Royal Marines vs British Army

hey guys,

Doing my research I was wondering if anyone could tell me what the main differences would be in being a member of the British Army (specifically the Royal Irish Regiment) and the Royal Marines. Ive been discussing about joining up with my parents and my Dad suggested the Royal Irish Regiment mainly becuase they’re closer to home I’m guessing. To be fair it would make it far easier to visit home when on leave if I was in the RIR ( I live in Southern Ireland ) than if I was in England with the Marines.

Anybody able to tell me the main differences between Army life and the Marine life ? I don’t want to make any decisions based solely on geography

Cheers

 

In a nutshell. The Royal Marines will treat you like an adult, and expect you to act like one. Individual thinking is encouraged.

The Army! Treats you like a child, and discipline is massively overdone! It can be quite energy sapping at times!! Individual thinking is not encouraged, and following orders blindly is expected.

I have been on a patrol, as a young Lance Jack, recognising my boss was "geographically embarrassed" mentioned it to my Sgt, only to be told. "Don't question the Plt Commander"

Being a Soldier in the British Army is great!! But you will not get much opportunity to do soldier like activities. Operational deployments are not there!

The Royal Marines on the other hand always have things going on. Ship deployments are, from what I understand really good!! And I think you will find far more diversity in the Royal Marines, than the Army.

If I had my time over, I would 100% join the Royals.

 

I think that @arny01 hit the nail on the head in his assessment of Army culture.

You're right to not let geography limit your options. The fact that you're looking at this forum indicates an interest in the soldiering aspect of military life rather than perhaps one of the technical trade opportunities. But even Royal Marines are expected to specialise in specific skills in addition to the Commando role—sooner or later—after completing Recruit Training.

Get stuck in and research all your options; ask as many questions as you want on here.
Visit your AFCO and ask about RIR. No disrespect to Army Career Advisers but it's not unheard of for them to assure infantry candidates of the opportunity to do, say, Para Courses and All Arms Commando Courses. Feel free to check on this forum about the real-world probability of either happening.
Best of luck.

 

Good advice from the posts above. Consider the Army as a loose collection of units rather than one option. Ethos varies massively; Rifles if you’re a thinker; Paras if you like your PT; corps if you want a bit more variety. I have massively oversimplified it, but hopefully you get the drift. Bags of opportunity in either career but to misquote a famous maxim ‘time spent in research is rarely wasted’.

 

The decision in this case I guess, is choosing whether global travel takes precedence over living and working closer to home. If living and working closer to home is the preference, maybe a civilian full time job is also worth considering together with perhaps joining the Royal Marines Reserves.

 

Hi ninja as a fella living in the Republic or Ireland what are my ways of accessing a AFCO ?

 

My old pa always used that particular maxim to underscore just about every impulsive choice I made from the age of five! So annoying, but so true.

 

Indeed. I should've pointed out that my experience is from my own Regiments point of view, and the limited time I spent with several other units.

 

What Regiment did you serve with ?

 

1St Bn The Royal Regiment of Wales.

 

And how did you find life in te battalion, what would am average week look like ?

 

Get up around 0700. Clean/block jobs. Phys after around 0900, usually a run. Maybe a CFT or other green phys. Then an interest lecture after Naffi break or lesson of a Tactical nature, weapons training/cleaning.

Watch a bit of afternoon telly! And then another lesson of some sort!

That would be a typical week. Differences would be when you go on Excersise. You do Range days too. Company competitions, March and shoots! Assault course runs!! And sports too now and again.

Being busy is good!! And having something worthwhile to do will ensure that life is great. On Ops it's brilliant!!

Trouble comes when nothing is happening!! Times then tend to be filled with drill, drill and drill! pointless cleaning tasks! Polishing things until they are worn away!! Muster parades! Bulling boots! And being shouted at a lot.

 

I just love a job that I’m active all the time and part of a team and wehere I can travel I’m hoping the armed forces could give me that

 

There's just the one in Palace Barracks, Belfast.

 

My careers councillor at school is pressuring us to come up with career options and stuff like that, Is there anyway up I could get her to get me any recruitment material from the Army/Marines/Navy like isnthere any information packs or pamphlets she would be able to get for me ?

 

A career guidance councillor in ROI won’t have any access to the forces in the U.K. above and beyond what you could do yourself. Just ring the AFCO, have a chat and ask what they can send you. You can tell her what you’re doing if she’s putting pressure on you.

 

Please feel free to point her in the direction of this forum. Seriously.

She'll get a warm welcome; it might be a useful resource for her; and at the very least it will provide evidence that you're cracking on with research into careers options.

 

One thing I would add as I’m originally from Ireland but have been living in the U.K. for a long time now, the Royal Irish Regiment we’re heavily involved in the ‘Troubles’ when they were on (though the regiment had a different name in those days) and things in NI on the domestic front have a habit of going Boom. If the border issue with Brexit doesn’t work out, things are likely to start going Boom on a more regular basis.
This isn’t to be over dramatic or put you off but if you’re thinking of going up North, do it with eyes wide open.

 

If you know roughly what you would like to do, continue to take the initiative and find out for yourself rather than rely entiely on your careers counsellor. The careers teacher is there to give you careers ideas but if you have already sussed that bit just call the (UK) careers hotline 03456 07 55 55 and request information is sent derect to you.

 

If i could re do it id never have joined infantry. I wish i picked a corps. Id strongly advise to anyone over army infantry. Retention and sign off rates speak volumes