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121-891: The Londonderry Militia , later the Londonderry Light Infantry , was an Irish Militia regiment raised in County Londonderry in 1793 under the command of Lord Castlereagh . It saw action during the Irish Rebellion of 1798 . It joined the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers in 1881 but was soon converted into a militia artillery unit before being disbanded in 1909. Although there are scattered references to town guards in 1584, no organised militia existed in Ireland before 1660. After that date, some militia forces were organised in

242-588: A rack-rented tenantry drove recruitment. While assistance was being sought from the French Republic and from democratic militants in Britain, martial-law seizures and arrests forced the conspirators into the open. Beginning in late May 1798, there were a series of uncoordinated risings: in the counties of Carlow and Wexford in the southeast where the rebels met with some success; in the north around Belfast in counties Antrim and Down ; and closer to

363-665: A Convention Act that effectively outlawed extra-parliamentary opposition. When it was clear that these were not terms acceptable to the United Irishmen (who had been seeking to revive and remodel the Volunteers along the lines of the revolutionary French "National Guard" ) the government moved to suppress the Society. In May 1794, following the revelation of meetings between a French emissary, William Jackson , and United leaders including Tone and Archibald Hamilton Rowan ,

484-549: A base in Killaughrim Woods, in the north of the county, under James Corcoran . Others sought action elsewhere. On 24 June, 8,000 men converged in two columns led by Father Murphy and by Myles Byrne on Castlecomer in County Kilkenny where it was hoped the area's militant colliers would join them. Unprepared, the miners did not tip the balance and at the end of the day both garrison and rebels retreated from

605-490: A brigade of regular artillery. The Militia Artillery was assigned to form the junior brigades of these divisions, the new Londonderry Artillery becoming 9th Brigade, North Irish Division, RA , on 1 April 1882. Unlike the earlier Londonderry Artillery company, this was a substantial unit, with an established strength of 619 all ranks organised as six batteries. When the North Irish Division was abolished in 1889

726-520: A company, and of three companies to form a battalion, the New System of Organisation was adapted to military preparation With only Ulster and Leinster organised, the leadership remained split between the two provincial directories. In June 1797, they met together in Dublin to consider the demands for an immediate rising from the northerners who, reeling from martial-law seizures and arrests, feared

847-699: A further address to the French Directory, Coigly was hanged, and the United network he had helped build in Britain was broken up by internment . In Dublin, Fitzgerald went into hiding. The Irish government imposed martial law on 30 March, although civil courts continued sitting. Overall command of the army was transferred from Ralph Abercromby to Gerard Lake who turned his attention to Leinster and Munster where from Ulster his troops' reputation for public floggings, half-hanging, pitch-capping and other interrogative refinements preceded him. Faced with

968-665: A growing commercial centre which, as a borough owned of the Marquess of Donegall , had no elected representation. In October 1791, amidst public celebration of the French Revolution , a group of Volunteer veterans invited an address from Wolfe Tone , a Protestant secretary to Dublin's Catholic Committee . Acknowledging his Argument on behalf of the Catholics of Ireland, in which Tone had argued that they could not enjoy liberty until banded together with Catholics against

1089-711: A larger host at the Hill of Tara in County Meath (May 26) persuaded many of the Kildare insurgents that their cause was lost. Rebels were to remain longest in the field in south-east, in Wexford and in the Mountains of Wicklow . It is commonly suggested that the trigger for the rising in Wexford was the arrival on 26 May of the notorious North Cork Militia. On 27 May, underestimating the hill-top position and resolve of

1210-403: A legislature in Dublin, by republicans who invoked the name of Tone in the cause of complete separation and independence, and by unionists opposed to all measures of Irish self-government. Renewed in a bicentenary year that coincided with the 1998 Belfast "Good Friday" Agreement , the debate over the interpretation and significance of "1798" continues. In the last decades of the 18th century,

1331-468: A more sympathetic account has Defenders decamping only after Munro rejected their proposal for a night attack on the riotous soldiery in the town as taking an "ungenerous advantage". These were denied by James Hope who had been one of the principal United emissaries to the Defenders. He insisted that Defenders had not appeared among the rebels in separate ranks, and that the body that deserted Munro on

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1452-434: A provincial, and, once three of Ireland's four provinces had organised, a national, directory. It was with this New System that the Society spread rapidly across Ulster and, eventually, from Dublin (where the abandonment of open proceedings had been resisted) out into the midlands and the south. As it did so, William Drennan 's "test" or pledge , calling for "a union of power among Irishmen of every religious persuasion",

1573-510: A quarter of a million men across Ulster , Leinster and Munster were preparing to join the "revolutionary army". The Irish government learned from Reynolds that a meeting of the Leinster Provincial Committee and Directory had been set for 10 March in the Dublin house of wool merchant Oliver Bond , where a motion for an immediate rising would be tabled. Camden decided to act, explaining to London that he risked having

1694-438: A rebel party hastily assembled under a local priest, John Murphy , a force of the militia and yeomanry was cut down outside the town of Oulart . The insurgents then swept south through Wexford Town where they released, and gave command to, the local United Irish leader, a Protestant barrister, Bagenal Harvey . On 5 June, Bagnel, leading a force of 3,000, failed in an attempt to storm New Ross whose capture might have opened

1815-544: A response to the threat of a French invasion during the Seven Years' War . Responsibility for raising and organising the force remained at county level, but funding was provided by central government. Officers were to be appointed from among the property-owning class. Men were to be chosen by ballot among the able-bodied men of the parish between the ages of 18 and 50, and would serve for three years (soon extended to five). If they wished not to serve, they could either provide

1936-469: A return prepared by Fitzgerald computed the number United Irishmen, nationwide, at 269,896. But there were doubts as to the number would heed call to arms and whether they could muster more than simple pikes (over the previous year the authorities had seized 70,630 of these compared to just 4,183 blunderbusses and 225 musket barrels). While the movement had withstood the government's countermeasures, and seditious propaganda and preparation continued, there

2057-611: A second French expedition was defeated in a naval action off the coast of County Donegal leading to the capture of the United Irish leader Wolfe Tone . In the wake of the rebellion, Acts of Union abolished the Irish legislature and brought Ireland under the crown of a United Kingdom through the Parliament at Westminster . The centenary of the rebellion in 1898 saw its legacy disputed by nationalists who wished to restore

2178-544: A series of violent attacks on magistrates in County Tipperary , County Kildare and King's County alarmed the authorities. They were also aware that there was now a faction of the United Irish leadership, led by Fitzgerald and O'Connor, who felt "sufficiently well organised and equipped" to begin an insurgency without French assistance. The Viceroy , Lord Camden , came under increasing pressure from hardline Irish MPs, led by Speaker John Foster , to crack down on

2299-581: A substitute or pay a £10 fine. There was considerable opposition to the reforms, both in Parliament and in the country at large. Riots occurred in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and elsewhere in 1757. These stemmed chiefly from an ill-informed fear that conscription and compulsory foreign service were being covertly introduced. In fact, the acts, which applied in England and Wales only, restricted service to

2420-693: A volunteer with the [[Irish Militia Artillery Brigade, Royal Garrison Artillery], (formed from service companies from the Antrim Artillery and the Donegal Artillery ), and was Mentioned in dispatches and awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal . The militia artillery units became part of the Royal Garrison Artillery in 1902, and the unit was redesignated Londonderry RGA (Militia) . After

2541-505: The Ards peninsula to Portaferry from which the rebels, under naval fire, were repulsed on the 11th, lasted but three days. Nugent moved on the 12th, and by the morning of the 13th had routed the main rebel conjunction under Dickson's successor, a young Lisburn draper, Henry Monro , outside Ballynahinch . Stories of Catholic desertion at the Battle of Ballynahinch were common, although

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2662-770: The British Crown in Ireland faced growing demands for constitutional reform. The Protestant Ascendancy had relaxed the Penal Laws by which, in the wake of the Jacobite defeat in 1691 , it had sought to break the power, and reduce the influence, both of the Catholic church and of the remaining Catholic gentry . But the landed Anglican interest continued to monopolise the Irish Parliament, occupying both

2783-841: The Chief Secretary for Ireland , was promoted to Colonel of the Londonderry Militia, with Sir George Hill, 2nd Baronet as his lieutenant-colonel. By the end of 1801 peace negotiations with the French were progressing and recruiting and re-enlistment for the Irish Militia was stopped in October. The men received the new clothing they were due on 25 December, but the Treaty of Amiens was signed in March 1802 after which

2904-566: The Combination Acts and wartime food shortages, Coigly worked from Manchester to spread the United system across the manufacturing districts of northern England. In London, he conferred with Irishmen prominent in the city's federation of democratic clubs, the London Corresponding Society . With these he drew together delegates from Scotland and the provinces who, as "United Britons", resolved "to overthrow

3025-660: The House of Lords and, through the system of pocket boroughs , half of the Commons . The interests of the Crown were meanwhile secured by a Viceregal administration accountable, not to the legislature in Dublin, but to the King and his ministers in London (and which also having boroughs in its pocket reduced to a third the number of Commons seats open to electoral contest). Additionally,

3146-893: The Jacobite rising of 1745 in Scotland, militias were raised in Argyll , the Isle of Skye and the northern counties. They are often confused with Loudon's Highlanders regiment and the Independent Highland Companies who also supported the Government. The Campbell of Argyll Militia also known as the Campbell militia , the Argyll militia , or the Argyllshire men , was an irregular militia unit formed in 1745 by John Campbell, 4th Duke of Argyll to oppose

3267-496: The Mullingar area into January 1799. The duty consisted of escorting prisoners, searching for arms, and scouring the neighbourhood for rebels. After the rebellion the Irish Militia settled down to garrison duty once more. With the diminishing threat of invasion after 1799, the strength of the militia could be reduced, and the surplus men were encouraged to volunteer for regiments of the line . In July 1800 Lord Castlereagh, by now

3388-561: The Regular Army was fighting overseas, the coasts of England and Wales were defended by the embodied Militia , but Ireland had no equivalent force. The Parliament of Ireland passed a Militia Act, but this failed to create an effective force. However it opened the way for the paramilitary Irish Volunteers to fill the gap. The Volunteers were outside the control of either the parliament or the Dublin Castle administration . When

3509-707: The Royal Artillery (RA) for active service. A Londonderry Artillery Militia was formed in January 1855, but it was always small, comprising a single company of just three officers, a surgeon, and 81 other ranks (ORs). It was not a successful unit, and after training of the Irish Militia was suspended between 1866 and 1871 because of the Fenian crisis the Londonderry Artillery Militia remained in abeyance, with no men enrolled. In May 1875 it

3630-425: The Treaty of Paris in March 1856. It was disembodied on 20 August that year. The militia now settled into a routine of annual training (though there was no training for the Irish Militia from 1866 to 1870 at the time of the Fenian crisis). Each militia unit had a large cadre of permanent staff and a number of the officers were former Regulars. Around a third of the recruits and many young officers went on to join

3751-553: The War Office was prepared to accept them, but the war ended with the abdication of Napoleon in April 1814. Militia recruiting was halted and the regiments could be progressively disembodied. The Londonderrys were paid off in 1815. After the Battle of Waterloo there was a long peace. Although officers continued to be commissioned into the militia and ballots might still be held, the regiments were rarely assembled for training and

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3872-555: The "Back Lane Parliament" was a direct challenge to the legitimacy of the Irish Lords and Commons. Anticipating war with the new French Republic , George III received a delegation from the convention (including Tone) at Windsor , and the British government pressed the Irish Parliament to match Westminster's Roman Catholic Relief Act 1791 . This relieved Catholics of most of their remaining civil disabilities and, where (in

3993-525: The "boobies and blockheads" of the Ascendancy, and styling themselves at his suggestion the Society of United Irishmen , the meeting resolved: [that] the weight of English influence in the government of this country is so great as to require a cordial union among all the people of Ireland; [and] that the sole constitutional mode by which this influence can be opposed, is by complete and radical reform of

4114-527: The "fascinating illusions" of French principles, in 1794 Catholics taking the United test were threatened with excommunication . Encountering a political outlook more Jacobite than Jacobin , and speaking freely to the grievances of tithes, taxes and rents, United agents sought to convince Defenders of something they had only "vaguely" considered, namely the need to separate Ireland from England and to secure its "real as well as nominal independence". As

4235-492: The 1790s, borrowing, like the United Irish societies (and, from 1795, their nemesis the Orange Institution) , from the lodge structure and ceremonial of freemasonry , this semi-insurrectionary phenomenon had regenerated as the largely but—with some latter-day adjustments to their oaths—not exclusively Catholic, Defenders . Originating as "fleets" of young men who contended with Protestant Peep o' Day Boys for

4356-498: The 21st, and on the morning of the 23rd, Neilson, who had been critical to the planning, was seized. Armed with last minute intelligence, a large force of military occupied the rebels' intended assembly points, persuading those who had turned out to dump weapons and disperse. The plan to intercept the mail coaches miscarried, with only the Munster-bound coach halted at Johnstown, County Kildare , near Naas . The organisation in

4477-470: The 21st. All but their leaders benefited from an amnesty intended by the new Lord Lieutenant , Charles Cornwallis to flush out remaining resistance. The law was pushed through the Irish Parliament by the Chancellor, Lord Clare . A staunch defender of the Ascendancy, Clare was determined to separate Catholics from the greater enemy, "Godless Jacobinism." In the north, there had been no response to

4598-548: The 7th had been disrupted by the arrest of the county's adjutant general, William Steele Dickson , and all his colonels. But beginning on the 9th younger officers took the initiative. An ambush outside Saintfield , an attack upon Newtownards , and the seizure of guns from a ship in Bangor harbour, persuaded General Nugent to concentrate his forces for a counteroffensive in Belfast. The republic in north Down, which extended down

4719-456: The American war, and Arthur O'Connor (later, undistinguished, as an officer of Napoleon 's Irish Legion ). The directory believed themselves too weak to act in the summer of 1797, but through the winter the movement appeared to strengthen in existing strongholds such as Dublin, County Kildare and County Meath , and to break new ground in the midlands and the south-east. In February 1798,

4840-615: The Boer War, the future of the Militia was called into question. There were moves to reform the Auxiliary Forces (Militia, Yeomanry and Volunteers ) to take their place in the six Army Corps proposed by St John Brodrick as Secretary of State for War . Some batteries of Militia Artillery were to be converted to field artillery. However, little of Brodrick's scheme was carried out. Under the sweeping Haldane Reforms of 1908,

4961-411: The British and Irish militia embodied for a whole generation, becoming regiments of full-time professional soldiers (though restricted to service in Britain or Ireland respectively), which the regular army increasingly saw as a prime source of recruits. They served in coast defences, manned garrisons, guarded prisoners of war, and carried out internal security duties. By April 1794 the Londonderry Militia

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5082-553: The British navy, but the Batavian fleet that the French had prepared for their forces at Texel was again opposed by the weather. In October 1797, after Tone and the troops he was to accompany to Ireland had been disembarked, the fleet sought to reach the French naval base at Brest and was destroyed by the Royal Navy at the Battle of Camperdown . In Paris, Tone recognised the rising star of Napoleon Bonaparte . But he found

5203-501: The British parliament presumed the right to itself to legislate for Ireland, a prerogative it had exercised to restrict rival Irish trade and commerce. The revolt of the North American colonies presented a challenge. War with the colonists and with their French allies drew down the Crown's regular forces in Ireland. In their absence Volunteer companies were formed, ostensibly for home defence, but soon, like their kinsmen in

5324-676: The Catholic population). It would subsequently be disarmed itself however in 1685 during the Monmouth Rebellion by Richard Talbot, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell . As a result of the ad-hoc nature of its formation the legal position of the pre-existing Militia in Ireland was only finally formalised when the Parliament of Ireland passed an act , the Militia Act (Ireland) 1715 (2 Geo. 1. c. 9 (I)), in 1716 raising regiments of militia in each county and county corporate . Membership

5445-583: The Cromwellian period with the raising of two regiments of Militia in Dublin in May 1659. In 1666 during the Second Anglo-Dutch War the establishment of a national militia was begun. This started as a proposal from Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery to James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormond the then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland . Orrey was Lord President of Munster and the establishment of militia

5566-456: The French fleet had been scattered by the winter storms. Several ships had been wrecked and none of the French troops succeeded in landing; there was no sign of a rising by the United Irishmen . The invasion was called off on 29 December, and the troop concentration was dispersed in early 1797. Early in 1797 the light companies of the militia were detached to join composite battalions drawn from several militia regiments. The Londonderry contingent

5687-404: The French, resigned his command in Antrim. Amidst charges of betrayal by aristocrats, cowards and traitors, his colonels turned to the young Henry Joy McCracken . Fearful that the "hope of a union with the south" was otherwise lost, McCracken proclaimed the First Year of Liberty on 6 June. On 7 June, there were local musters across the county, and west of the Bann at Maghera . The green flag

5808-412: The Irish Parliament turn against him. On the 10th, In March 1798, almost the entire committee were seized, along with two directors, the comparative moderates (those who, in the absence of the French, had counselled delay) William James MacNeven and Thomas Addis Emmet , together with all their papers. Meanwhile in England, O'Connor had been arrested alongside Coigly. Having been found in possession of

5929-413: The Irish Sea. By the end of July 34 out of 38 Irish militia regiments had volunteered for this service, including the Londonderry, which served in England in 1811–13. Another Act in November 1813, promoted by Lord Castlereagh, invited the militia to volunteer for limited foreign service, primarily for garrison duties in Europe. Every man of his own regiment except one private volunteered for this service, and

6050-421: The Londonderry Militia was a red coat with blue facings . The Londonderry Light Infantry wore yellow facings, and the cap badge consisted of a simple bugle-horn suspended from a cord with a shamrock knot, surrounded by a garter inscribed 'LONDONDERRY REGIMENT', topped by a three-towered castle. On conversion to artillery the corps adopted the blue uniform and red facings of the Royal Artillery. The officers wore

6171-415: The Londonderry Militia was in action at Tubberneering and was also at Arklow and Vinegar Hill. The Light Company saw action with 2nd Light Battalion at Antrim . A detachment of the regiment under Lieutenant Rowley Miller was active in capturing rebels, apprehending a leader named Talent, for whom the government had offered a reward of £200, together with a private reward of a further £1000. The rebellion

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6292-486: The Londonderrys being disbanded on 20 October. Instead the men of the RFA Special Reserve would form Brigade Ammunition Columns for the Regular RFA brigades on the outbreak of war. Colonels of the regiment included: After the 1852 Reforms, no new colonels were appointed to the militia; the lieutenant-colonel became the commandant and the position of Honorary Colonel was created. Lieutenant-Colonels included: The following served as Honorary Colonel: The uniform of

6413-432: The Militia was replaced by the Special Reserve , a semi-professional force whose role was to provide reinforcement drafts for Regular units serving overseas in wartime. The majority of the officers and men of the Londonderry RGA (M) accepted transfer to the Special Reserve Royal Field Artillery , becoming the Londonderry Royal Field Reserve Artillery . However, in a change of policy all the RFRA units were scrapped in 1909,

6534-443: The Regular Army. In 1805 the militia establishment was raised to allow for this. The following year Lord Castlereagh stated that no less that 42 recruiting parties crossed from England to Belfast, where the Londonderry Militia was stationed, to compete for 150 volunteers from his regiment. An 'Interchange Act' supported by Lord Castlereagh was passed in July 1811 permitting British and Irish militia units to volunteer for service across

6655-513: The Regular Army. The Militia Reserve introduced in 1867 consisted of present and former militiamen who undertook to serve overseas in case of war. Under the 'Localisation of the Forces' scheme introduced by the Cardwell Reforms of 1872, militia regiments were brigaded with their local linked regular regiments. For the Donegal Militia this was in Sub-District No 64 (Counties of Londonderry , Donegal, Tyrone and Fermanagh in Belfast District of Irish Command : Although often referred to as brigades,

6776-399: The Society was proscribed. A year later, in May 1795, a meeting of United delegates from Belfast and the surrounding market towns responded to the growing repression by endorsing a new, and it was hoped more resistant, "system of organisation". Local societies were to split so as to remain within a range of 7 to 35 members, and through baronial and county delegate committees, to build toward

6897-405: The War Ministry's Bureau Topographique , had drafted an invasion plan. In June, Carnot offered General Lazare Hoche command of an Irish expedition that would secure "the safety of France for centuries to come." Originally, it was to have been accompanied by two diversionary raids on England: one against Newcastle , the other against Bristol . In the event, because of pressing demands in Italy,

7018-422: The abolition of the pocket boroughs and an extension of the franchise. But the question of whether, and on what terms, parliamentary reform should embrace Catholic emancipation split the movement". The Ancien Régime survived: the Anglican aristocracy remained entrenched under the patronage of a government that continued to take its direction from London. The disappointment was felt keenly in Belfast ,

7139-665: The act called for lists to be drawn up of eligible men in each locality and with enlistees been drawn by ballot. The result of this was to cause widespread discontent in Ireland resulting in riots and close to 230 deaths over an eight week period. The list of Militia regiments as raised after the passing of the Militia Act (Ireland) 1793. The regimental numbers were assigned by ballot on the 8th of August 1794. Irish Rebellion of 1798 Suppression by Crown forces [REDACTED]   Great Britain The Irish Rebellion of 1798 ( Irish : Éirí Amach 1798 ; Ulster-Scots : The Turn out , The Hurries , 1798 Rebellion )

7260-446: The army intended to spearhead the invasion of Ireland was split up and sent, along with a growing Irish Legion , to fight in other theatres of the French Revolutionary Wars . Bantry Bay had nonetheless made real the prospect of French intervention, and United societies flooded with new members. There were increasing reports of Defenders and United Irishmen "marauding" for weapons, and openly parading. In May 1797, Yeomanry, which in

7381-421: The army, the militia had no cavalry or, until 1853, artillery. The militia was constitutionally separate from the army, but from the 1790s militiamen were encouraged to volunteer for the army, and did so in large numbers. During the French Revolutionary Wars the militia expanded to a total strength of 82,000 men in February 1799, reducing to 66,000 through an act of Parliament of that year designed to reinforce

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7502-425: The army. During the period to 1815, 110,000 men transferred to line regiments as against 36,000 prior to 1802. The militia continued to serve as a coastal defence force, as well as guarding dockyards and prisoners of war, and performing other duties including riot control during the Luddite unrest of 1811–1813. It was disembodied in 1815 but balloting continued until 1831. An incomplete list includes: In

7623-450: The breaking-up of their entire system, Fitzgerald, joined by Samuel Neilson (publisher in Belfast of the Society paper Northern Star , recently released from Kilmainham Prison ), and by John and Henry Sheares , resolved on a general uprising for 23 May. There was no immediate promise of assistance from France (on the 19th a French expeditionary force had set sail, under Napoleon, but for Egypt, not Ireland). The United army in Dublin

7744-503: The burning town. Byrne led his men into the Wicklow Mountains where Joseph Holt and Michael Dwyer commanded a guerrilla resistance. Murphy's men passed into Kildare where, after the priest was captured, they joined rebels withdrawn under William Aylmer into the Bog of Allen . After a number of bruising engagements, the "Wexford croppies" moved into Meath making a last stand at Knightstown bog on 14 July. A few hundred survivors returned to Kildare where at Sallins they surrendered on

7865-413: The call from Dublin. On 29 May, following news of the fighting in Leinster, county delegates meeting in Armagh, voted out the hesitant Ulster directory and resolved that if the adjutant generals of Antrim and Down could not agree a general plan of insurrection, they would return to their occupations and "deceive the people no more". In response, Robert Simms , who refused to consider action in the absence of

7986-472: The capital, Dublin , in counties Meath and Kildare . In late August, after the rebels had been reduced to pockets of guerrilla resistance, the French landed an expeditionary force in the west, in County Mayo . Unable to effect a conjunction with a significant rebel force, they surrendered on 9 September. In the last open-field engagement of the rebellion, the local men they had rallied on their arrival were routed at Killala on 23 September. On 12 October,

8107-420: The colonel after Sir George Hill's death. The long-standing national Militia of the United Kingdom was revived by the Militia Act of 1852 , enacted during a period of international tension. As before, units were raised and administered on a county basis, and filled by voluntary enlistment (although conscription by means of the Militia Ballot might be used if the counties failed to meet their quotas). Training

8228-490: The colonies, debating and asserting "constitutional rights". In 1782, with the Volunteers drilling and parading in support of the otherwise beleaguered Patriot opposition in the Irish Parliament, Westminster repealed its Dependency of Ireland on Great Britain Act 1719 . Volunteers, especially in the north where Presbyterians and other Protestant Dissenters had flocked to their ranks, immediately sought to build upon this grant of legislative independence by agitating for

8349-407: The conqueror of Italy incurious about the Irish situation being in need of a war of conquest, not of liberation, to pay his army. In February 1798, British spies did report that the First Consul was preparing a fleet in the Channel ports ready for the embarkation of up to 50,000 men, but the preparations were soon reversed. Bonaparte deemed both the military and naval forces assembled inadequate to

8470-408: The control of tenancies and employment in the linen-producing region of north Armagh, the Defenders organised across the southern counties of Ulster and into the Irish midlands. Already in 1788, their oath-taking had been condemned in a pastoral by the Catholic Primate Archbishop of Armagh . As the United Irishmen began to reach out the Defenders, they were similarly sanctioned. With cautions against

8591-471: The counties) Common's seats were contested, allowed those meeting the property qualification to vote. For Parliament itself the Oath of Supremacy was retained so that it remained exclusively Protestant. For a measure that could have little appreciable impact on the conduct of government, the price for overriding Ascendancy opposition was the dissolution of the Catholic Committee, a new government militia that conscripted Catholic and Protestant by lot , and

8712-614: The country of regular troops, provided the stimulus that brought the defaulters into line. By 1778 all English and Welsh counties had embodied their militias. Training of the disembodied militia took place over a period of several weeks each year, outside which officers and men would be largely free to pursue their civilian lives. When embodied, regiments would normally be quartered in public houses or barracks where available. Camps were also an option, and these were often sizeable affairs which brought troops together in large numbers for strategic and training purposes. Although overseas service

8833-618: The crucible of the Scottish Enlightenment . The Militia Act 1797 empowered the Lord Lieutenants of Scotland to raise and command militia regiments in each of the "Counties, Stewartries, Cities, and Places" under their jurisdiction. At first the Act was opposed due to some believing the militia ballot would be used to enable the Crown to remove men from Scotland. The earliest history of the Militia in Ireland dates to

8954-406: The deployment of guns captured in an ambush at Tubberneering , at Arklow on 9 June. The rebels fell back toward the south, meeting the survivors of New Ross and forming a camp of 16,000 on Vinegar Hill outside the town of Enniscorthy . There, on 21 June, they were surrounded, bombarded and routed by a force of 13,000 under General Lake. The remnants of the "Republic of Wexford" established

9075-457: The forty thousand men called for could not be mustered. Under Hoche, a force of 15,000 veteran troops was assembled at Brest . Sailing on 16 December, accompanied by Tone, the French arrived off the coast of Ireland at Bantry Bay on 22 December 1796. Unremitting storms prevented a landing. Tone remarked that "England [...] had its luckiest escape since the Armada ". The fleet returned home and

9196-506: The growing disorder in the south and midlands and arrest the Dublin leadership. Camden hesitated, partly as he feared a crackdown would itself provoke an insurrection: the British Home Secretary Lord Portland agreed, describing the proposals as "dangerous and inconvenient". The situation changed when an informer, Thomas Reynolds, produced Fitzgerald's report on manpower with its suggestion that over

9317-584: The invasion threat receded they diminished in numbers but remained a political force. On the outbreak of the French Revolutionary War In 1793, the Irish administration passed an effective Militia Act that created an official Irish Militia , while the paramilitary volunteers were essentially banned. The new Act was based on existing English precedents, with the men conscripted by ballot to fill county quotas (paid substitutes were permitted) and

9438-670: The late 17th century, while the Kingdom of Scotland was still an independent country sharing a monarch with England, there were calls for the resurrection of the country's militia, with the understated aim of protecting the rights of Scots in Great Britain. A historical account of the debate which followed on Fletcher's work is given in John Robertson's 1985 The Scottish Enlightenment and the Militia Issue . During

9559-417: The leadership in Ireland of a larger project. Beginning in 1796, United Irish agents had helped build networks of United Englishmen and United Scotsmen , societies whose proceedings, oath-taking, and advocacy of physical force "mirrored that of their Irish inspirators". Describing himself as an emissary of the United Irish executive, assisted by a tide of refugees from Ulster, and tapping into protest against

9680-544: The list was updated in 1855. The Londonderry Artillery Militia of 1855 was assigned the precedence of 21 among militia artillery units; this was carried over to the Mid-Ulster Artillery. When the Londonderry LI was converted to artillery in 1882 it received the precedence of 36, as one of the last such units formed. Most regiments took little notice of the numeral. Irish Militia Following

9801-581: The militia regiments becoming numbered battalions of their linked regiments. On 1 July 1881 the 27th and 108th Regiments became the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers , and the Londonderry Light Infantry became the 4th Battalion. However, in a change of policy, the Londonderry Light Infantry was instead converted to artillery the following year, The Royal Artillery was being reorganised in 1882, and 11 territorial divisions of garrison artillery were formed, each with

9922-530: The militia regiments were disembodied leaving only the permanent staff of non-commissioned officers (NCOs) and drummers under the regimental adjutant . However, the Peace of Amiens was short-lived and preparations to re-embody the militia begun in November 1802. Early in 1803 the regiments were ordered to begin re-enrolling former militiamen and new volunteers as well as using the ballot. The proclamation to embody

10043-587: The militia was issued on 15 March and carried out on 25 March. Anti-invasion preparations were now put in hand and the reconstituted militia regiments underwent training, although most were not considered well enough trained to go into camp during the summer of 1804. The light battalions were reformed in September 1803 but were discontinued in 1806. Over the following years the regiments carried out garrison duties at various towns across Ireland, attended summer training camps.They also provided volunteers to transfer to

10164-653: The new Irish militia regiments received their own table of precedence, in which County Londonderry came 16th. In 1833 King William IV drew the lots to determine an order of precedence for the whole of the United Kingdom. Those regiments raised before 1783 took the first 69 places, followed by the 60 regiments (including those in Ireland) raised for the French Revolutionary War: the Londonderry Militia took 95th place, and this remained unchanged when

10285-563: The north had begun recruiting entire Orange lodges , charged gatherings near Cootehill in Cavan killing eleven, and in Dundalk killing fourteen. Seeking to justify the suspension of habeas corpus in Britain, the authorities were quick to see the hand of both Irish and English radicals in the Spithead and Nore mutinies of April and May 1797. The United Irish were reportedly behind

10406-423: The officers having to meet certain property qualifications. County Londonderry was given a quota of 560 men to find, to be organised into a battalion of ten companies, and it was embodied for duty soon afterwards. The Hon Robert Stewart (Viscount Castlereagh from 1798), a member of the Parliament of Ireland was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel of the regiment. The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars saw

10527-687: The opportunity to strike was passing. The meeting broke up in disarray, with many of the Ulster delegates fleeing abroad. The authorities were sufficiently satisfied with the severity of their countermeasures in Ulster that in August they restored civil law in the province. The initiative passed to the Leinster directory which had recruited two radically disaffected members of the Patriot opposition: Lord Edward FitzGerald , who brought with him experience of

10648-572: The outer districts of the city nonetheless rose as planned and were swiftly followed by the surrounding counties. The first clashes of the rebellion took place just after dawn on 24 May in County Kildare . After the Munster mail coach was attacked on its approach to Naas on the night of the 23rd, a 1000 to 3,000 men approached the town. Their pikes could not prevail against grapeshot and steady musket fire. A garrison of less than 200 routed

10769-545: The peace, and in the event of a national emergency. It played a role in coastal defence during the second and third Anglo-Dutch Wars between 1665 and 1674, and contributed to the defeat of the Duke of Monmouth in 1685. The militia's usefulness as a military force, never great, declined thereafter, until by the middle of the 18th century it required a major overhaul. This was achieved by the Militia Acts 1757–1762, passed as

10890-551: The permanent staffs of militia regiments were progressively reduced. Lord Castlereagh (by then 2nd Marquess of Londonderry) remained colonel of the Londonderry Militia until his death by suicide in August 1822. Among the consequent promotions, Lt-Col Sir George Hill was promoted to colonel and Castlereagh's cousin Alexander Robert Stewart , MP for Londonderry, was commissioned as lieutenant-colonel in October that year. In 1839 Sir Robert Ferguson, 2nd Baronet became

11011-702: The point of view of the military, the insurrection in County Antrim ended on 9 June with the surrender of Ballymena (under an amnesty that spared it the fate of Randalstown , Templepatrick and Ballymoney—all set ablaze). A diminishing band under McCracken dispersed when, on the 14th, they received news of the decisive defeat of the Army of the Republic in County Down. Plans for a simultaneous rising in Down on

11132-543: The present Government, and to join the French as soon as they made a landing in England". In July 1797, the resolution of the United Britons was discussed by the leadership in Dublin and Belfast. Although addressed to the prospect of a French invasion, the suggestion that "England, Scotland and Ireland are all one people acting for one common cause", encouraged militants to believe that liberty could be won even if "the French should never come here". In early 1798,

11253-438: The promise of reform receded, and as French victories built hopes of military assistance, Catholic emancipation and parliamentary reform became a demand for universal manhood suffrage (every man a citizen), and hopes for accountable government were increasingly represented by the call for an Irish republic —terms that clearly anticipated a violent break with the Crown. Beginning with an obligation of each society to drill

11374-493: The rebels, with a small cavalry detachment cutting down over a hundred as they fled. Success did attend a smaller rebel force, commanded by John Esmonde , a Protestant physician who had deserted from the Yeomanry, later that day at Prosperous . The town was not to be re-occupied until after a rebel defeat at Ovidstown on 19 June, but a succession of rebel reversals further afield, including defeats at Carlow (25 May) and of

11495-468: The regular army by encouraging militia volunteers through the offer of bounties for enlistment. In 1802 peace with France led to the disembodying of the militia, which was embodied again in 1803, when hostilities resumed. Britain's increasing overseas troop commitments during the Napoleonic Wars resulted in growing pressure on recruitment for the militia, both for home defence and as a feeder for

11616-594: The reign of King Charles II but it was not until 1715 that the Irish Militia came under statutory authority. During the 18th Century there were various Volunteer Associations and unofficial militia units controlled by the landowners, concerned mainly with internal security. During the War of American Independence , the threat of invasion by the Americans' allies, France and Spain, appeared to be serious. While most of

11737-553: The representation of the people in parliament. The same resolution was carried by Tone's friends in Dublin where, reflecting a larger, more diverse, middle class, the Society united from the outset Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter. With the support and participation of United Irishmen, in December 1792 the Catholic Committee convened a national Catholic Convention. Elected on a broad, head-of-household, franchise,

11858-556: The resolution of the Nore mutineers to hand the fleet over to the French "as the only government that understands the Rights of Man". Much was made of Valentine Joyce, a leader at Spithead, described by Edmund Burke as a "seditious Belfast clubist". But no evidence emerges of a concerted United Irish plot to subvert the fleet. There had only been talk of seizing British warships as part of a general insurrection. The mutinies had paralysed

11979-512: The restoration of Charles II in 1660, Parliament passed several acts empowering the lord-lieutenant of each county to appoint officers and raise men for the English Militia . Although the king commanded the forces, they were not centrally funded. The burden of supplying men and equipment fell on property owners, in proportion to their income from land or their property value. The militia could be called out for local police actions, to keep

12100-697: The rising. Following the merger of Scotland into the new Kingdom of Great Britain, the British Militia Act 1757 did not apply in Scotland. There the traditional system continued, so that militia regiments existed in some places and not in others. This was resented by some, and the Militia Club, soon to become the Poker Club , was formed in Edinburgh to promote the raising of a Scottish militia. This and several other Edinburgh clubs became

12221-507: The south. In the north, it had included the Oakboys who, mobilising the aggrieved irrespective of religion, had in 1763 threatened to pursue fleeing Anglican rectors and tithe proctors into the city of Derry. There had also been the Hearts of Steel who, protesting land speculation and evictions, in 1770 entered Belfast, besieged the barracks, and sprung one of their number from prison. By

12342-533: The standard North Irish Division helmet plate and embroidered pouch, each with 'LONDONDERRY ARTILLERY' on the lower scroll. In 1907 the other ranks bore the brass titles 'RGA' over 'DONEGAL' on the shoulder straps of the khaki service dress. On the outbreak of the French Revolutionary War the English counties had drawn lots to determine the relative precedence of their militia regiments. In 1798

12463-671: The sub-districts were purely administrative organisations, but in a continuation of the Cardwell Reforms a mobilisation scheme began to appear in the Army List from December 1875. This assigned places in an order of battle to Militia units serving Regular units in an 'Active Army' and a 'Garrison Army'. The Londonderry Militia was assigned to the Garrison Army manning a range of small forts and posts across Ireland. The Childers Reforms took Cardwell's reforms further, with

12584-577: The task. In later exile, he was to claim that he might have made an attempt on Ireland (instead of sailing in May 1798 for Egypt) had he had confidence in Tone the other United Irish agents appearing in Paris. He describes them as divided in opinion and constantly quarrelling. These agents from Ireland included James Coigly . A Catholic priest who had been active in bringing Defenders into the movement in Ulster, Coigly sought to persuade both French Directory and

12705-522: The territory of Great Britain. However some militia regiments did volunteer for service in Ireland during the Rebellion of 1798 . Local opposition to the acts resulted in some counties being slow to implement them. Six counties – Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Staffordshire, Sussex and Worcestershire – were in default for many years, also defaulting on a large part of the fines imposed on them in consequence. The American Revolution , which drained

12826-743: The title was altered to Londonderry Artillery (Southern Division) RA . When the Second Boer War broke out in 1899 the militia were embodied to relieve the Regulars goung to South Africa. The Londonderry Artillery was embodied from 1 May to 3 October 1900. It did not serve overseas, but the Militia Reserve and individual volunteers did serve in South Africa. Sergeant A.W. Vyce of the Londonderry Artillery served as

12947-521: The way to the large bodies of Defenders known to exist in Kilkenny and Waterford. During and after the battle, government forces systematically killed captured and wounded rebels. On news of the defeat, rebels in the rear killed up to 200 loyalist prisoners (men, women and children): the notorious Scullabogue Barn massacre . Meanwhile, attempts to break northward and open a road through Wicklow toward Dublin were checked 1 June at Bunclody and, despite

13068-486: Was a popular insurrection against the British Crown in what was then the separate, but subordinate, Kingdom of Ireland . The main organising force was the Society of United Irishmen . First formed in Belfast by Presbyterians opposed to the landed Anglican establishment , the Society, despairing of reform, sought to secure a republic through a revolutionary union with the country's Catholic majority. The grievances of

13189-493: Was administered to artisans , journeymen and shopkeepers, many of whom had maintained their own Jacobin clubs, and to tenant farmers and their market-town allies who had organised against the Protestant gentry in secret fraternities. In rural Ireland, there was a "varied, energetic and complex structure of agrarian 'secret societies'", commonly referred to as Whiteboyism , after groups that had emerged mid-century in

13310-429: Was attached to the 2nd Light Battalion, stationed at Bandon, County Cork . The militia regiments were each issued with two light six-pounder 'battalion guns', with the gun detachments trained by the Royal Artillery . When the militiamen of 1793 reached the end of their four-year enlistment in 1797, most of the Irish regiments were able to maintain their numbers through re-enlistments (for a bounty). The Londonderry Militia

13431-555: Was augmented in July 1797 and its establishment now totalled 764 all ranks. The expected Irish Rebellion finally broke out in May 1798, and during its suppression the Londonderry Militia operated in Counties Dublin , Wicklow , Kildare , Carlow and Wexford . Most of the regiment was engaged at the battles of Gorey, The Curragh , New Ross , Arklow , Foulksmills , Blackmore Hill and Vinegar Hill . The Grenadier Company of

13552-687: Was effectively ended at Vinegar Hill, and although a small French invasion force landed in August and inflicted a defeat on the government troops at the Battle of Castlebar it was too late to have any real effect, and soon surrendered. There were still some disturbances in, such as in County Westmeath , where the Londonderry Militia joined the Bedfordshire and Worcestershire Militia and the Northumberland Fencibles in forming Maj-Gen Charles Barnett's brigade operating in

13673-428: Was excluded from the militia's duties, embodied regiments were usually required to serve away from their home counties, and were frequently moved from one station to another. This was intended to reduce the risk of the men sympathising with the populace if they were required to quell civil unrest. Pay and conditions were similar to those of the regular army, with the additional benefit of money for family dependants. Unlike

13794-403: Was for 56 days on enlistment, then for 21–28 days per year, during which the men received full army pay. Under the Act, Militia units could be embodied by Royal Proclamation for full-time home defence service in three circumstances: The 1852 Act introduced Artillery Militia units in addition to the traditional infantry regiments. Their role was to man coastal defences and fortifications, relieving

13915-548: Was hesitation to act without the certainty of French arms and assistance. In 1795, from American exile Tone had travelled to Paris where he sought to convince the French Directory that Ireland was the key to breaking Britain's maritime stranglehold. His "memorials" on the situation in Ireland came to the attention of Director Lazare Carnot , and by May, General Henri Clarke , the Irish-descendant head of

14036-586: Was officially amalgamated with the Armagh and Tyrone units to form the Mid-Ulster Artillery . Meanwhile, the infantry of the Londonderry Militia had been reformed as the Londonderry Light Infantry and embodied in January 1855 during the Crimean War , At first it was stationed at Londonderry, before moving to Enniskillen in the late summer. There it remained until after the waar was ended by

14157-461: Was quartered at Drogheda , with one company detached to Navan and one to Kilcullen Bridge . Anxiety about a possible French invasion grew during the autumn of 1796 and preparations were made for field operations. A large French expeditionary force appeared in Bantry Bay on 21 December and troops from all over Ireland were marched towards the threatened area. Soon afterwards news arrived that

14278-457: Was raised in Ballymena , and there were attacks on Larne , Glenarm , Carrickfergus , Toomebridge and Ballymoney . But by the following morning, before any coordination had been possible, those who turned out had begun to dump arms and disperse on news of McCracken defeat. Leading a body of four to six thousand, their commander had failed, with heavy losses, to seize Antrim Town . From

14399-440: Was restricted to Protestants between the ages of sixteen and sixty. In 1793, during the Napoleonic Wars , the Irish militia were reorganized by the Militia Act (Ireland) 1793 (33 Geo. 3. c. 22 (I)) to form thirty-eight county and city regiments. While officers of the reorganized force were all Protestants, membership of the other ranks was now opened up to members of all denominations, including Roman Catholics. The provisions of

14520-440: Was the most advanced there, this was partially driven by fears of a Dutch attack on Kinsale. Ormonde however in general wasn't hugely enthusiastic about the militia given the large number of Cromwellian settlers within it. As a result the militia was established on an ad-hoc basis and was only called out three times during the period in 1666, 1672 (renewal of war with Dutch) and 1678 ( Popish Plot - where they were used to disarm

14641-466: Was to seize strategic points in the city, while the armies in the surrounding counties would throw up a cordon and advance into its centre. As soon as these developments were signalled by halting mail coaches from the capital, the rest of the country was to rise. On the appointed day, the rising in the city was aborted. Fitzgerald had been mortally wounded on the 19th, the Sheares brothers were betrayed

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