The 2nd battalion royal Ulster rifles
famous irish regiments And irish military history
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GALLERY
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To the sound of battle they have marched for a thousand years. Mostly in foreign armies, very rarely for their own cause. Sought after for their fighting qualities, they have served in every part of the globe and fought in nearly every known conflict. It is one of history's richer and more puzzling paradoxes that Irishmen have served the British Cown for many centuries despite the ambivalent relationship between the two nations. But fight they did, even at the most strained periods. The reasons were many. Many served out of proverty and hunger. Others served simply because they wanted adventure and sunny climates. A significant proportion of both men and officers in the British Army have been of Irish origin. They range from Field Marshals such as the Duke of Wellington, Henry Wilson and Alexander of Tunis to name but three, to the normal private soldier who held fast and stood firm agianst great odds on the fields of battle. All have played their part and more, as Irishmen, weaving and creating the rich tapestry of British military history. The award of the first Vicoria Cross wwas made to an Irishman Charles Lucas. In 1854 Sergeant Luke O' Connor from County Roscommon won the first Victoria Cross for the British Army, and sixty years later Lieutenant James Dease from West Meath was the first recipient of the same accolade in the Geat War. Irishmen have brought more than numbers to the British Army. Their humour and resilience in the face of hardships, their fighting qualities, and their sense of duty and pride have long been recognised by friend and foe alike.
the charge of the light Brigade
25th October 1854
Billy Brittain from Dublin, orderly Bugler to Lord Cardigan sounded the charge. The Light Brigade rode into the Valley of Death towards the Russian guns and into the pages of history.
The most famous calvary charge in history took place at Balaclava during the Crimean War on the 25th October 1854. There were infact 673 men in the ' Light Brigade ' of whom 114, or nearly 20% ere Irish. During the charge 118 ( including 21 Irishmen ) were killed, 127( including 16 Irishmen ) were wounded and 45 ( including 7 Irishmen ) were taken prisoner by the enemy. Some 360 horses were killed. Of the Light Brigade's five regiments, the Royal Irish Hussars ( 8th ) had the most Irishmen in its ranks. The 6th Inniskilling Dragoons were present in the Heavy Brigade; after returning from the Crimea in 1856 the 8th were based in Dundalk.
Captain Nolan who took the message to Lord Lucan for the charge to commence was also of Irish descent, his father being Irish.
One hundred Irishmen served as surgeon's during the Crimean War, along with 33 Sisters of Mercy. Irishmen also served in the French and Turkish forces. These being General ( later Marshal ) MacMahon and General O'Malley with the French Army and General Coleman, Major John Bernard and Major Richard Guyon with the Turkish Army. Approximately 37,000 Irishmen served in the British Army ( one third of the British force ) and another 4,000 in the Royal Navy. Thirty Irishmen were awarded the Victiria Cross during the War.
Sergeant Luke O'Connor winning his VC at The Battle of Alma
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This website will cover many subjects concerning the Irish soldier. It will start from the very begining with Irish culture and the belief in the warrior spirit and the warrior way of life, that the Irish are a great race of fighters and poets, singers and saints. That in their culture there were heroes named Finn McCool, Cuchullain, Brian Boru and Wolfe Tone.
The St. Patricio Battalion
Mark Bois from the United States best summed up the inner strength and spirit of the Irish Soldier in his excellent paper about the Inniskillings at Waterloo: For hundreds of years before Waterloo, and for many years afterwards, Ireland was a land of recurrent conflict. Ireland's early history was an oral tradition of great warriors and epic battles. Too much Irish ' history ' cites the myth and magic of such oral oral histories as truth, but the Irishmen who served at Waterloo were raised on such stories, and it formed part of their psyche. All Irish children heard stories such as ' The Battle of the White Strand ' where Daire Donn, the High King of the Great World, and his mighty host were defeated at great cost by the heroes of Ireland. The famous Finn MacCool and his warrior band , the Fianna, led the Irish forces that destroyed the Amy of the World, but only after most of their own men fell. Dead heroes were deply mourned in the wailing tradition of grieving Irish, and their great deeds were heralded far beyod the day of their deaths.
The Irish Soldiers of Mexico
Dubious about why they were fighting a Catholic country and fed up with the mistreatment by their Anglo-Protestant officers, hundreds of Irish, German and other immigrants deserted Taylor's army and joined forces with Mexico. Led by Captain John Riley from Co Galway, they called themselves the St. Patrick's Battalion ( in Spanish, the San Patricios ) and fought against their former comrades in all the major campaigns of the war.
The San Patricio in the words of one Mexican General
Above, the Inniskillinngs at Waterloo
The Battle of Churubusco
The 27th Inniskilling Fusiliers, in the course of Ney ' s massed cavalry attack were bombarded by a French horse artillery battery. By the end of thebattle the battalion had suffered 478 casualties from a pre-battle strength of 750. An officer from a nearby battalion, Captain Kincaid, commented that the 27th seemed to be lying dead in square. Kindcais a veteran of the Peninsula War said ' I had never thought there would be a battle where everyone was killed. This seemed to be it. '
Although the Regiment was a microcosm of Ireland itself, interestingly nearly 70% of the Regiment on that day at Waterloo were Irish Catholic.
' deserved the highest praise, beause they fought with daring bravery ' Mexico eventually surrendered, ceding almost half its territory to the United States. Each San Patricio who deserted from the U.S side was interned after the war in Mexico and subsequently given an individual court martial trial. Many of the Irish were set free, but some paid the ultimate price. Roughly half of the San Patricio defectors executed by the U.S for desertion were Irish. They are still remembered in Mexico today.
More to come on the Battalion San Patricio.
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