co. ROSCOMMON HISTORICAL AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY JOURNAL THE CONNAUGHT RANGERS THE FIGHTING MEN OF ROSCOMMON Danny Tiernan, Chairperson Connaught Rangers' Association, Boyle Connaught Rangers in India, 1920 (Sgt. W.Tiernan, second from right, second row from front, author's grandfather) n the 1st "February 1793, shortly after the execution as a weekly income. If a soldier were married his wife would of King Louis XVI by the Revolutionary receive an income while he was away on service overseas. It OGovernment, France declared war on Great Britain must also be stated that they saw it as an adventure, a way to and Holland. The French army was unprepared for war. Her see the world or, at least, the Commonwealth countries. officers who had so gallantly served Louis XVI had resigned. Discipline was low and the number of serving soldiers had "In the 18th century the recruiting of young Irishmen into the decreased to one fifth of its strength (150,000). Britain had, military was common throughout the country. The recruiting following the Treaty of Versailles (1783), reduced the was carried out by agents who searched for volunteers to fight strength of her army to 44,000 officers and men. Britain had in foreign fields, countries like France and Spain used the ban hardly enough to garrison her overseas colonies. The urgent on Irishmen joining the British army to their advantage. Those need for recruits and more regiments to fill the gap, meant who left Ireland at that time and served in foreign armies never that recruitment campaigns were to be carried out through, returned, the penalty for serving in another force/army was out the empire. imprisonment. One of the first regiments to be raised was De Burgh's regiment After the Napoleonic wars the British parliament changed its in Connaught and numbered the 88th of foot on 25th laws to allow the Irish to join the army. It is believed that after September 1793. The following day the Scots Brigade num~ the lifting of the ban over 200,000 young men joined the army bered 94th of foot was also raised. Later under the Cardwell and thousands more served in the militia. The sight of young reforms these two regiments were to become the 1st and 2nd Irishmen in regular army uniform was normal after 1783. With Battalion. Connaught Rangers. We may ask what made the young men from Connaught join the British to fight in foreign a reduction in numbers of nearly 50% in fulltime service after fields. The answer lies in the economic state of the country at the defeat of Napoleon, the enlisted Irish represented over 40% that time. Young men living in towns or born with no chance of the total number serving in the British army. of inheriting property, from which an income would support a In 1750 there were 75 Army Barracks in Ireland, some of which family, or had no prospects of getting a trade/apprenticeship saw are still in use today. The Irish were allowed to have their own the army as a form of income. The army would give them a regiments (See map), this gave them a sense of camaraderie, trade such as Cook, Carpenter, Plumber or Shoemaker as well pride and, most important, of being Irish. Joining the army was 144 co. ROSCOMMON HISTORICAL AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY JOURNAL THE RECRUITING AREAS OF THE IRISH INFANTRY REGIMENTS KEY: No. 1 Royal Irish Regiment Tipperary, Aterford, Kilkenny, \Vexford (Depot Cion mel) No.2 Royal InniskiIling Fusiliers Donegal, Derry, Tyrone, Fermanagh (Depot Omagh) No.3 Royal Irish Rifles Antrim, Dowm, Belfast (Depot Belfast) No.4 Royal Irish Fusiliers Armagh, Monaghan, Cm'an, Louth (Depot Armagh Town) No.5 Connaught Rangers Galway, Roscommon, Mayo, Sligo, Leitrim (Depot Galway) No.6 Leinster Regiment Longford, Meath, \Vestmeath, Offaly, L10is (Depot Birr) No.7 Royal Munster Fusiliers Cork, Limerick, Kerry, Clare (Depto Tralee) No.8 Royal Dublin Fusiliers Dublin, Kildare, \Vicklow, C1rlow (Depot Naas) 146 co. ROSCOMMON HISTORICAL AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY JOURNAL as common in those days, prior to 1922, as going to work today. He lost his arm in the explosion that followed. So, by the start of the Great War, 1914-1918, there was an esti- The town of Elphin can boast of two V.C. winners, O'Connor mated 50,000 Irishmen serving in Irish-named regiments in the and Roddy. Roddy refused a bar to his V.C. in preference to pro- British Army. motion. Most of the young men who joined served in the Conn aught Rangers. At the end of the war 317 men who gave At the outbreak of World War One, many young men followed their Birth County as Roscommon were dead. Families suf- their friends and relatives into Irish regiments to fight for the fered, losing more than one son to the war effort. The freedom of small nations. The vision of a Home Rule govern- O'Callaghans, from Cloonbonnif, Castlerea, lost two sons, John ment, promised but postponed because of the outbreak of war, and Martin, and the four Wynne (Winne) brothers from Boyle or the calling for support from political leaders like Redmond left their widowed mother without a son, as all were killed. and Kettle, or organisations like the Ancient Order of Today, as we read in our papers of the war in Iraq, we remember Hibernians, drew many young men from every comer of Ireland the men of the First Battalion Connaught who fought the into the army. Roscommon men were also to answer the call Turkish Army on the same battlefields, then called and, to this end, over three thousand joined and served in the Mesopotamia, of Kut, Baghdad, Remalagh, Hanna, Armada Great War. Roscommon with two Barracks (Boyle in the and Basra. Of the 2000 men of the Connaught rangers who orth and Athlone in the South) had supplied young men to the army since Irishmen were allowed to join. Those who fought in Mesopotamia 305 were killed in action, 9 died in India and 7 were lost at sea. joined distinguished themselves with pride and bravery. Between 1854 and 1893 seven men from the County of But these proud brave men returned to a different Ireland in Ro common won the Victoria Cross (See photographs) and 1922 after the formation of the Free State and the disbandment many more won DSM and other titles. Pte. P. Conroy from of the Regiment. Many went on to join the new Irish Army and Boyle, one of five brothers who went to war, received a DSM or were involved in the training and formation of the new bravery on 6th February 1918. Battalions. Others joined the Anti-Treaty Forces and fought in the Civil War. But for all their differences these brave men "While in charge of a trench-mortar a misfire occurred, the fuse deserve to be remembered for the challenges and commitment beginning to bum while the shell was in the gun. He extracted the they gave to their regiments and families they left at home. A shell and attempted to throw it over the parapet. The shell fell back list of all those who died from the County of Roscommon can be into the gun pit. He picked it up and threw it clear, when it imme- seen in the "Room of Remembrance" in King House in Boyle. diatelyexploded." Drummer, Flinn, Thomas, Captain, Gore-Brown, Private Green, Patrick, Athlone, Indian Mutiny, Henry George, Newtown, Ballinasloe, 28 November 1857. One of the Roscommon. Indian Mutiny, Indian Mutiny, two youngest V.C. winners. 21 August 1857. 11 September 1857. Private Griffiths, William, Surgeon Lloyd, Owen Edward Sergeant O'Connor, Sir Luke, Ensign Roddy, Patrick, Roscommon, Andaman Islands, Pennyfather, Elphin, Indian Mutiny, Elphin, 17 December 1867 Co. Roscommon, Burma, 20 September 1854. Indian Mutiny, (No photograph available) 6 January 1893. First Army winner of v.c. 27 September 1858. 145.