The Irish Regiments of the British Army in all their scarlet finery, 1897.
Chromolithograph by Emrik and Binger after Richard Simkin, 1897. Published as a supplement to ‘The Boys Own Paper’, 25 December 1897. National Army Museum NAM. 1973-11-137-1
The above, as detailed by the NAM:
Shows twenty mounted and dismounted figures representing twelve units: trumpeter and officer, 4th Irish Dragoon Guards; trooper, 5th Royal Irish Lancers; trooper, 6th Inniskilling Dragoons; corporal and officer, 8th King’s Own Royal Irish Hussars; officer, Royal Irish Regiment; officer, Royal Irish Fusiliers; officer and corporal, Royal Irish Rifles; private, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers; corporal and sergeant major, Royal Munster Fusiliers; drummer, Royal Dublin Fusiliers; officer, Connaught Rangers; bandsman, Leinster Regiment.
The Old Contemptibles in 1914, the regulars of the BEF, included upwards of 30,000 Irishmen, and it is now generally accepted that around 200,000 soldiers recruited from the island of Ireland served over the course of the Great War.
Following the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922, the six British infantry regiments that recruited there were disbanded, and on 12 June, 103 years ago today, their Colours were laid up at St George’s Hall in Windsor Castle, to be kept forever in the care of the King and his descendants.
The Queen’s and Regimental Colours of each Battalion were paraded through Windsor and handed to the King for safekeeping after a service at Windsor Castle.
