This article was written by News Letter journalist, Ben Lowry, currently on attachment with the Royal Irish.

AMONG the Royal Irish Regiment soldiers in Afghanistan, a special bond links those who are on their second tour of the war-torn country.

A large minority of the First Battalion - which is currently in Helmand Province - also served two years ago, amid relentless firefights against the Taliban.

R Irish soldiers, including some of its youngest members, took part in gun battles as ferocious as any involving British troops since the Korean War in the 1950s.

The soldiers had responded to a request for volunteers in 2006 to back up the Parachute Regiment, whose bases came under heavy attack, including full frontal assaults.

More Royal Irish soldiers volunteered than were needed, and three platoons of around 120 men were formed. Within months, three of the soldiers had lost their lives.

Now, nearly 70 veterans of that blistering summer are back in the searing heat of Afghanistan.

The suffocating July and August temperatures remain the same - among the hottest in the world at mid 40s Celsius - but the threat has now shifted to hidden and deadly roadside bombs.

The experience of two difficult tours means that several Ulster soldiers who are barely out of their teens are now among the most battle-hardened soldiers in the western world.

All those who fought two years ago, however, agree that it was much more dangerous then than now.

"It was pretty crazy," says 22-year-old Ranger John Purdy from Portadown.

The soldiers were stationed in bases that had just been established, in and around towns in northern Helmand that were then hostile but are now closer to normality, with civilian populations returning.

The Taliban now use improvised explosive devices (IEDs) as their preferred method of attack, when two years ago it was direct gun and missile assaults.

The most ferocious fighting was in Musa Qal'eh, in the middle of which a British base had only recently been established.

Ranger Purdy, who was part of Barossa platoon, helped escort another of the R Irish platoons, Somme, into the hostile town, from which civilians had fled and where hundreds of Taliban were holed up.

The arriving R Irish troops and exiting Parachute Regiment soldiers came under ferocious attack, including mortars, which lasted several hours.

"We were driving as aggressively as we could to get into the compound, through the main bazaar," Ranger Purdy said.

Then, some weeks later, Barossa was also assigned to the base, and had to face the gauntlet again.

"When we escorted Somme in, we did not know we would be going in ourselves," said Ranger Purdy. "It is good that we did not know - it would have felt like a waste of time when we could have stayed there."
The base was so dangerous that outside patrols could not be undertaken.
"We were getting hammered too much," said Mr Purdy.

Stuck in a small compound which came under daily attack, the troops took part in battles that lasted up to nine hours. Supplies ran low and at one point they had to rely on purified well water.

The RAF came under heavy attack whenever they tried to land, and on one occasion had to abandon for several hours an attempt to rescue a soldier who had shrapnel in his throat.

The men were stuck in a mud compound made up of a cluster of mud huts and broken down buildings, which they named The Alamo.

They spent hours in makeshift 'Sangars' made of sandbags, firing back at unseen Taliban, who were lodged in neighbouring buildings.
At one stage, Taliban breeched the base through sewers, coming up through disused toilets.

On the blackest day, Ranger Anare Draiva from Fiji and 26-year-old Lance Corporal Paul Muirhead from Birmingham had just begun their shift guarding the sangar on the highest roof when a mortar landed.

Ranger Phillip Gillespie, 20, from Ballymena, who had just handed over to the pair 15 minutes earlier, said: "I had just taken off my kit when I heard two massive thuds."

Draiva was killed instantly while Muirhead was stretchered off, later to die in a Pakistan hospital.

"It was a horrific scene, but we didn't have time to be horrified by it," said Ranger Gillespie, referring to the ongoing fire and the need to evacuate Muirhead from the base.

Elsewhere in northern Helmand, Ranger Rodney Milligan, from Coleraine, was in a command base that came under attack, including from terrifying Chinese rockets - devices that are set on a rail, then lit like fireworks and sent flying through the air.

"You've no idea where they'll land," said Rodney, 25.

He is used by now to the multiple dangers in Afghanistan, having earlier this month had a narrow escape from a suicide bomb when moving between bases, at the start of a journey home for rest and relaxation. A lone attacker drove his car into a R Irish convoy. The bomber blew himself to pieces, but caused only scorch damage to the convoy.

Despite such risks today, the troops point out that schools, which the Taliban had forbidden, have returned to towns such as Musa Qal'eh, and the bazaar is back to bustling life.

Ranger Gillespie said: "This is Northern Ireland 2008. That was Northern Ireland 1975."
A level of idealism persists in many of the soldiers.

"I am not here for the money," said Ranger Gillespie, who is paid modestly as a Ranger. "I'm here for the welfare of the Afghan people."

Because of the far superior British firepower and training, Taliban casualties have been much higher than thoses sustained by the allies.

"There were incidents where 10 to 15 Taliban were killed at a time," said Ranger Purdy, who feels no sympathy for the enemy, citing tales of Taliban brutality.

"We were not killing innocent people."

Captain Brian Johnston, from Antrim, who has been in the Army 29 years, rising up from the rank of Ranger, says that his generation were less experienced, training in Germany but getting no real experience of fighting.

"People say the youth of today are this or that. They are out there fighting a war and doing it very well, all the youth of today need is some direction."

Ranger Gillespie says: "The bond you get with someone who is willing to die for you is unreal."

Ranger Purdy says: "Those of us in Musa Qal'eh will always remember it, and each other."