The organisation commenced operations in approximately 1950 and was formed as an amalgam of a number of ex-servicemen's organisations which had sprung up after soldiers, sailors and airmen had been 'demobbed' following service during the Emergency. The emergency spanned the period 1939 to 1946 which was approximately the same period as the Second World War and over 140,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen, police and red cross personnel served in the Irish Defence Forces at this time. The National Federation of Irish Ex-Servicemen and the Association of Regular Ex-Servicemen (Defence Forces) being just two of the organisations that came together. This was the first time that a unified veterans organisation had formed in Ireland.