The Cape Town Irish Volunteer Rifles was a volunteer part-time military unit, which existed for a few years in late Victorian

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. It formed in

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

in 1885, in response to fears of a war between the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

and

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

(the

Cape Town Highlanders The Cape Town Highlanders is a reserve mechanised infantry regiment of the South African Army. History Origins Descendants of Scotland, Scottish immigrants to South Africa raised the Cape Town Highlanders in 1885. On 24 April of the same year, ...

formed at the same time for the same reason). Thomas O'Reilly, an Irish-born Cape politician, commanded it. Never a large unit, its greatest strength, in 1888, was only 214 (all ranks). In 1891 it was absorbed by the Duke of Edinburgh's Own Volunteer Rifles.

References

*Monick, S. ''Shamrock and Springbok'' (1989) Infantry regiments of South Africa Defunct Irish regiments of the British Army Military units and formations established in 1885 Military units and formations of the British Empire 1885 establishments in the Cape Colony {{SouthAfrica-mil-stub