Military History Society of Ireland

Taken in Kickham Barracks Clonmel in 1954.

Phoenix Park Royal Magazine Fort attack, the starting gun of Easter Rising 110 years ago this year

This year marks the 110th anniversary of the Easter Rising, a short-lived but momentous rebellion that began in the Phoenix Park and set in motion a chain of events that would lead to Irish Independence in 1922 !

A small number of boys of the IRB (Irish Republican Brotherhood) youth wing known as 'Na Fianna' made haste towards the Phoenix Park before noon on Easter Monday 1916. Their youth concealed their true intentions as they played football near the imposing 'Royal Magazine Fort' on St Thomas' Hill, which commanded the high ground above the Liffey to the south.

When the football landed over the parapet walls of the fort, the boys approached the formidable Duke of Dorset gate in seeming innocence to plead their guilt and seek its return !

What unfolded thereafter took the forts garrison by total surprise! The boys rushed the gate, overpowered the guards, grabbed whatever guns they could, and lit fuses for an explosion, which was to be the official start of the Easter Rising.

The number of guards on duty at the fort that day was limited, some attended the Races at Fairyhouse in Rathoath Co Meath. None of them, however would have believed what was to unfold in the Phoenix Park that Easter Monday.

The youthful Fianna made their escape with the stolen weapons, but while the fort was not destroyed, a symbolic fuse was lit among the Republicans of the day.

Just a short number of days would pass before the Rising which began with the attack on the Magazine Fort, ended when P.H. Pearse signed the surrender at the Royal Military Infirmary overlooking the People's Gardens, then at headquarters of British Military command.

The Magazine Fort has been restored by the OPW and is open for introductory guided tours this Spring. Tickets are currently limited and available via Eventbrite - search for 'Magazine Fort tour'

Text credit: T Brogan

Enquiries Tel 01 6770095

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MHSI Lecture: The Mons Star and the Royal Irish Regiment

On 27th February 2026, Comdt Larry Scallan will lecture on the above topic at 8.00pm in the Daniel O'Connell Block, Griffith College, South Circular Road, Dublin D08 E3WK.

Car parking is available in the College grounds and a good bus service operates to the College and nearby locations. The in-person lecture is open to members and non-members of the Society to attend. The lecture hall is wheelchair accessible.

In July 1914 the 2nd Royal Irish Regiment was stationed in Devonport, England. On 4th August mobilization for war was ordered. Reservists were recalled to the colours and were dispatched as reinforcement from Clonmel to the 2nd.

On the 13th August, the battalion sailed for France at full strength – 1,102 officers and men – to join the British Expeditionary Force. A few days later the advance into Belgium began and on the 23rd, the Royal Irish suffered their first casualties of the war – 20 killed, 62 wounded and 139 missing at Mons. During the next few months the regiment retreated before advancing again with frequent engagements with the Germans. The fiercest fighting came at Le Pilly from 16-19 October. The day before that battle, the 2nd Royal Irish numbered 20 officers and 884 men. When mustered on the 21st they had only one officer and 135 men. The others had been killed or captured at Le Pilly and the remnant of the battalion was withdrawn from the line.

In November 1917 the War Office authorised the 1914 Star, known colloquially as the Mons Star for award to officers and men of the British and Indian Expeditionary Forces who had served in France and Belgium between 5th August and the 22nd November 1914. Using the information on the medal cards for the officers and men of the Royal Irish who were awarded the Mons Star, Comdt. Scallan and his co-researcher Ms Mary Anne Maher have created a unique profile of the men of the regiment who fought in those bloody opening months of the First World War.

Comdt. (retired) Larry Scallan resigned from the Defence Forces in 2020 after just over thirty years’ service. Throughout his time in the army, he filled many appointments from rifleman to company commander to battalion logistics officer, predominantly with the 30th and the 3rd Infantry Battalions. He completed eight overseas deployments, including the Lebanon and Kosovo and one with a Nordic Battle Group. He also completed in-service training courses at the Defence Forces Training Centre, the CBRN specialist training centre in Warminster in the UK AND at the NATO Training School, Oberammergau, Germany.

His co-researcher on the ‘The Mons Star to the Royal Irish Regiment’ project is Ms MaryAnne Maher. Ms Maher’s interest in military history stems from two great granduncles who were killed in the Great War as well as 4 granduncles who were heavily involved in the 3rd Tipperary Brigade during the War of Independence, two of whom subsequently served in the National Army. She is currently secretary of the Royal Irish Regiment and South Irish Horse Association and was secretary of the Ballingarry WW1 Memorial committee who unveiled a memorial in the Co. Tipperary parish in August 2017.

Members who are unable to attend the lecture in-person may attend online using the Zoom platform link sent by email.

The lecture will be recorded and the recording may be made available for viewing by the general public at a future date.

Annual Membership Subscription:

Members are reminded that the annual membership subscription of €32 falls due on 1st January each year. If you have not already paid your current subscription or arrears we would encourage you to do so now by electronic transfer, if possible, or, failing that, by post.

The membership application form, which includes a request for a standing order and our banking details, can be found on our website www.mhsi.ie

Queries in relation to membership, including arrears, should be sent to [email protected].

General queries should be sent to [email protected]

Military History Society of Ireland
c/o UCD, Newman House, 86 St Stephen's Green, Dublin D02 CC99

The Military History Society of Ireland The Military History Society of Ireland

SSAFA - the British Armed Forces Charity, has notified the MHSI of an upcoming fundraising lecture at 11am on Thursday 26th February 2026. The lecture, entitled “Wellington and the Connaught Rangers in the Iberian Peninsula", will be delivered by Society member Marcus de la Poer Beresford.

The venue for the lecture is the Masonic Hall, Molesworth Street, Dublin 2. Tickets cost €25 and refreshments are included.
[email protected]

Connaught Rangers Association

Dr Pádraig Lenihan, will present a lecture: The Dark Legacy of Badajoz (1812): A Tale of Heroism and Horror, this Friday, 6th February at 8.00pm in the Daniel O'Connell Block, Griffith College, South Circular Road, Dublin D08 E3WK.

The siege and capture of Badajoz by Wellington’s army in March-April 1812 was a crucial but costly victory for the Anglo-Portuguese army. Almost 5,000 men from the attacking force of 27,000 were killed or wounded in a few short hours of intense fighting as the breach was stormed. What followed has left a stain on Wellington’s army. Enraged by the number of casualties that they had suffered, the victorious troops, fuelled by alcohol and a desire for revenge ran amok for three days, killing, ra**ng, and plundering the city in what Gavin Daly has called ‘situational fury’ brought about by ‘a volatile and dangerous mix of excitement, fear, rage, vengeance and euphoria’.
Among the units present were the two battalions of the Connaught Rangers, the 88th and 94th Regiments. In his monumental history of the Rangers, Lt-Col H. F. N. Jourdain could only comment that ‘no one however accused the 88th (or the 94th) of doing more than what everyone else did’.

Dr Padraig Lenihan lectured in history at the University of Galway before his retirement in 2024. A member of the Society of long-standing, he is editor of the Irish Sword. The study of Irish and European warfare in the period 1641-1748 forms the backbone of his research and writing.

Members who are unable to attend the lecture in-person may attend online using the Zoom platform. A recording may be made available for public viewing at a later date. also subject to Zoom’s Privacy Policy.

Annual Membership Subscription - Members are reminded that the annual membership subscription of €32 falls due on 1st January each year. If you have not already paid your current subscription or arrears we would encourage you to do so now. Queries in relation to membership, including arrears, should be sent to [email protected]. General queries to [email protected]
Connaught Rangers Association

This drawing by E. Fitzgerald is erroneously described by the Brown University Library as possibly a watercolor of an "infantryman (33rd or 76th Foot?) in red uniform and cocked hat, performing musket drill in palace hallway."

The university dates the drawing to c.1768.

Additional research suggests that this particular soldier, whose sword belt bears a brass plate engraved with a harp, is a member of a uniformed militia unit based in Ireland. It is also suspected that the painting may be closer to 1780 than 1768.

The image is currently located at the Brown University Library.