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army. Michael Buchanan has a report on the programme tonight. He writes:

"We'll be talking about a surprising side-effect of the peace process in Northern Ireland tonight - recruits from the Irish Republic are swelling the ranks of the British military.

Michael Godman from County Offaly wants to be a sniper with the Royal Irish Regiment. He says the image that many Irish people have of the British military - associated with its role in either the Republic's independence struggle or in Northern Ireland is history. And there is definitely a sense that the Republic is becoming more comfortable with the British military.

The funeral earlier this week of Robert McKibben from Westport, County Mayo - who was recently killed in Afghanistan - saw Royal Marine marching through his hometown -
something that wouldn't have been acceptable a few years ago. The respect shown at the funeral built on the opening of a memorial in nearby Castlebar last month to honour around 1500 people from County Mayo who died in several conflicts, mainly with the British. As one of the organisers of the memorial said we are not only honouring the dead, we are giving dignity to the living who can come here and now proudly tell their families that their ancestors fought and died for peace."

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