Eoin Butler: writer, journalist and Mayoman of the Year
Tripping Along The Ledge
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‘Lots of writers I admire – Dostoyevsky, Orwell, Vonnegut – served in the military.’
DERMOT
Private First Class, French Foreign Legion
Tell us about yourself.
My name is Dermot, I’m 24 years old and I’m from Balbriggan. I didn’t always want to be a soldier. In fact, when I did my Leaving Cert in 2003, I wanted to study journalism in DIT. But I missed out by ten points.
So you decided to try something less cut throat instead?
I worked a while in insurance first. Then I did three and a half years at one of the state’s largest bank. But by 2008, my feet had started to get itchy. My friends were all heading out to party on Bondi Beach. I decided to do something completely different. Read the rest of this interview here.
October 3rd, 2010.
October 4th, 2010 at 2:04 pm
I give out about my job a lot but at least it doesn’t take me to Afghanistan to get shot at. Good article about a brave guy.
October 4th, 2010 at 9:28 pm
If he wanted to be patriotic why didn’t he join his own national army?
October 4th, 2010 at 10:38 pm
Where did he say anything about wanting to be patriotic?
October 5th, 2010 at 4:15 am
Struck between admiring Dermot and shrugging my shoulder. Such a dangerous situation and such grey areas between wrong and right. Adventure is all very well but does that mean to his family if it all goes horribly wrong? Living in the US where bodies of adventure loving young men arrive home in Dover airbase every week if not every day. From a fellow Irish person stay safe Dermot.
October 6th, 2010 at 5:03 pm
@Graham: Cheers man, appreciate the kind words.
@Fintan: It is a question I get posed quite often, in many different tones! But joining the Irish army could mean Collins Barracks for 5 years, here I already get to see the world just by looking to my left and right (before taking into account Djibouti, Afghanistan, etc). I wouldn’t consider myself a staunch patriot/nationalist, and the Legion offers the chance at a quite unique and genuine military experience without being obliged to enlist in one’s national army.
@DD: Thanks for the kind words. There are a lot of hypotheses doing the rounds in my own head to be honest, but realistically speaking there’s very little chance of those frightening/divisive scenarios being realised.
lifeinthelegion at g-mail dot com for any other comments/questions.