Galway’s 1st Infantry Battalion team qualified for the final last month after winning the regional, 1st Brigade rifle competition in March, and team member Private Stephen O’Halloran, from Oughterard, was declared All Army Rifle Champion for the second year running.
Participants completed a one kilometre run in full combat gear before sprinting to the start line, where they engaged targets at 300m, then ever closer targets from different firing positions. The Defence Forces’ premier marksmanship competition, dating from the 1950s, includes rifle, machine gun and pistol events.
The team was made up of six competitors: Lt Eoghan Flannery (Knocknacarra ), Cpl Jordan Connolly (Claregalway ), Pte Stephen O’Halloran (Oughterard ), Pte Jimmy McGrath (Renmore ), Pte Paul Arrigan (Knocknacarra ), and Pte Shane O’Halloran (Oughterard ). The team coach was Sgt Quintin Tierney, based in Renmore.
Two team members are army snipers, and four of the six competitors recently competed at the Armed Forces Skill At Arms Meeting (AFSAM ) at the US National Guard training facility in Arkansas.
The 1st Infantry Battalion - An Chéad Cathlán Coisithe - is an Irish-speaking unit based at Renmore Barracks for over a century. It has served internationally, including in Congo, Lebanon, East Timor, Liberia, Kosovo, Chad, Mali and Syria.
The battalion will host an open day in Dún Uí Mhaoilíosa, Renmore on Saturday, July 19.
