£2m help for Troubles' soldiers

Former Royal Irish Regiment and UDR soldiers will benefit

British Army chief Sir Richard Dannett is in Northern Ireland to launch a £2m-a-year service for former UDR and Royal Irish Regiment soldiers.

It will help 60,000 soldiers and their families adjust to civilian life and cope with the legacy of the Troubles.

More than 270 locally recruited soldiers were murdered and more than 600 left physically disabled.

Project trustee Colonel Mark Campbell, said similar help was needed for troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

"I feel what we've developed now is very much best practice... and I would be very keen that those soldiers coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan and so on can also avail of this service," he said.

"And I know that that is something the Army is actively looking at."

The government promised the service as part of a resettlement package after the three home service battalions of the RIR were disbanded last year.

Widows

Project trustee Colonel Mark Campbell

The welfare service, based at Palace Barracks in Holywood, will provide a range of medical care as well as helping more than 60,000 former soldiers adjust to civilian life.

Col Campbell, who was the last commanding officer of the Royal Irish home service battalions, said that soldiers who were recruited and served in Northern Ireland had been in a very stressful position.

"Just over 200 members of the regiment were murdered," he said.

"The majority of these happened while they were off duty in close association with their families or work colleagues, and therefore the stresses and strains that subjects an individual to are considerable .

"A further 60 members were murdered after they left so even after you left you could not be removed from the stresses and strains associated with being a soldier in this sort of environment."

The service will also be available to the widows and children of locally recruited soldiers killed during the Troubles.