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The 1st Battalion The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers embarked on the MV Georgic and sailed home from Singapore on 25 August 1949. Three weeks later, the Battalion arrived in Belfast on 17 September, having served overseas for 15 years in India and the Far East. The Battalion was welcomed ashore by the Colonel of the Regiment, past and serving Inniskillings, and The Drums and Pipes of the 5th (TA) Inniskillings. The Battalion then marched through the City and past the City Hall, where the Lord Mayor took the salute, before moving to Ballykinlar to begin a short period of leave.
On 4 January 1938, 21 officers and 466 other ranks of the 2nd Battalion The Royal Irish Fusiliers embarked at Southampton for the six-day voyage to Malta. On arrival they moved to Imtarfa Barracks and were joined by the families at the end of the month. The proximity of Malta to Sicily and Libya would become much more dangerous when war was declared on 3 September 1939.
Towards the end of December 1943, when the 2nd Battalion The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers was in the Adriatic foothills of the Apennine Range, much patrolling took place assisted by Italian partisans.
In November 1943, the 2nd Battalion The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers had advanced into the town of Isernia, Italy and had as their neighbours a brigade of American Airborne with whom there existed a close and friendly liaison.
At this time, both the Americans and the Inniskillings were very busy patrolling against the nearby enemy outposts. The patrolling was vigilant, adventurous and continuous, and the Battalion won the highest praise from the Divisional Commander.
During the invasion of Sicily the 2nd Battalion The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers reached the high ground overlooking the port of Catania on 18 July 1943. The way forward was across a plain intersected by irrigation ditches and the defended line of the River Simeto.
Major Thompson's patrol having reached the south bank of the river discovered a concrete bridge mined and ready for demolition. Brigade Headquarters gave 2 INNISKS the task of establishing a bridgehead over 'LEMON'.
The 2nd Battalion The London Irish Rifles boarded the HMT Duchess of York at Glasgow on 10 November 1942 and sailed Into the River Clyde to join a large convoy bound for North Africa. Arriving off Algiers on 22 November, 2 LIR entered the harbour under the cover of a Royal Navy smokescreen and anti-aircraft fire as an air-raid warning had been sounded in response to enemy aircraft flying over the area.
A detachment from the 2nd Battalion The Royal Irish Rangers marched past the President of France, General de Gaulle, to mark the 50th anniversary of the end of the First World War.
In May 1969, two weeks after he resigned as President, de Gaulle and his wife landed at Cork and travelled to Sneem in County Kerry where they spent six weeks on a 'quiet holiday'. Eighteen months after returning to France, General Charles de Gaulle died on 9 November 1970.
The Defence Reform Act 2014 received Royal Assent on 14 May 2014. Part 3 of the Act concerned the Reserve Forces and included the renaming of the Army Reserve and the Territorial Army as the Regular Reserve and the Army Reserve. The 2nd Battalion The Royal Irish Regiment (2 R IRISH) came under operational command of Headquarters 160th Infantry Brigade by the end of 2014 as part of the transformation of the British Army from 2020 and beyond (Army 2020).
A detachment from the 2nd Battalion The Royal Irish Regiment was under command of the 1st Battalion The Royal Scots Borderers, The Royal Regiment of Scotland (1 SCOTS) in Cyprus when 1 SCOTS assumed operational responsibility for United Nations Sector 2, the section of the UN Buffer Zone that runs through the Cypriot capital, Nicosia. The deployment was for six months before 1 SCOTS returned with its 2 R IRISH personnel to Northern Ireland to re-assume its role as the Resident Battalion in Palace Barracks, Holywood.
On the 1 July 1993, the manpower of the two General Service battalions of The Royal Irish Regiment was merged within the 1st Battalion The Royal Irish Regiment based in Episkopi Garrison of the United Kingdom’s Western Sovereign Base Area, Cyprus. Although some members of 2 R IRISH, the former 2nd Battalion The Royal Irish Rangers, did remain in Lemgo to complete the handover of Stornoway Barracks to Stadt Lemgo, bringing to an end 43 years of British Military presence in the town, it is widely taken that 2 R IRISH was disbanded and ceased to exist on this date.
The title was resurrected when the then Territorial Army battalion, The Royal Irish Rangers, was retitled the 2nd Battalion The Royal Irish Regiment.
