-- Posted by ElephantStone at 5:28 pm on Oct. 11, 2008 Im a British citizen, resident in the Republic of Ireland, studying in Dublin, and I am a member of the RoI Defence Forces. After Uni I plan to join The British Army Parachute Regiment. But now its gotten to the stage that Im thinking fuck this army shit in the RoI. Im going to join the TA in the North. Unfortunately there's no Parachute TA in Northern Ireland, so Ill join the Infantry attached to the Royal Irish. Now heres the bit I don't like: I had an uncle in the British Army. Hes perhaps the only guy who really ever looked after me. He was a career soldier and hated it. He won a medal for gallantry and was Company Sergeant Major. He wouldn't like it if I joined the British forces. My mother has always tried to discourage me, but her side of the family has always been very anti-military. When I join it will send shock waves through that and everyone will see it so strange for me to take that effort to go to the TA in the North to get to Afghanistan. Thirdly, even though I am British and have a largely London accent, my surname is Walsh. A catholic, Irish surname. It caused problems for my uncle when he served in the north, and Im worried it will cause problems for me. Thoughts please. -- Posted by Crazy snake at 5:30 pm on Oct. 11, 2008 Edit: Sorry, I didnt read the OP propperly. Well, yeah :/ You would get to the middle east if you were to join them, but regarding the Surname, I dont know... I was up in Belfast there about a year ago (I've nothing against Northerners), and got some bad looks cause of my accent alone. If they knew my second name was O' Connor, I dunno. Also, when I was at the All Ireland, the amount of fighting between the people from Tyrone and the people from Kerry was bad, I thought there was going to be a fucking riot. I dunno, you probably will get some shit man, I'm not going to lie. I'm not generalizing Northerners now, but I'm just sayiing, Catholic Republicans, and Protestant unionist Northerners dont get on...even if it is a surname. As for the family issues, have you not just told them its what you want to do? If you want it that bad, explain it to them, they shouldn't be able to influence choices regarding your career...you're over 18 sure. But listen, whatever choice you make, just think about each of the possible consequences.