"18th Century Irish Soldiers" Topic

I would imagine that the average Irish recruit in the British army of the 18th century would have been Protestant but were Catholics accepted in large numbers as well? Seems like it would have been considered a good paying way out of an impoverished area for a young man at the time but wonder if the level of distrust on the part of the British establishment mirrored earlier centuries or not.

There was a lot of Illegal recruiting going on at the time; both for Britain and the Wild geese!

It was illegal for catholics to serve in the army before 1778 – though there may have been some bending of the rules as noted above.
After that it was open season – it is reported that one regiment at the Helder 1799 had six former rebels captured at Vinegar Hill amongst its ranks.

Very interesting. Thank you for the info gentlemen!

Irish recruits had to swear that they were Protestants, but I don't think anyone asked too closely. Ironically, the two Irish regiments – the 18th and 27th – were probably much more choosy than English or Scottish regiments due to their Masonic links if nothing else.

Early in the 18th Century, Irish Catholics were directed towards the Austro-Hungarian army (which was allied with Great Britain) to stop them serving the King's enemies, but large numbers made their way to Spain and France. Relations with officers of the Irish Brigade in French service seem to have been remarkably cordial (when they weren't killing each other).

As GT suggests, from 1778 (during which year the land elements of the Penal Laws were revoked), an attempt was made to draw on this large and previously untapped body. The burgeoning Catholic middle class, keen to prove its loyalty, was heavily involved in raising several regiments of foot in Ireland, with their R&F (and that of the country militias) increasingly being drawn from working class Catholics. During the AWI, a batch of Catholic recruits was sent to America, and the British general Paterson rants on (and on) about them, despising their poor physical appearance and lamenting that the only bad thing about them was that many of them deserted after being kitted out, rather than before. The fact that Paterson was a Lowland Scot is, IMO, significant – you generally don't find English officers talking about them in that way.

After the French Revolution, the British formed the "Brigade Catholique" to accommodate the former Irish Brigade officers and men who defected to avoid The Terror etc. There were at least two Irish regiments that were nicknamed "The Croppies" from the number of former Rebels in their ranks (I think the 87th, which captured an eagle at Barossa, was one of them). Wellington famously used Irish priests and monks in Spain as a key part of his intelligence system.

You are, as ever, a veritable fount of knowledge Super Max. Thanks for that!