The ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland resulted in constant emergency tours for parachute battalions combating the IRA in internal security operations at home, coupled with the NATO UKJATFOR parachute commitment to reinforce threatened areas during the Cold War stand-off with the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact.
The emergency deployment was authorised in order to provide the resident Gurkha battalion with some much-needed respite, and 1 PARA arrived at Kai Tak Airport, Hong Kong on 3 February 1980 in bitter cold. The Battalion soon established high-visibilit...
A brief honeymoon as peace keepers between two warring communities locked in civil unrest descended into a virtual civil war between Republican IRA and Protestant para-military groups during the Northern Ireland ‘Troubles’ that were to last 37 years...
Airborne Assault Museum