Royal Ulster Rifles ( I need your help )

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The Royal Irish Rifles (became the Royal Ulster Rifles from 1 January 1921) was an infantry rifle regiment of the British Army, first created in 1881 by the amalgamation of the 83rd (County of Dublin) Regiment of Foot and the 86th (Royal County Down) Regiment of Foot. The regiment saw service in the Second Boer War, the First World War, the Second World War, and the Korean War.
In 1968 the Royal Ulster Rifles was amalgamated with the other regiments of the North Irish Brigade, the Royal Irish Fusiliers (Princess Victoria's), and the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers to create the Royal Irish Rangers.

[@bugler75]

Hi, great wee video. My family all served in the Royal Irish Rifles, later Royal Ulster Rifles. The London Irish Rifles were a Territorial Army Regiment. Their Permanent Staff Instructors came from the Royal Irish/Ulster Rifles. The LIR (who were the first to wear a Caubeen in the late 19th Century) wore their caubeen and cap badge opposite to the rest of the Army as the original Caubeen s were much larger and it blocked being able to use rifle sights. When the Irish Guards were formed in 1900 their Pipers were trained by the LIR and to this day Irish Guards Pipers still were their Caubeen with the cap badge over the right eye. In WW2, the 2nd Bn RUR wore the GS Cap with the badge over the right eye too. The black square was simply there because as a Rifle Regiment their traditional colours were black and rifle green. The Caubeen here is green not because they’re Irish but because of this rifle regiment tradition. The two Fusilier Regiments wore hackles because this was a mark of a Fusilier Regiment. As you say, the Pipers wore a black hackle from around 1948 whilst in Piper’s Dress. The Royal Irish Rifles (later Ulster Rifles) always had a Regimental Band and Bugles (the tradition of a Rifle Regiment). Unofficially they had Pipes and Drums too but their equipment and uniforms were paid for by the Officers Mess subscriptions. The RUR didn’t officially have Pipes and Drums until 1948 paid for by the Army. The Drummers did not wear a hackle at this point and The Buglers wore a Bugler’s rifle cap(sometimes called a busby although this isn’t technically correct). The black hackle for the RUR came in to being in 1948 when the British Army formed Brigade Structures for administration purposes. For the three Irish Line Regiments this was known as the North Irish Brigade. Each retained their own coloured Caubeen (The Inniskillings wore a blue Caubeen with a grey hackle and a red isocèles triangle point up behind the cap badge. The Irish Fusilers wore a green Caubeen and green hackle with a light green triangle with a rounded base , point down. These triangles were Brigade ID patches from the Great War). The 2nd Bn RUR was amalgamated into the 1st Bn who were still wearing the maroon airborne beret as you described as they came under operational control of the 6th Airborne Brigade. They left the Airborne Brigade just before going to Korea in 1950. At this point they were still not wearing the black hackle except the Pipers (quite clearly seen on news footage from Korea and in a painting of RUR mortars in action at the Imjin River). On return from Korea all ranks adopted the black hackle. Note too that Bandsmen, Pipers and Drummers wore a double sized North Irish Brigade badge on their Caubeen. On change of monarchy (as you know) the crown on badges, buttons, Colours etc changes too. However, when Queen Elizabeth ascended the UK throne the RUR were supposed to wear the NI Brigade badge so in the time of the RUR no Queen’s Crown badges were produced. They were produced after the Royal Irish Rangers were formed as the Pipers wore them on their kilts. Officially they were supposed to wear the cap badge of the North Irish Brigade but in practice, at individual Battalion locations, they’d continue to wear the RUR badge. I’m not sure if this was officially allowed at a higher level and they used up old stock or what. I will ask around though. The NI Brigade badge was very similar to the RUR badge anyway but said North Irish Brigade instead of Quis Seperabit and had the Queen’s Crown. So! 😁 Your Caubeen is likely post Korea. The black backing is entirely correct . Can I ask what material the Caubeen is? Is it a nice brushed type or a serge type? Is there a lining? If so is it padded with stitching on it or a plain cotton with a layer between the lining and the Caubeen itself? Is there any label! Are their ventilation holes? With this information I can be Lee specific with the date😊 There’s a lot there. There’s even more peculiarities too! Please feel free to ask me to clarify anything or for any other questions. Quis Seperabit ? Ian

[@historicmilitaria1944]

The regiment had no band till 1947 when the hackle was introduced to keep them in line with other fusilier regiments

[@WilliamSiner-lg7rx]

I was National Service with 1RUR from Jan 1960 to Jan 1962 we wore the Black Hackle during this time, the badge was directly over the left eye and not to the side of the head. During this time, the badge changed to a stay bright with the insignia.changed from Quis Separabit to North Irish Brigade, I hope this has been of some help. Rfn W Siner

[@steelhelmetstan7305]

Sorry m8, it's an area I know nothing about.....as well as most other areas of my knowledge 😅😅😅😮😅😅😅