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The Inniskillings came into official existence on 20 June 1689 and was one of the three regiments of foot formed in Enniskillen. When the order of precedence of British regiments was fixed, English regiments were granted precedence according to the dates of their formation. Irish and Scottish regiments, regardless of when they were raised, took their precedence from the dates they were taken onto the English army establishment for the first time.
The Royal Irish Regiment (27th (Inniskilling), 83rd, 87th and The Ulster Defence Regiment) was formed on this day by an Act of Parliament that merged the men and women of The Royal Irish Rangers and The Ulster Defence Regiment into a new regiment, The Royal Irish Regiment.
George Stuart White from Broughshane, County Antrim, left The Royal Military College, Sandhurst in 1853, and on the 4 November was gazetted an Ensign in the 27th Inniskillings. For a year after he joined the Inniskillings, White seems to have remained in Dublin, where the Regiment was stationed in the Royal Barracks until placed under orders to proceed to India. In those days this entailed a horribly tedious voyage of some five months in hired sailing ships. As war with Russia had just been declared the Regiment was disappointed at missing the action in the Crimea.
(Above, The Breaking of the Hindenburg Line by J P B Beadle, 1918 (© IWM Art.IWM ART 6296))
Marshal Foch launched his Grand Offensive with French and US offensives in the Meuse-Argonne on 26 September 1918 . The Army Group in Flanders, with King Albert I of Belgium as Commander-in-Chief, consisting of the Belgian Army, the British Second Army, and the French Sixth Army, launched the Fifth Battle of Ypres on 28 September.
The Irish poet Francis Ledwidge was born on 9 August 1887 in the Boyne Valley at Janeville near the village of Slane in County Meath. He was variously described as the ‘peasant poet’, the ‘soldier poet’ and the ‘poet of the blackbirds’ and had seen action with the 5th Battalion The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers in Gallipoli but suffered a back injury whilst serving in Serbia.
His Royal Highness, The Duke of York, Colonel in Chief of The Royal Irish Regiment, accepted the Freedom of the Borough of Ballymena on behalf of the Regiment at Ballymena, Northern Ireland.
The Belfast City Council had conferred the Freedom of Belfast on The Royal Ulster Rifles in 1954 and on 3 May 1976 declared that the freedom was to be transferred to The Royal Irish Rangers. The first opportunity to exercise the freedom was on 4 July 1976 when the Regiment marched through Belfast to St Anne's Cathedral as Freemen of the City to attend a service commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Battle of The Somme.
The Freedom of Carrickfergus was conferred on The Royal Irish Regiment at a ceremony hosted by Carrickfergus Borough Council. This was the first Freedom to be granted to the new Regiment. The ceremony was attended by the Colonel-in-Chief of The Royal Irish Regiment, His Royal Highness The Duke of York.
The Freedom of the Borough of Castlereagh was conferred upon The Royal Irish Regiment by Castlereagh Borough Council at a conferment ceremony held in Dundonald on 20th May 1995.
The honour was bestowed in recognition of the devotion to duty, gallantry and courage of the members of The Royal Irish Regiment as well as its service to Northern Ireland and to Castlereagh.
Over 20,000 gathered at the front of the City Hall, Belfast to watch the The Royal Ulster Rifles receiving the Freedom of Belfast, the first regiment to do so. The Lord Mayor, Sir Percival Brown, inspected the parade and then presented the Colonel of the Regiment, General Sir James Steele, with a silver casket containing the Certificate of Freedom. General Sir James Steele then signed the Register of Freedom. The Lord Mayor took the salute as the Regiment marched past.
To watch a newsreel of the event click on the window below:
