Explore Listing
2 R IRISH operational roulement deployment to Falkland Islands.
2 R IRISH moved from Lathbury Barracks, Gibraltar to Doniford Camp, Watchet, Somerset during the month of October 1968.
2 R IRISH undertook Public Duties in London District from 20 September - 17 October 1971.
During the Battle of the Somme, the 2nd Battalion The Royal Irish Rifles participated in a local action known as the Battle of Bazentin Ridge. On 14 July 1916, the Battalion marched up to the front line trenches east of Ovillers, a village still heavily defended by the enemy.
The 2nd Battalion Princess Victoria’s (The Royal Irish Fusiliers)* sailed from Marseilles in November 1915, and although originally bound for Gallipoli, arrived in Salonika on 11/12 December 1915, as part of 82 Brigade; The 1st Leinsters and 1st Royal Irish Regiment (18th) were also in the 27th Division’s 82 Brigade. The 27th Division was one of the four British divisions arriving in theatre to join the 10th (Irish) Division in the Army of Salonika; the 22nd, the 26th, the 27th and the 28th Division.
During May 1900, the British and colonial forces in South Africa were having increasing success in their war against the Boers. The 2nd Battalion The Royal Irish Fusiliers at this time were part of General Hunter's Division, though still in Barton's Fusilier Brigade.
The formation swept into enemy territory, defeated an enemy force at Rooidam and captured Fourteen Streams, where the sappers proceeded to rebuild a railway bridge. On 15 May 1900, heading along the north bank of the Vaal River, in Barton's words:
The 2nd Battalion The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, leaving one detached company in Aqaba, arrived in Cyprus from the Canal Zone, Egypt on 22 September 1954. The detached company would rejoin the Battalion in February 1955. The Inniskillings were based in Famagusta with one company in Nicosia. General Headquarters Middle East had also moved to Cyprus. Events at that time heralded the start of the Cyprus Emergency when independence from Britain and union with Greece would be pursued by the armed resistance movement EOKA.
The 2nd Battalion The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers had reached the 'spine of the Apennines' where two regiments of 26 Panzer Division occupied key ground on a series of ridges guarding the southern approach to the Isernia Pass. The city of Isernia, sitting astride the junction of rail and road routes, lay in a basin which the Germans commanded both by observation posts on the ridges and by fire from artillery emplacements.
The 2nd Battalion The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel A J Murray DSO, embarked on 21 January 1902 at Bombay and reached Durban, South Africa on 6 February 1902.
At war's end the 2nd Battalion The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers moved from Vereeniging to arrive at Mafeking on 21 August 1902 and then Potchefstroom where they arrived on 7 April 1903. The Battalion's last move in South Africa was to Durban where it embarked on the transport ship Dunera on 24 October for Egypt, arriving in Citadel Barracks, Cairo on 9 November 1903.
