Hello again and Happy Thursday everyone. I don’t have any fresh content for you this week, I’m sorry to say, but I have a good excuse: I was on holiday in Rome for the long (Easter) weekend. After the travel, crowds, and excessive amounts of good food and drink, I felt a little bit like this guy when I finally sat down to write:
So instead of trying to crank out a proper article, I decided to tackle the long-overdue task of updating the “About Me” section of the website. Here it is below, or you can just click on the link above to visit the page.
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Who am I?
I served in the Irish military for the better part of two decades before leaving to join the private sector. I started out in Cavalry: think armoured vehicle reconnaissance, not horses. The Army supported my university education and I graduated as a Mechanical Engineer. Shortly after this, I transferred into Ordnance, which is the Corps responsible for ammunition, weapons, explosives, and optronic equipment. It’s also the branch that carries out explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) at home and overseas.
I was fortunate to have the chance to deploy overseas with the United Nations twice during my service. I spent six months in Lebanon and six months in Syria, both of which were very different places when I was there (I’m writing this in April 2025).
If you’re wondering why I blur my face in these pictures, it’s not because I was involved in anything particularly sensitive. It’s just a custom of the service, which I am loth to disregard (as discussed in the “military culture” section below).
Why “The Director”?
As a military title, it’s always appealed to me. A director is the senior expert in their field, the go-to person in the military for a particular subject matter. If I had stayed in the military, I would have aspired to be a Director some day. With my own website, I can call myself what I want!
There’s also the fact that the director is the key creator in a film of TV production, and therefore the person answerable for whether it gets aspects of military culture and technology right. “As the director, here’s what I would have done differently,” is usually my through-line when I’m talking about a specific production.
What is Military Realism?
Military Realism is my take on popular depictions of military organisation and technology. My rantings and ravings go beyond military topics per se; I do not really stay in my lane. You’ll see posts here about science fiction and police tactics in film and TV. I like to think of these as “military-adjacent”, but really, I have zero hesitation in spouting off on something I know little about. In that spirit of radical honesty, please sound off if you think I’m talking rubbish, or if there’s more to a particular story than meets the eye. I love learning new things.
Most of my articles fall into one of these categories:
- Military culture. The military (at least the army, which is where the bulk of my experience comes from) is a unique place. It’s a microcosm of society at large, albeit a highly regulated and authoritarian version of this society. It has its own sets of written but also unwritten rules. Known variously as “tradition,” “customs of the service,” or “the way things are done around here, sir,” these unwritten rules create a unique military culture. I’m always interested seeing how well movies and TV shows “get” this culture.
- Explosives and ammunition. I’ve done quite a bit of training and education in these fields, so I’m naturally curious (and extremely critical) of stories which involve bombs, explosions, and the like.
- Weapon technology and use. My professional military specialisation also included the technical aspects of weapons systems, but I also bring my “lay” or infantryman knowledge and experience to bear here. Guns are often used in extremely improbable ways in film and TV, and I’m here to point this out in painstaking detail.
- Other. Yes of course there’s an “other” category. How else would I write about random topics that pique my interest? Like all good lists, “other” captures everything that doesn’t fall into the first three.
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