The Irish Volunteers. Source: The Graphic of 14 September 1878. Click on image to enlarge it.
Just a century ago the Old College Green became famous ns being the place of rendezvous for the then recently- formed Volunteers. The history of the formation of the Volunteer Force in Ireland, told briefly, is as follows The spirit of volunteering was occasioned by the appearance in 1760 of a small band of Frenchmen who landed at Carrickfcrgus and took the town. The people around Belfast flew to arms, and I-ord Charlcmont described them when mustered as being a very formidable body. They were drawn up in regular divisions, and eachhadits own chosen officers, nndformed in martial array. Some were armed with old firelocks, but the greater number with what is now known in Ireland as the pike and in Scotland as the Loch- aber axe. It resembles a scythe fixed longitudinally to the end of a long pole. The Government of the day seemed inclined, or compelled, to encourage the movement for Volunteering thus started, and they certainly seemed to have very little means at hand for repelling an invasion, for England’s armies were at that time fully occupied in America, so that it is not surprising that the Volunteers increased in numbers rapidly. On the 6th October, 1778, the first Regiment was formed in Dublin. The uniform was blue, with blue facings, edged with scarlet and brass buttons. The Duke of Leinster was elected Colonel, and became very popular. The great day of the year was the 4th of November, and on each anniversary of this date the various corps of the City and County of Dublin paraded on St. Stephen’s Green. The Force established a newspaper called The Volunteer's Journal, which upheld its motto, Libtrtas el Natale Solum, so well that its publisher was indicted for high treason. But the movement gained strength, and in the Irish House of Parliament, when in 1782 the Independence of Ireland was declared, a special vote of thanks was passed to the Volunteers, and it is recorded that on this occasion the streets from the Parliament House to the Castle were lined with Volunteers in uniform bearing arms. After peace had been declared, an attempt was made to disband the Force by tempting the men to join a new Association, par- taking of the character of a national militia, and called The Fcncible Regiment; but the attempt failed, and it was not till the Volunteers got disunited amongst themselves on the question of admitting Catholics to rights of election that the popularity of the force began to decline.
Bibliography
“Dublin Illustrated.” The Graphic (17 August 1878): 169-81. Internet Archive online version of a copy in the University of Illinois Library. Web. 14 August 2018.
Last modified 15 August 2018