Flight of the Wild Geese - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Not to be confused with the 1607 Flight of the Earls
Flight of the Earls
The Flight of the Earls took place on 14 September 1607, when Hugh Ó Neill of Tír Eóghain, Rory Ó Donnell of Tír Chonaill and about ninety followers left Ireland for mainland Europe.-Background to the exile:...

.

The Flight of the Wild Geese refers to the departure of an Irish

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

Jacobite

Jacobitism

Jacobitism was the political movement in Britain dedicated to the restoration of the Stuart kings to the thrones of England, Scotland, later the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the Kingdom of Ireland...

army under the command of Patrick Sarsfield

Patrick Sarsfield, 1st Earl of Lucan

Patrick Sarsfield , created the first Earl of Lucan, Irish Jacobite and soldier, belonged to an Anglo-Norman family long settled in Ireland.-Background:...

from Ireland to France, as agreed in the Treaty of Limerick

Treaty of Limerick

The Treaty of Limerick ended the Williamite war in Ireland between the Jacobites and the supporters of William of Orange. It concluded the Siege of Limerick. The treaty really consisted of two treaties which were signed on 3 October 1691. Reputedly they were signed on the Treaty Stone, an...

on October 3, 1691, following the end of the Williamite War in Ireland

Williamite war in Ireland

The Williamite War in Ireland—also called the Jacobite War in Ireland, the Williamite-Jacobite War in Ireland and in Irish as Cogadh an Dá Rí —was a conflict between Catholic King James II and Protestant King William of Orange over who would be King of England, Scotland and Ireland...

. More broadly, the term "Wild Geese" is used in Irish history to refer to Irish soldiers who left to serve in continental European armies in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.

Spanish service

The first Irish troops to serve as a unit for a continental power formed an Irish regiment in the Spanish Army of Flanders

Army of Flanders

The Army of Flanders was a Spanish Habsburg army based in the Netherlands during the 16th to 18th centuries. It was notable for being the longest standing army of the period, being in continuous service from 1567 until its disestablishment in 1706...

in the Eighty Years' War in the 1580s. The regiment had been raised by an English Catholic, William Stanley

William Stanley (Elizabethan)

Sir William Stanley , son of Sir Rowland Stanley of Hooton , was a member of the Stanley family. He was an officer and a recusant, who served under Elizabeth I of England and is most noted for his surrender of Deventer to the Spanish in 1587.-Early career:Stanley was educated with Dr. Standish at...

, in Ireland from native Irish soldiers and mercenaries, whom the English authorities wanted out of the country. (See also Tudor conquest of Ireland) Stanley was given a commission by Elizabeth I

Elizabeth I of England

Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...

and was intended to lead his regiment on the English side, in support of the Dutch United Provinces

Dutch Republic

The Dutch Republic — officially known as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands , the Republic of the United Netherlands, or the Republic of the Seven United Provinces — was a republic in Europe existing from 1581 to 1795, preceding the Batavian Republic and ultimately...

. However, in 1585, motivated by religious factors and bribes offered by the Spaniards, Stanley defected to the Spanish side with the regiment. In 1598 Diego Brochero de Anaya wrote the Spanish King Philip III

Philip III of Spain

Philip III , also known as Philip the Pious, was the King of Spain and King of Portugal and the Algarves, where he ruled as Philip II , from 1598 until his death...

"that every year Your Highness should order to recruit in Ireland some Irish soldiers, who are people tough and strong, and nor the cold weather or bad food could kill them easily as they would with the Spanish, as in their island, which is much colder than this one, they are almost naked, they sleep on the floor and eat oats bread, meat and water, without drinking any wine."

The unit fought in the Netherlands until 1600 when it was disbanded due to heavy wastage through combat and sickness.

Following the defeat of the Gaelic armies of the Nine Years' War

Nine Years' War (Ireland)

The Nine Years' War or Tyrone's Rebellion took place in Ireland from 1594 to 1603. It was fought between the forces of Gaelic Irish chieftains Hugh O'Neill of Tír Eoghain, Hugh Roe O'Donnell of Tír Chonaill and their allies, against English rule in Ireland. The war was fought in all parts of the...

, the "Flight of the Earls

Flight of the Earls

The Flight of the Earls took place on 14 September 1607, when Hugh Ó Neill of Tír Eóghain, Rory Ó Donnell of Tír Chonaill and about ninety followers left Ireland for mainland Europe.-Background to the exile:...

" took place in 1607. The Earl of Tyrone Hugh O'Neill, the Earl of Tyrconnell Rory O'Donnell

Rory O'Donnell, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell

Rudhraighe Ó Domhnaill, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell was the last King of Tír Chonaill . An apparent original of the Letters Patent of the Earldom are in the possession of Graf O'Donell von Tyrconnell in Austria, although that family did not inherit the title, nor the related territorial Lordship of...

and the Lord of Beare and Bantry, Donal O'Sullivan

Donal O'Sullivan

Donal Cam O'Sullivan Beare, Prince of Beare, 1st Count of Berehaven was the last independent ruler of the O'Sullivan Beara sept, and thus the last O'Sullivan Beare, a Gaelic princely title, in the southwest of Ireland during the early seventeenth century, when the English were attempting to...

, along with many chiefs and their followers from Ulster

Ulster

Ulster is one of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island. In ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial...

, fled Ireland. They hoped to get Spanish help in order to restart their rebellion in Ireland, but King Philip III of Spain

Philip III of Spain

Philip III , also known as Philip the Pious, was the King of Spain and King of Portugal and the Algarves, where he ruled as Philip II , from 1598 until his death...

did not want a resumption of war with England and refused their request.

Nevertheless, their arrival led to the formation of a new Irish regiment in Flanders, officered by Gaelic Irish nobles and recruited from their followers and dependents in Ireland. This regiment was more overtly political than its predecessor in Spanish service and was militantly hostile to the English Protestant government in Ireland. The regiment was led by Hugh O'Neill's son John. Prominent officers included Owen Roe O'Neill

Owen Roe O'Neill

Eoghan Ruadh Ó Néill , anglicised as Owen Roe O'Neill , was a seventeenth century soldier and one of the most famous of the O'Neill dynasty of Ulster.- In Spanish service :...

and Hugh Dubh O'Neill

Hugh Dubh O'Neill

Hugh Dubh O'Neill, 5th Earl of Tyrone was an Irish soldier of the seventeenth century. He is best known for his participation in the Irish Confederate Wars and in particular his defence of Clonmel in 1650.O'Neill was a member of the O'Neill dynasty, the leaders of which fled Ireland in the flight...

.

A fresh source of recruits came in the early 17th century, when Roman Catholics were banned from military and political office in Ireland. As a result, the Irish units in the Spanish service began attracting Catholic Old English

Old English (Ireland)

The Old English were the descendants of the settlers who came to Ireland from Wales, Normandy, and England after the Norman invasion of Ireland in 1169–71. Many of the Old English became assimilated into Irish society over the centuries...

officers such as Thomas Preston

Thomas Preston, 1st Viscount Tara

Thomas Preston, 1st Viscount Tara was an Irish soldier of the 17th century. He was a descendant of Sir Robert de Preston, who in 1363 purchased the lands of Gormanston, County Meath, and who was keeper of the Great Seal in Ireland some years later....

and Garret Barry

Garret Barry

Garret Barry was an Irish soldier of the 17th century who served in the Eighty Years' War and the Irish Confederate Wars.He came from an old landed Hiberno-Norman family, the De Barry family, in County Cork in southern Ireland. Like many Irish Catholic gentlemen of his generation, particularly...

. These men had more pro-English views than their Gaelic counterparts and considerable animosity was created over plans to use the Irish regiment to invade Ireland in 1627. The regiment was garrisoned in Brussels

Brussels

Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...

during the truce in the Eighty Years' War from 1609–1621 and developed close links with Irish Catholic clergy based in the seminary

Seminary

A seminary, theological college, or divinity school is an institution of secondary or post-secondary education for educating students in theology, generally to prepare them for ordination as clergy or for other ministry...

there, creating the famous Irish College

Irish College

Irish Colleges is the collective name used for approximately 34 centres of education for Irish Catholic clergy and lay people opened on continental Europe in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. The Colleges were set up to educate Roman Catholics from Ireland in their own religion following the...

s — most notably, Florence Conroy.

Many of the Irish troops in Spanish service returned to Ireland after the Irish Rebellion of 1641

Irish Rebellion of 1641

The Irish Rebellion of 1641 began as an attempted coup d'état by Irish Catholic gentry, who tried to seize control of the English administration in Ireland to force concessions for the Catholics living under English rule...

and fought in the armies of Confederate Ireland

Confederate Ireland

Confederate Ireland refers to the period of Irish self-government between the Rebellion of 1641 and the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland in 1649. During this time, two-thirds of Ireland was governed by the Irish Catholic Confederation, also known as the "Confederation of Kilkenny"...

- a movement of Irish Catholics. When the Confederates were defeated and Ireland occupied after the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland

Cromwellian conquest of Ireland

The Cromwellian conquest of Ireland refers to the conquest of Ireland by the forces of the English Parliament, led by Oliver Cromwell during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Cromwell landed in Ireland with his New Model Army on behalf of England's Rump Parliament in 1649...

, around 34,000 Irish Confederate troops fled the country to seek service in Spain. Some of them later deserted or defected to French service, where the conditions were deemed better. At the time of the Napoleonic Wars

Napoleonic Wars

The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...

there were still three Irish infantry regiments in the Spanish army: Irlanda (raised 1698); Hibernia (1709); and Ultonia (1709). However in the later years of the existence of these units only the officers were Irish or of Irish descent, the men being predominantly Spanish or other foreigners. All three regiments were finally disbanded in 1815.

French service

From the mid-17th century or so, France overtook Spain as the destination for Catholic Irishmen seeking a military career. The principal reason for this was that France was an ascendant power, rapidly expanding its armed forces, whereas Spain was a power in decline.

France recruited many foreign soldiers; Germans, Italians, Walloons

Walloons

Walloons are a French-speaking people who live in Belgium, principally in Wallonia. Walloons are a distinctive community within Belgium, important historical and anthropological criteria bind Walloons to the French people. More generally, the term also refers to the inhabitants of the Walloon...

and Swiss. André Corvisier, the authority on French military archives, estimates that foreigners accounted for around 12% of all French troops in peacetime and 20% of troops during warfare. In common with the other foreign troops the Irish regiments were paid more than their French counterparts. Both Irish and Swiss regiments in French service wore red uniforms, though this had no connection with the redcoats of the British army.

The crucial turning point came during the Williamite War in Ireland

Williamite war in Ireland

(1688–91), when Louis XIV

Louis XIV of France

Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...

gave military and financial aid to the Irish Jacobites

Jacobitism

. In 1690, inreturn for 6000 French troops that were shipped to Ireland, Louis demanded 6000 Irish recruits for use in the Nine Years War against the Dutch. Five regiments, led by Justin McCarthy, Viscount Mountcashel formed the nucleus of the French Irish Brigade

Irish Brigade (French)

The Irish Brigade was a brigade in the French army composed of Irish exiles, led by Robert Reid. It was formed in May 1690 when five Jacobite regiments were sent from Ireland to France in return for a larger force of French infantry who were sent to fight in the Williamite war in Ireland...

. A year later, after the Irish Jacobites under Patrick Sarsfield surrendered at the Treaty of Limerick

Treaty of Limerick

in 1691, they were allowed to leave Ireland for service in the French Army. Sarsfield's "exodus" included 14,000 soldiers and 10,000 women and children. This is popularly known in Ireland as the Flight of the Wild Geese.

The main difference between the Irish Brigade and the Wild Geese was that the Brigade was already formed up and serving in France by 1691, but the Wild Geese comprised a disparate group of individuals with similar aims that served in the armies of several countries, not just France. In time the distinctions became blurred, as Irish recruits joining the Irish Brigade in the 1700s were sometimes known as Wild Geese.

Up until 1745, Catholic Irish gentry were allowed to recruit soldiers for France in Ireland. The authorities in Ireland saw this as preferable to the potentially disruptive effects of having large numbers of unemployed young Catholic men of military age in the country. However, after a composite Irish detachment from the French Army (drawn from each of the regiments comprising the Irish Brigade and designated as "Irish Picquets") was used to support the Jacobite Rising

Jacobite rising

The Jacobite Risings were a series of uprisings, rebellions, and wars in Great Britain and Ireland occurring between 1688 and 1746. The uprisings were aimed at returning James VII of Scotland and II of England, and later his descendants of the House of Stuart, to the throne after he was deposed by...

of 1745 in Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

, the British realised the dangers of this policy and banned recruitment for foreign armies in Ireland. After this point, the rank and file of the Irish units in French service were increasingly non-Irish although the officers continued to be recruited from Ireland.

During the Seven Years' War

Seven Years' War

The Seven Years' War was a global military war between 1756 and 1763, involving most of the great powers of the time and affecting Europe, North America, Central America, the West African coast, India, and the Philippines...

efforts were made to find recruits from among Irish prisoners of war or deserters from the British Army. Otherwise, recruitment was limited to a trickle of Irish volunteers who were able to make their own way to France, or from the sons of former members of the Irish Brigade who had remained in France. During the Seven Years War the Irish Regiments in French service were: Bulkeley, Clare, Dillon, Rooth, Berwich and Lally. Additionally, there was a regiment of cavalry, Fitz James. By the end of the 18th century even the officers of the Irish Regiments were drawn from Franco-Irish families who had settled in France for several generations. While often French in all but name, such families proudly retained their Irish heritages.

Following the outbreak of the French Revolution

French Revolution

The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...

the Irish Brigade ceased to exist as a separate entity on 21 July 1791 when the 12 non-Swiss foreign regiments then in existence were integrated into the line infantry of the French Army, losing their distinctive status, titles and uniforms. Many left the service in 1792 when Louis XVI was deposed, as their oath of loyalty was to him and not to the French people. Napoleon Bonaparte subsequently raised a small Irish unit composed of veterans of the Irish Rebellion of 1798

Irish Rebellion of 1798

The Irish Rebellion of 1798 , also known as the United Irishmen Rebellion , was an uprising in 1798, lasting several months, against British rule in Ireland...

. This "Irish Legion

Irish Legion

The Irish Legion was a French battalion established in 1803 for a future invasion of Ireland. It was later expanded to a Regiment and won distinction in the Walcheren Expedition and the Peninsular War...

" was primarily composed of Cavalry units. Count Paul Francois O'Neill, the French 5th Comte de Tyrone and his two sons ,Jacques and Francois, all joined the Legion for four years.

Austrian service

Throughout this period, there were also substantial numbers of Irish officers and men in the armies of the Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

n Habsburg Empire, many of whom were based in Prague. The most famous of these was Peter Lacy

Peter Lacy

Count Peter von Lacy, or Pyotr Petrovich Lacy , as he was known in Russia , was one of the most successful Russian imperial commanders before Rumyantsev and Suvorov...

, a Field Marshal

Field Marshal

Field Marshal is a military rank. Traditionally, it is the highest military rank in an army.-Etymology:The origin of the rank of field marshal dates to the early Middle Ages, originally meaning the keeper of the king's horses , from the time of the early Frankish kings.-Usage and hierarchical...

in the Imperial Russian Army, whose son Franz Moritz Graf von Lacy

Franz Moritz von Lacy

Graf Franz Moritz von Lacy , , was the son of Count Peter von Lacy and a famous Austrian field marshal. He served Maria Theresia, was a close friend to Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor, and became one of his advisers...

excelled in the Austrian service. General Maximilian Ulysses Graf von Browne, the Austrian commanding officer in the Battle of Lobositz

Battle of Lobositz

The Battle of Lobositz or Lovosice also Lowositz on 1 October 1756 was the opening land battle of the Seven Years' War. Frederick the Great's 29,000 Prussians prevented Field Marshal Maximilian Ulysses Count Browne 34,500 Austrians from relieving their besieged Saxon allies during the Siege of...

, was also of Irish descent. Recruitment for Austrian service was especially associated with the midlands of Ireland and with the Taaffe

Viscount Taaffe

The title Viscount Taaffe, of Corren, was created in the Peerage of Ireland in 1628, together with the subsidiary title Baron Ballymote. From the 18th century onwards, the Viscounts Taaffe also held the title Count Taaffe in the Holy Roman Empire...

O'Neillan and O'Rourke gentry families. However, Count Alexander O'Nelly (O'Neill) came from Ulster. He commanded the 42nd Bohemian Infantry Regiment 1734-1743. Much earlier, in 1634, during the Thirty Years' War

Thirty Years' War

The Thirty Years' War was fought primarily in what is now Germany, and at various points involved most countries in Europe. It was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history....

, Irish officers led by Walter Deveraux assassinated general Albrecht von Wallenstein

Albrecht von Wallenstein

Albrecht Wenzel Eusebius von Wallenstein , actually von Waldstein, was a Bohemian soldier and politician, who offered his services, and an army of 30,000 to 100,000 men during the Danish period of the Thirty Years' War , to the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II...

on the orders of the Emperor. In the 19th century, further Irish officers served in the Habsburg Empire, so Laval Graf Nugent von Westmeath

Laval Nugent von Westmeath

Laval Graf Nugent von Westmeath was a soldier of Irish birth who fought in the armies of Austria and the Two Sicilies.-Biography:...

and Maximilian Graf O’Donnell von Tyrconnell

Maximilian Karl Lamoral O'Donnell

Maximilian Karl Lamoral Graf O’Donnell von Tyrconnell was an Austrian officer and civil servant who became famous when he saved the life of Emperor Franz Josef I of Austria...

, who saved the life of Emperor

Emperor

An emperor is a monarch, usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife or a woman who rules in her own right...

Franz Joseph I during an assassination attempt. Gottfried von Banfield

Gottfried von Banfield

Freiherr Gottfried von Banfield was the most successful Austro-Hungarian naval aeroplane pilot in the First World War. He was known as the 'Eagle of Trieste' and was the last person in history to wear the Military Order of Maria Theresa...

finally became the most successful Austro-Hungarian naval aeroplane pilot

Aviator

An aviator is a person who flies an aircraft. The first recorded use of the term was in 1887, as a variation of 'aviation', from the Latin avis , coined in 1863 by G. de la Landelle in Aviation Ou Navigation Aérienne...

in the First World War.

Swedish and Polish service

In 1609, Arthur Chichester, then Lord Deputy of Ireland

Lord Deputy of Ireland

The Lord Deputy was the King's representative and head of the Irish executive under English rule, during the Lordship of Ireland and later the Kingdom of Ireland...

, deported 1300 former rebel Irish soldiers from Ulster

Ulster

to serve in the Protestant Swedish Army

Swedish Army

The Swedish Army is one of the oldest standing armies in the world and a branch of the Swedish Armed Forces; it is in charge of land operations. General Sverker Göranson is the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Army.- Organization :...

. However, under the influence of Catholic clergy, many of them deserted to Polish service.

The Catholic Irish troops in Protestant Swedish service changed sides during a battle against largely Catholic Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

, the only European country with statutory

Warsaw Confederation

The Warsaw Confederation , an important development in the history of Poland and Lithuania that extended religious tolerance to nobility and free persons within the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. , is considered the formal beginning of religious freedom in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and...

freedom of religion

Freedom of religion

Freedom of religion is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance; the concept is generally recognized also to include the freedom to change religion or not to follow any...

at the time. The Irish then served in Polish service for several years during the Polish–Muscovite War (1605–1618), until their wages went unpaid.

Italian service

Despite being less studied, the ancient and traditional "mestiere delle armi" in Italy was also a well-known profession by the Irish. The "tercio" of Lucas Taf (around 500 men) served in Milan towards 1655. The Army of Saboya included also Irishmen, but in Italy the Irish were organized basically by the Spanish administration. In 1694 another regiment in Milan was exclusively composed by Irishmen. Around the 3-4% of a total of 20.000 men were Irish in the Spanish Army of Milan. It is not a high figure, but it was important as regards quality. In this context, James Francis Fitz-James Stuart (1696-1739), Duke of Berwick and of Liria

James Fitz-James Stuart, 2nd Duke of Berwick

James Francis Fitz-James Stuart, 2nd Duke of Berwick, was a Jacobite and Spanish nobleman...

is just one example of this success. He began to serve the Monarchy in 1711 and succeeded in becoming General Lieutenant (1732), ambassador in Russia, in Austria and in Naples, where he died. In 1702 an Irish grenadier company led by Francis Terry entered Venetian service. This company of Jacobite

Jacobitism

exiles served at Zara until 1706. Colonel Terry became the Colonel of a Venetian Dragoon Regiment, which the Terry family mostly commanded until 1797. Colonel Terry's Dragoons uniforms were red faced blue in the Irish tradition. The Limerick Regiment, of Irish Jacobites, transferred from Spanish service to that of the Bourbon

House of Bourbon

The House of Bourbon is a European royal house, a branch of the Capetian dynasty . Bourbon kings first ruled Navarre and France in the 16th century. By the 18th century, members of the Bourbon dynasty also held thrones in Spain, Naples, Sicily, and Parma...

king of Sicily

Sicily

Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

in 1718.

End of the Wild Geese

Irish recruitment for continental armies dried up after it was made illegal in 1745.
In 1732 Sir Charles Wogan indicated in a letter to Dean Swift that 120,000 Irishmen had been killed and wounded in foreign service "within these forty years", with Swift later replying:

"I cannot but highly esteem those gentlemen of Ireland who, with all the disadvantages of being exiles and strangers, have been able to distinguish themselves by their valour and conduct in so many parts of Europe, I think, above all other nations."

It was some time before the British armed forces began to tap into Irish Catholic manpower. In the late 18th century, the Penal Laws

Penal Laws (Ireland)

The term Penal Laws in Ireland were a series of laws imposed under English and later British rule that sought to discriminate against Roman Catholics and Protestant dissenters in favour of members of the established Church of Ireland....

were gradually relaxed and in the 1790s the laws prohibiting Catholics bearing arms were abolished.

Thereafter, the British began recruiting Irish regiments for the Crown Forces — including such famous units as the Connaught Rangers. Several more Irish units were created in the 19th century. By 1914 specifically Irish infantry regiments in the British Army comprised the Prince of Wales's Leinster Regiment

Prince of Wales's Leinster Regiment

The Prince of Wales's Leinster Regiment was an infantry regiment of the line in the British Army, formed in 1881 by the amalgamation of the 100th Regiment of Foot and the 109th Regiment of Foot...

, the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, the Irish Guards

Irish Guards

The Irish Guards , part of the Guards Division, is a Foot Guards regiment of the British Army.Along with the Royal Irish Regiment, it is one of the two Irish regiments remaining in the British Army. The Irish Guards recruit in Northern Ireland and the Irish neighbourhoods of major British cities...

, the Royal Irish Regiment

Royal Irish Regiment (1684-1922)

The Royal Irish Regiment, until 1881 the 18th Regiment of Foot, was an infantry regiment of the line in the British Army, first raised in 1684. Also known as the 18th Regiment of Foot and the 18th Regiment of Foot, it was one of eight Irish regiments raised largely in Ireland, its home depot in...

, the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers

Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers

The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers was a Irish infantry regiment of the British Army formed in 1881 by the amalgamation of the 27th Regiment of Foot and the 108th Regiment of Foot...

, the Royal Irish Rifles, the Royal Irish Fusiliers

Royal Irish Fusiliers

The Royal Irish Fusiliers was an Irish infantry regiment of the British Army, formed by the amalgamation of the 87th Regiment of Foot and the 89th Regiment of Foot in 1881. The regiment's first title in 1881 was Princess Victoria's , changed in 1920 to The Royal Irish Fusiliers...

, the Connaught Rangers and the Royal Munster Fusiliers

Royal Munster Fusiliers

The Royal Munster Fusiliers was a regular infantry regiment of the British Army. One of eight Irish regiments raised largely in Ireland, it had its home depot in Tralee. It was originally formed in 1881 by the amalgamation of two regiments of the former East India Company. It served in India and...

. With the creation of the Irish Free State

Irish Free State

The Irish Free State was the state established as a Dominion on 6 December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty, signed by the British government and Irish representatives exactly twelve months beforehand...

in 1922 five of the above regiments were disbanded, with most of the remainder undergoing a series of amalgamations between 1968 and 2006. The United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

still retains three Irish regiments: the Irish Guards

Irish Guards

, the Royal Irish Regiment, and the London Irish Rifles

London Irish Rifles

The London Irish Rifles is now known more formally known as "D Company, London Regiment" and is a volunteer Rifle Regiment with a distinguished history...

External links

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