St. Patrick’s Day in a dugout, 80 years ago today, the official caption: “Men of the 2nd Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers read ‘Ireland’s Saturday Night’, a Belfast newspaper, in their foxhole in the Anzio bridgehead, 17 March 1944.”
Loughlin (Sgt), No 2 Army Film & Photographic Unit. Note SMLE MkIIIs IWM NA 13062
A patrol from the 2nd Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers at Anzio, Italy, March 1944. Note the No. 4 Enfields. IWM NA13224
St Patrick’s Day in the Anzio bridgehead, 5th Army. While L/CPL Niland is playing the bagpipes, RSM Kilduf issues a special rum ration to Fusiler Rogers of Drunsteeple. The unit is an Irish battalion: the 2nd Battalion, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, 17 March 1944. Photo by LT G. Loughlin, No. 2 Army Film and Photo Section, Army Film and Photographic Unit. IWM NA 13057
With a lineage dating back through the old 27th (Inniskilling) Regiment of Foot to 1689, 2 Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers was formed in 1881 and, like the 1st battalion, was recruited from four Irish counties: Donegal, Londonderry, Tyrone, and Fermanagh, with the first three being in Ulster.
The 2nd saw garrison duties across the British Empire, including Hong Kong, Singapore, Ireland, South Africa, and India– where it fought in the Tirah Expedition (1897) on the North West Frontier of India. Then came service in the Boer War and further pre-Great War postings to Egypt, Crete, Malta, China, and India. The 2nd then landed with the British Expeditionary Force’s 4th Division in France in August 1914, and remained there for the duration, finishing Armistice Day as part of the 36th (Ulster) Division.
NAM. 1983-11-114-1
Disbanded in 1922, as part of most of the British Army’s Irish units folded their colors— County Fermanagh, one of the regiment’s recruiting counties was in the new Irish Free State– 2 RIF was stood back up in 1937 as the Army once again expanded with trouble on the horizon.
THE BRITISH ARMY IN FRANCE 1939 (O 3) Men of the 2nd Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers disembarking at Cherbourg from the steamer ‘Royal Sovereign’, 16 September 1939. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205204991
Deploying to France with the BEF again in 1939, the battalion managed to escape being bagged as POWs at Dunkirk. It assisted in the capture of Madagascar in 1942, before joining the Sicilian and Italian campaigns (as seen in the top two images) from 1943 to 1945.
Disbanded a second time from 1948 to 1952 on being reformed, 2 RIF went on to serve in the Suez and Cyprus, where it engaged EOKA insurgents in 1954-55 before permanently disbanded the following year.
The legacy of the battalion was transferred in 1968 when the regiment was amalgamated with The Royal Ulster Rifles and The Royal Irish Fusiliers (Princess Victoria’s), to form The Royal Irish Rangers (27th (Inniskilling), 83rd and 87th), which was then further merged in 1992 when it was folded into The Royal Irish Regiment, which still exists.
Besides the Inniskilling Museum at Enniskillen Castle and the regimental association, they are remembered by the Combined Irish Regiments Association.
Likewise, the old Ireland’s Saturday Night ceased publication in 2008 after 114 years, although most of its archives are online.