evasion, resistance, and escape (SERE); communications; and medical training.
The ARW’s current manpower strength is classified; however, to give the reader an appreciation for the toughness of the unit’s training and selection regimen, Warren Gray of Gunpowder Magazine noted back in July 2022 that fewer than 400 troops had become fully qualified Irish Rangers in the entire history of the unit—which averages out to fewer than ten successful accessions per annum—with only two men passing the entire selection course in 2019, and none (zero, zilch, nada) graduating in 2008!
Weapons of the Army Ranger Wing
Courtesy of Chris Eger ofGuns.com:
About the Author: Christian D. Orr
Christian D. Orr was previously a Senior Defense Editor for National Security Journal (NSJ) and19FortyFive. He is a former Air Force Security Forces officer, Federal law enforcement officer, and private military contractor (with assignments worked in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Japan, Germany, and the Pentagon). Chris holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California (USC) and an M.A. in Intelligence Studies (concentration in Terrorism Studies) from American Military University (AMU). He has also been published in The Daily Torch , The Journal of Intelligence and Cyber Security , and Simple Flying . Last but not least, he is a Companion of the Order of the Naval Order of the United States (NOUS) . If you’d like to pick his brain further, you can ofttimes find him at the Old Virginia Tobacco Company (OVTC) lounge in Manassas, Virginia, partaking of fine stogies and good quality human camaraderie.
Image: By Irish Defence Forces, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons.