Reelin' in The Years [Shannon Exercise]

Day 2,493, 14:19 • Published in Ireland Ireland • by Ian Arb


Reelin’ In The Years Theme Song

Welcome to the 3rd episode of Reelin’ in The Years series.

Today we’ll have a look at the controversial “Shannon Exercise” co-ordinated by the Irish and British government and took part on Day 567.

The “Shannon Exercise” operation was established by Irish and UK governments to discover the level of readiness in both national armies if a war ever struck upon both nations. It was essentially a training war but it was closed behind doors so only government officials on both sides were aware of the operation. Congress was uninformed as this decreased the risk of plans being leaked to the general public.

Nithradlur was Country President at the time who co-ordinated with the then UK President, Kumnaa. The purpose of the operation was discover any potential weaknesses in the national army, Irish Defense Forces (IDF) and the UK national army. It started off with a “shock” declaration of war by UK and a provoked attack on The Shannon region.

Nith shortly released an article to call for arms and it was fairly obvious on how unprepared we were. However it is important to note that it was carefully planned out and only 15 people knew that it was a training exercise which reduced the chances of logs of information being leaked to the general public.



A couple of hours later it was quickly shot down as an training exercise by our CP, Nith. The reaction of the general public didn’t turn into Nith’s favour as Congress felt betrayed by their own leader which was quickly followed by an impeachment vote by Padraig Pearse which was narrowly defeated. Dichmcds who was involved in this exercise released a statement consoling the Irish public that it was not in UK’s interest to invade Ireland. The UK CP, Kumnaa was considered a friend of Ireland and used this exercise as bridge to build relations between the two governments.



It was clear that most people felt Nith did it for his own amusement and enjoyment but that wasn’t his intention and apologised if citizens felt that way. The opposition had a field day in the Irish media, calling for his head and labelling him a “traitor” and a "liar" which was uncalled for. Although it didn’t help Nith’s chances of being re-elected as Irish CP.

The Irish Defence Force on the other hand was totally unprepared for any potential attack of this caliber and this was taken into account by the UK and Irish government officials. In fact, it did spark some fun activity. eIreland was sitting on his seat avoiding any form of conflict with other nations due to its stance as a sovereign neutral state. The political environment and atmosphere is what kept its citizens busy.

Nith presented a perfect opportunity for future governments to establish relations with UK but as soon as Ireland joined the opposing alliance EDEN. It ended the possible bonding friendship and came along the long war period and hatred between both nations.

Thanks for reading!

Stay tuned for next week where I’ll be covering the Romanian PTO.

Cheers,
Ian