Irish Guards

Irish Guards parade

The Irish Guards ( German  Irish Guard ) are an infantry regiment of the British Army and, as part of the Guards Division, one of the five body regiments of Queen Elizabeth II.

history

The Irish Guards are the fourth oldest foot guards regiment in the British Army. They were formed in 1900 by order of Queen Victoria in recognition of the excellence of Irish regiments in the Boer War .

During the two world wars, the regiment's battalions were deployed on almost all fronts in Europe and North Africa where British troops fought. In the post-war period, the regiment took part in many operations as part of UN peace missions. It was also used in the Persian Gulf . Because of its ties to Ireland , the regiment was not stationed in Northern Ireland for a long time ; in contrast, it has been to Germany several times as part of the British Army of the Rhine .

present

Today the regiment serves as light infantry and is used as a guard regiment . It regularly participates in many important protocol events in the UK, such as B. Trooping the Color and Remembrance Sunday . The Irish Guards are the only one of the Guard regiments to have a mascot, namely an Irish Wolfhound .

The mascot of the Irish Guards

St. Patrick's Day (March 17th) is celebrated in the regiment every year . A member of the British Royal Family , Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge for the last two years , gives the soldiers shamrocks that day .

The soldiers are still largely recruited from Northern Ireland , the Republic of Ireland and neighborhoods in large British cities with many residents of Irish origin. An ordinary soldier of the Irish Guards called Guardsman (while he was in regular units private means), an award that King George V after the First World War introduced.

Since February 10, 2011, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge , has been the Colonel of Honor , who wore the uniform (but without a fur hat) to his wedding on April 29, 2011. He took over from Major General Sir Sebastian Roberts , KCVO , OBE , who had held it since March 2008. Until his abdication in November 2000, the former Grand Duke Jean of Luxembourg was an honorary colonel after having served in the Irish Guards during World War II.

Like every guard regiment, the Irish Guards have a music corps. However, only the Scots Guards have drums and pipes, i.e. drummers and bagpipers .

Battle Honors

List of Battle Honors of the Regiment:

• First World War : Mons , Retreat from Mons, Marne 1914 , Aisne 1914 , Ypres 1914 1917 , Langemarck 1914, Battle of Gheluvelt, Nun Bosschen, Festubert 1915, Loos , Somme 1916 1918, Flers-Courcelette, Morval, Pilckem, Poelcapelle, Passchendaele, Cambrai 1917 1918 , St. Quentin, Lys , Hazebrouck, Albert 1918, Bapaume 1918, Arras 1918, Scarpe 1918, Drocourt-Quéant, Hindenburg Line , Canal du Nord, Selle, Sambre , France and Flanders 1914–18

• Second World War :
  • North-West Europe: Pothus, Norway 1940, Boulogne 1940, Cagny, Mont Pincon, Neerpelt, Nijmegen, Aam, Rhineland, Hochwald , Rhine, Bentheim, North-West Europe 1940 1944–45,
  • North Africa: Medjez Plain, Djebel bou Aoukaz, North Africa 1943,
  • Italy: Anzio , Aprilia, Carroceto, Italy 1943–44

• Second Iraq War : Al Basrah 2003, Iraq 2003

uniform

The five regiments of the Guards Infantry differ in appearance only in small details. The Irish Guards parade uniform ( full dress ) consists of :

• a blue feather ( St. Patrick's blue ) on the bearskin cap on the right .
• a white shamrock on each side of the collar as a further symbol of Ireland
• the buttons are arranged in groups of four (two on the breast row, one on each sleeve flap and one on the lap pocket), as it is the fourth oldest regiment of the Guard on foot.

The ribbon and piping of the peaked cap are green.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ www.royal.gov.uk ( Memento of the original from February 13, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 

literature

• Henry Harris: Irish regiments in the First World War . Mercier Press, Cork 1968.
• RG Harris: The Irish regiment. A pictorial history. 1683-1987 . Nutshell, Tunbridge Wells 1989, ISBN 1-871876-00-1 .
• Tom Johnstone: Orange, Green and Khaki. Story of the Irish Regiments in the Great War. 1914-18 . Gill & Macmillan, Dublin 1992, ISBN 0-7171-1994-7 .
• Rudyard Kipling (Ed.): The Irish Guards in the Great War . Edited and compiled from their diaries and papers. 2 volumes. Macmillan, London 1923 (Vol. 1: The first battalion ; Vol. 2: The second battalion and appendices ).
• David Murphy: Irish regiments in the World Wars . Osprey, Oxford 2007, ISBN 978-1-84603-015-4 ( Elite 147).
• Peter Verney: The Micks. The story of the Irish Guards . Peter Davies, London 1970, ISBN 0-432-18650-6 .

Web links

Commons : Irish Guards  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• www.theguardsmuseum.com
• official homepage