Irish Army Record - Can anyone help with the shorthand?

[Bright76..]

Hi,

Any input would be much appreciated. Trying to make sense of an army record, attached.

Record of a family member who served during the Emergency from 1941 to 45.
Some bits I can understand. He's in 5th Battalion

What is CTEM Depot? Central Something?
And whats P/ ACE?

But the one thats really driving me mad is what is an R O number?
And the numbers that follow RO numbers are surely orders of some sort? But how do I make sense of them?

Thanks for reading.

[gaffy]

There was an article in the Leinster Leader of 31 August 1940 about a boxing tournament at the Curragh Camp which included the following reference:

For the past few months there has been a lull in Boxing activities at the Curragh Camp, but Tuesday night marked a welcome resumption when the C.T. and M. Depot (Command Training and Mobilisation Depot) staged a highly successful novice tournament at Connolly Barracks.

[dublin1850]

From: https://www.militaryarchives.ie/en/glossary  Click on a letter.

RO/
Abbreviation:membership rolls of the organisations involved

[Bright76..]

Gaffy, that is excellent, thank you. The Curragh barracks were linked to the 5th Batt as well so that might mean its the Depot he started out at.

And Dub1850, thank you. That is a great link. All my googling and I never found it. I'll be able to construct a bit of a narrative around his time in the army now.

[Andy J2022]

While I don't dispute Dublin1850's attribution for the abbreviation RO, I don't think that is what it stands for in this instance. I suspect it is something more like Regimental Order or Routine Order. The latter is the terminology used by the British Army at that time and we know that the Irish Army copied many of the practices of the British.

Elsewhere in some of the material I have looked at while trying to answer this query I have seen references to Field Support and Training services, and so I offer this as a possible explanation of the references to Fd S &T.

And just to flesh out a bit more detail on the 5th Battalion, it formed part of the 2nd Infantry Brigade which in turn was part of the 2nd Division. 2nd Inf Bde was initially based in Cathal Brugha Barracks, Dublin. Some more details specifically about the 5th Battalion here:
http://www.5thbattalionassociation.com/unit-history/5th-battalion.171.html
https://digital.jmpublishing.ie/i/1172236-october-2019/27?

[Bright76..]

Andy, thank you, that is excellent information.

[LimerickLad]

RO is Routine Order

Tom

[Mick_Dolan86]

Hi,

Any input would be much appreciated. Trying to make sense of an army record, attached.

Record of a family member who served during the Emergency from 1941 to 45.
Some bits I can understand. He's in 5th Battalion

What is CTEM Depot? Central Something?
And whats P/ ACE?

But the one thats really driving me mad is what is an R O number?
And the numbers that follow RO numbers are surely orders of some sort? But how do I make sense of them?

Thanks for reading.

RO stands for Routine Order as someone else suggested. ROs are (or were)issued by units on a regular basis and record the unit's administrative routine. For example if a soldier takes leave it's recorded in an RO. The RO will be forwarded up the chain of command and will land on the desk of a pay clerk who will ensure that deductions for rations are not taken from his pay for the leave period. The RO is numbered sequentially by year so the first one in 1941 was RO 01/41. Your man enlisted at the CT&M Depot on 10th January 1941 and that fact was recorded on RO 27 dated 1st February 1941. I was in the Irish Army in the 80s and 90s and CTD to us was Command Training Depot, so I'm guessing that was what the CT stand for. The M; I don't know.

On 13/2/1941 he was recorded on RO 37 as having been posted from the Depot to 5th Infantry Battalion, effective from 10/2/1941. The 5th Battalion recorded his arrival on their Unit RO which was number 52, dated 3/3/41. And so on through the record. His home unit was the 5th Battalion apparently and he's doing regular detachments/attachments to 2nd Field Company Supply & Transport Corps; 2 F S&T or similar abbreviation.