The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-04-24
IRISH IN THE BRITIsH ARMY.
A Proposed Regiment of the Guards
The Eight Regiments in Service.

| London Gable in New York Sun.
The Irish have always furnished more
than their share of fighting men. They
have fought for themselves. they have
fought for others. There was an Irish.
man, "Guillermo Tres" or William Har
ris, with Christopher Columbus, who war
left at Hlspaniola by the admiral, and I'M
| doubtedly had some fighting to do before
he met his death with his companions;
| there were Irish at Fontenoy, and Irish
| in the Kings army and in the American
! army during the revolution; there were
Irish in the war of 1872, and in the Next
| can war; the civil war had Irish every
| where, on both sides of Mason aud Dix
on's line. In fact. wherever there arc
blows TO be given and others to be had.
| the lrishman has been. The principal
generals of the British army have been
| and are Irish. wellington was an Irish.
man; Wolseley and Roberts are Irishmen;
| Kitchener is another. But the British
army, though ii is made up largely Of
lrishmen and has several Irish regiments
of the line which have always dstin-
| guished themselves, has never had a regi-
| ment of the Guards made up ostensibly
and publicly of Irshmen. Now the Horse
Guards is talking of organizing such a
regiment
| The government, as every one knows
| has never tried 10 placate the Irish. AZ
| soon as the Scots Instruction of 17i5 was
put down, the British government started
In to appease the Scots heart. Regiments
were raised, the men of which, alone Of
| the Scots were allowed to wear the High
dand costume; and they wear that cos
tune to this day. But no such treatment
mas been accorded to the Irish. and II may
| be too late 10 begin Il now Undoubted-
! ~ the agitators will rage and argue and
denounee any Irshman who enters AN
irish regiment of the Guards but there
are so many Irish in the regiments OF the
Guards which are not Irish. that perhaps
the creation of an Irish regiment would
not strain Irish loyalty to Ireland
There are three regiments of Foot
Guards in the British army now. The sem
Tor regiment, though not the oldest. is the
Grenadier Guards, composed of three bat
tailons. Then comes the oldest regiment in
the army, the Coldstream Guards, also
with three battalions; and then the Scots
| Guards, with two hattanons formed and
e third battalion authorized. The feeling
of the British for the guards is much like
that of the Bellman in The Hunting OF
the Shark" for his own statements: What
| tell you three times is true" So with the
Guards when they are sent on foreign
service the great British public knows that
things are serious. The Guards were sent
TO the Crimea; they were sent to the Egyp-
tian war, and occasionally one battalion
of the Grenadier Guards, the ostensibie
English regiment, is sent abroad to he
punished for mutiny. As a rule, the Guards
are stationed in and around London; the
headquarters of each regiment Is In the
Horse Guards. Whitehall, the army head
quarters of the empire. The men get high
er pay than those of line regiments, as dc
the officers and officers of other regl.
ments serving in London get Guards pay
while there.
In the line of the British Army there
are eight Irish regiments not counting the
Irlshmen who make up a large proportion
of the other non-Irish regiments. These
avowediy Irish regiments are the Con
naught Rangers, the Royal Dublin Fusll
iers, the Inniskilling Fusiliers the Roya
Irish Fusiliers, the Royal Irish Regiment
the Royal Irish Rifles, the LeinrAer Regi
ment Originally the Royal Canadians ant
the Royal Munster Fusiliers. The Fiftt
Lancers, by the way, is the Royal Irish
and the Sixth Dragons is the famous In
niskiiling Dragons. These regiments have
their home stations in Ireland, but have
no distinctive colors to indicate that they
are from the Old Sod The men OF the
Royal Irish Regiment wear on their col.
| lars an lflSH ndID, DuI 10 OLDef 1fiSD feEt
ment has any distinguishing badge and
men have been courtmartialed for wear.
ing sprigs of shamrock on their tunics or
ST. Patricks day
These regiments not so long ago had nu.
merical titles instead of territorial designa.
tons. Thus the Connaught Rangers were
the Eighty-eighth Foot, and won their rep
utation as such. They also won the name
OF Devils Own" under the old deslgna.
|
Hundred and Second and One Hundred
and Third; The Inniskilling Fusiilers were
the Twenty-seventh and the One Hundred
and Eighth Foot; the Royal Irish Fusil-
iers got their name of "Rollickers" whilC
they fought as the Eighty-seventh or tho
Eighty-ninth Foot, those regiment:
being now the first and second battalions
of tie present regiment. The second bat
talon, while II was the Eighty-ninth Foot
got The name of "Bleney's Bloodhounds.'
The Royal Irish Regiment was The Eigh
tenth Foot, the Irish Rifles was the
Eighty-third and the Eighty-sixth; The
I.einster Regiment is made up of the Ole
One Hundredth and one Hundredth anc
Ninth Foot and the Royal Munster of to-
day fought as the One Hundred and Frs
and the One Hundred and Fourth Foot
So IL is evident that there is a plenty Of
good fighting material in the British army
at present drawn from across the lrisf
| channel
If the military authorities of Great Brit
ain are really thinking of fourth
and Irish regiment of foot guards, 1t may
he that there Is more In the proposition
than appears on the surface. or one Trims
the Irishmen may be sure, who enlist II
the regiment-they'n get their share o.
fighting when there's any worth doing
and they'll do 1t with neatness and de
snatch. They need never fear to rust away
in Idlenegs in wellington or Chelsea bar
racks.