Raising of Granard's Regiment - The Royal Irish Regiment

This certificate presented to Sergeant Patrick Browne on disbandment of The Royal Irish Regiment (18th of Foot) was signed by the Commanding Officer of the 2nd Battalion.

The Regiment's origins lie within the eighty independent companies of pikemen and musketeers existing as part of the military establishment in Ireland prior to 1684. Some of the companies (and troops of horse) had served Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth and when King Charles II was restored to the throne in 1660 he disbanded the Army of the Commonwealth in England but left the establishment in Ireland little changed. The only alteration was the formation of a foot guard known as The Royal Regiment of Ireland.

When, towards the end of his reign, King Charles II reorganised the military in Ireland into three cavalry and seven infantry regiments, he granted the commission of Colonel of one of the new regiments to Sir Arthur Forbes, Earl of Granard, who later fought for King William and commanded one wing of his army that reduced Sligo and other towns. It was successively known as Granard's, Forbes' (Granard's son), Meath's, Hamilton's, the Royal Regiment of Foot of Ireland, The 18th Regiment of Foot and finally, in 1881, The Royal Irish Regiment. Its seniority had been determined when it was placed on the English establishment (1688) and led to it being ranked as the 18th of the line, junior to the eleven regiments that were raised between 1685 and 1688.

The Royal Irish Regiment was disbanded in 1922 on the partition of Ireland and the establishment of the Irish Free State in which lay its traditional recruiting ground and Regimental Depot at Clonmel.