THERE ARE CURRENTLY 424 Irish military personnel serving in 15 different countries across the globe.
For many of our Irish soldiers, Christmas will be spent in the company of their colleagues but not with their families.
The biggest troop missions are the 198 personnel serving with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and the 139 personnel with the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) on the Golan Heights in Syria.
Soldiers will also be sitting down to Christmas dinners in Mali, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Ivory Coast and Democratic Republic of the Congo amongst others.
Here are some of their messages for their loved ones back home:
All images provided by the Irish Defence Forces.
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