The DF on Telly

[na grohmiti]

Would the DF allow a proper documentary to be filmed? I know the GS brass were very restrictive, which is why you got 'Traffic Blues' instead of something like C4's 'Coppers'.

They learnt the hard way. In 1992 they made "Recruits" and gave cameras full access to garda recruits at home and in college. It went through their ups and downs. A great series but the subjects got no peace when they were on the beat after, as every scrote knew their name, their mothers name, if they could run fast or not etc.
The Head of the college at the time went on to become Comissioner.

[FMolloy]

Lads on Traffic Blues had similar issues; it's just that the accompanying program was so sterile, nobody watched it. There's only so many times you can watch someone getting stopped for speeding. Any sort of variety was few & far between.

[hedgehog]

I like 24 hrs in Police Custody, I could imagine a successful 24 hrs in Garda Custody.

[FMolloy]

I like 24 hrs in Police Custody, I could imagine a successful 24 hrs in Garda Custody.

It's a great programme, but a Garda version would require serious editing to remove the delay between writing down every question & answer.

[na grohmiti]

You know, that show wasn't all bad. I thought it gave a pretty realistic view to the civvy viewer of what is expected from recruits in training. I could have done with subtitles for some of the accents though.

[HavocIRL]

Some interesting comments on the RTE one FB page about the level of cursing.......

[hedgehog]

I thought it was a good programme. The NCOs and Officer came across well.

[FMolloy]

I was pleasantly surprised, judging by RTÉ's previous efforts. It could have been longer than two episodes, I wonder if they were testing the waters.

[tonyrdf]

I thought it was good. Some ejits on social media giving out about the cursing,
Silly, it's the military not trabolgon!

[terrier]

Why were they wearing gutties ?

[na grohmiti]

Qutties?

[DeV]

I taught it was very good but a few more episodes would give a better reflection

[hedgehog]

I thought it was a great programme- it brought back great memories and I thought the NCOs and Officer came out of it brilliantly. And its heartning to see that Screaming Jim Shit and his huggy huggy methods of training has been flushed down a shitty jacks.

However I wish it had never been filmed and I am glad its only two episodes and right smack in the middle of four major sporting occasions- the Fennely report and the poor migrants. It will hopefully be forgot by thursday at the latest.

The real fear I have is that do gooders and pricks and splitarses who havent a clue about Soldiering will rally to that prick Joe Duffy and be offended by the language and the high tempo of the training.

Do we really want to risk pricks like Duffy and the idiots who ring him having an impact on the way we train our troops.

the 1-2-3-4 I love the Cav Corp was a great chant, a great rhythm to do press ups to and a great builder of Unit pride and espirt de corp.

By the way- 1-2-3-4 disband the Cav Corp

5-6-7-8 Glengarry wearers out the gate

9-10-11-12-13- Cav overseas never leave the canteen

14-15-16-17- The wife of the president is called Sabine

[hptmurphy]

Again I don't think its long enough and is possibly underdeveloped. I think there needs to be a little more explanation around how and why certain things happen.Its gritty in places, pulls very few punches and shows episodes I thought would never be seen again .....REcruit training is back to being what it always should have been... Screeeming Jim, shove yer A7 up yer arse!

I did smile with fond memories from time to time.

I think I'm actually feeling some of their pain this morning!!!

[Duffman]

Great stuff by Rte. Very surprised that they left most of the bawling and beasting in. Compare this to the closest most recent documentary released by the lads across the water, commando school, and it actually looks difficult as commando school focused on individual experience and removed all the shouty bits.

Looking forward to tonight's offering. However I am dreading the reaction to the cursing. I thought the army was the one at fault these days for being too PC, it turns out that Irish society has gone soft judging by the twitter reaction.

So make your expletive ridden voices heard on Twitter #recruits. Before Rte regret what they've done and we have a new no cursing rule brought in.

[hptmurphy]

Had some of the ladies at work complaining about the language during last nights episode.

Again had to make it understood that this is real life and political correctness has no place in recruit training.

'Oh...I'd never let my child go through that'....was the response..

My answer 'f your child needs your permission, may be he should rethink his career path'.........

[GoneToTheCanner]

Beasting? nah, that was soft shite.....tearing stuff out of lockers and throwing it on the floor is moronic shite and teaches nothing. It was stupid and pointless thirty years ago and is still the same. Infinitely better ways to teach people about care of uniform, cleanliness,hygiene and group living. It was ironic that the recruits rooms were spotless compared to the platoon office which was visibly scruffy..... I was watching last night in the company of a firefighter who had a few scathing things to say about the assistance being given to recruits who were struggling with the platoon running.....some of it is just bigged up for the cameras and the drama queens of the Cav, of course.

[trellheim]

14-15-16-17- The wife of the president is called Sabine

Rofl ....

[hptmurphy]

Beasting? nah, that was soft shite.....tearing stuff out of lockers and throwing it on the floor is moronic shite and teaches nothing. It was stupid and pointless thirty years ago and is still the same. Infinitely better ways to teach people about care of uniform, cleanliness,hygiene and group living. It was ironic that the recruits rooms were spotless compared to the platoon office which was visibly scruffy..... I was watching last night in the company of a firefighter who had a few scathing things to say about the assistance being given to recruits who were struggling with the platoon running.....some of it is just bigged up for the cameras and the drama queens of the Cav, of course.

It took me years to figure out that all the antics are not about the instructors teaching anything and that learned from in in any small was is geared at having the recruit learn for them selves and from the group.

Even if the gear is perfect in the locker, it still gets thrown out. In the initial phases is to get the recruit to believe that only what the instructor teaches is correct and any thing else is wrong, regardless of being right or wrong.

Its just pressure being applied to keep people focussed.

Our torture being kit inspections every hour on the hour threw out the night. It was never right, but it would be some one elses time tomorrow night.

99.9% of the viewing public miss the bigger picture. the detail will only come right when the instructors let it become right.

having trained recruits for maay years and being forced to use the 'softly, softly approach'.. it didn't work, the better recruits were those who 'survived' as opposed to 'gradutaed'.

[The Prisoner]

The DF getting in the neck on Whine Line.

[tonyrdf]

Joooooe dufffffyyyyyyy is all over it now!

[Galloglass]

I taught it was very good but a few more episodes would give a better reflection

I thought it was good but was certainly "edited" to maximise the F-ing and blinding.....above anything else. Hopefully tonight will give a "broader" insight into recruit training.

[womble]

Oh the humanity!
Oh the horror!
Oh the indignity!
Oh the terrible reflection on the Defence Forces!

1 2 3 4 I Love the Cav Corp...

How can that be allowed on the public broadcaster! I much prefer hedgies: 1 2 3 4 Disband The Cav Corp

Bloody hats!

... waits for well earned abuse from the Cav heads around

[HavocIRL]

tearing stuff out of lockers and throwing it on the floor is moronic shite and teaches nothing. It was stupid and pointless thirty years ago and is still the same.

Completely disagree, was only having this exact conversation with a guy I used to serve with the other night and he agreed with me.

Every morning I'd wake up and make sure my locker was perfect, every morning the NCO would give it a quick once over and destroy it. You say its pointless but it taught me a valuable life lesson. No matter how well prepared you think you are everything you've prepared for can be turned upside down and you have to just get on with it. Things change, unforeseen events occur, the helo that was supposed to resupply you isn't coming, you're on a Saturday guard, these things happen and you have to crack on.

I specifically remember the first few times this would happen and you'd just see guys looking at their lockers and not doing anything. Eventually they learned to just put it all back together again.

[Rhodes]

Despite the shite on today on Joe Duffy's Lie Line, last nights programme was quite good to watch and very much how it is.
The only real snag I have with it is they should of followed the Platoon/Troop for the full 7 months of training and not just the first 17 weeks. The more advanced training during the 2-3* phase would really highlight how highly trained the Irish soldier is with LFTT, CBRN, FIBUA, CRC, SERE etc.
Hopefully this is just the start of more programmes from RTE covering the Army from the inside including overseas and it would also be good if this programme was broadcasted in other countries as well.