Stand to attention, and pay attention! Brian Byrne meets some collectors of army vehicles, and relates the origins of workhorses like the jeep, which started life in the depths of the second World War.
It can be a passion, a silliness, a madness, depending on who you're talking to. There's no doubt but that collecting military vehicles is not for the faint-hearted.
It involves a little more than taking on an old car for a bit of restoration, and usually also a more robust garage or accessible back yard, because they don't exactly grace a neighbourhood front garden.
And often it can creep up on you, from very innocent beginnings. Like Paul Woodbourne's collection of jeeps.
"It started out with an interest in uniforms and hats, mainly German stuff like bike vests and goggles, then I followed the usual progression of becoming interested in vehicles. They're more interactive, and you can play with them."
Paul, who is based in Dublin, has a special interest in the General Purpose vehicles developed for the second World War by Willys and Ford, These are the ones from which the generic "jeep" name was coined, before it became a tradename of Willys, and today Chrysler.
"The Fords and Willys versions were made from the same design in the early 1940s, and most of their parts are interchangeable," he pointed out at a recent display of old military vehicles at the Curragh, organised by the Military Vehicle Club of Ireland.
"Then there were Kaiser copies built in Switzerland, this one is postwar, and you can tell the difference by small details like the fuel filler cap."
He also detailed a 1941 "weapons carrier", essentially an enlarged version which could carry weapons, ammunition or extra troops. The one on display had the "flat" wire grille typical of earlier "jeep" vehicles, as compared to the pressed metal ones used on later versions.
It is an all-Ireland passion, with Derek Beatty and Ken Lyons of the Ulster Military Vehicles Club being typical of the cross-border enthusiasts. Like Paul, neither come from any military background.
"I can remember way back, when I was two-foot-high and in short pants," says Ken, "and there was a military parade in my hometown and I just said 'God, I'd love to have one of them.' It stayed with me, and one day I went and bought a Windsor Carrier built by the Ford Motor Company in 1944."
That was followed by a half-track personnel carrier built in 1942 by the White Truck Company - "And after that it just got sillier and sillier. It becomes a kind of madness."
Derek Beatty's pride and joy is a Daimler Dingo scout car, a type built in 1942 and first used in the desert war against Rommel before seeing service in all the other European theatres, including Italy, France and Germany: "Dingos saw service in the Korean War also, and there were even versions used in Biafra."
Other vehicles owned by Irish enthusiasts include a Daimler Ferret Mk I, a liaison scout car that went into production in 1951 and it was of a type used by the Army when they first went to the Congo in 1962.
A Land Rover decked out in the livery used by the Army on UN duty in the Lebanon first saw service in the British army in 1979, with the Royal Anglian Regiment. Other vehicles on display included a 1969 Mercedes-Benz Unimog, used by the Belgian army and powered by a 2.2-litre petrol engine, and the Munster Military Vehicle Group featured a Volkswagen Type 82 KubelWagen used by German forces in the second World War.
There was also a Beaverette Light armoured carrier used in Britain in the late 1930s. Named after Lord Beaverbrook, its main role was in the defence of airfields and factories. It was armed with Bren, Vickers and Lewis machine guns, and the Army bought some in 1943.
The Army of today also showed off one of their key armoured personnel carriers, the Moag Piranha APC, which has an operational crew of two, and can carry nine fully equipped soldiers.
Someday, it too may be the focus of some collector's passion. Maybe one of the hundreds of kids who clambered through it during the show was saying: "God, I'd love to have one of these . . ."