The Clare Militia was an Irish Militia regiment from 1798 to 1909. It was based in County Clare (now in the Republic of Ireland). At first an infantry unit, it was converted to artillery in 1882, making it the last artillery militia unit raised in the British forces. It was disbanded in 1909.
Background Although there are scattered references to town guards in 1584, no organised militia existed in Ireland before 1660. After that date, some militia forces were organised in the reign of King Charles II but it was not until 1715 that the Irish Militia came under statutory authority. During the 18th Century there were various Volunteer Associations and unofficial militia units controlled by the landowners, concerned mainly with internal security. During the War of American Independence, the threat of invasion by the Americans' allies, France and Spain, appeared to be serious. While most of the Regular Army was fighting overseas, the coasts of England and Wales were defended by the embodied Militia, but Ireland had no equivalent force. The Parliament of Ireland passed a Militia Act, but this failed to create an effective force. However it opened the way for the paramilitary Irish Volunteers to fill the gap. The Volunteers were outside the control of either the parliament or the Dublin Castle administration. When the invasion threat receded they diminished in numbers but remained a political force. On the outbreak of the French Revolutionary War In 1793, the Irish administration passed an effective Militia Act that created an official Irish Militia, while the paramilitary volunteers were essentially banned. The new Act was based on existing English precedents, with the men conscripted by ballot to fill county quotas (paid substitutes were permitted) and the officers having to meet certain property qualifications.Hay, pp. 146–7.McAnally, pp. 1–31.Richey, pp. 3–6.
Clare Militia County Clare was given a quota of 356 men to find, to be organised into a battalion of six companies.McAnally, Appendix VI. However, there were anti-ballot riots in the county: two attempts to carry out the ballot at Tulla were met with opposition. Viscount Conyngham, who had been nominated to raise and command the regiment, gathered a force of volunteers and the opposition died away. The regiment was raised at Clarecastle, near the county town of Ennis, its headquarters thereafter remaining at Ennis throughout its existence. Many of the men enlisted were volunteers who were paid a bounty out of an insurance scheme contributed to by those liable to balloting.Frederick, pp. 983–5.Litchfield, pp. 54–5.Hay, p. 197Frederick, p. 166.McAnally, pp. 34, 42–3.
French Revolutionary War The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars saw the British and Irish militia embodied for a whole generation, becoming regiments of full-time professional soldiers (though restricted to service in Britain or Ireland respectively), which the regular army increasingly saw as a prime source of recruits. They served in coast defences, manned garrisons, guarded prisoners of war, and carried out internal security duties.Knight, pp. 78–9, 111, 255, 411. In Ireland the latter role assumed greater importance, with frequent armed clashes between militia detachments and the self-styled 'Defenders' in the 1790s.McAnally, pp. 83–4. By the end of August 1794 the regiment was stationed at Ballyshannon in County Donegal, with one company detached at Manorhamilton in County Leitrim.McAnally, Appendix III.
Anxiety about a possible French invasion grew during the autumn of 1796 and preparations were made for field operations. A large French expeditionary force appeared in Bantry Bay on 21 December and troops from all over Ireland were marched towards the threatened area. However, the French fleet was scattered by winter storms, several ships being wrecked, and none of the French troops succeeded in landing; there was no sign of a rising by the United Irishmen. The invasion was called off on 29 December, and the troop concentration was dispersed in early 1797.McAnally, pp. 96–102.
Early in 1797 the light companies of the militia were detached to join composite battalions drawn from several militia regiments. The Clare contingent was attached to 4th Light Battalion, stationed at Loughlinstown. The militia regiments were each issued with two light six-pounder 'battalion guns', with the gun detachments trained by the Royal Artillery. When the militiamen of 1793 reached the end of their four-year enlistment in 1797, most of the Irish regiments were able to maintain their numbers through re-enlistments (for a bounty). The Clare Militia was augmented in July 1797 and its establishment now totalled 460 all ranks.McAnally, pp. 102–9, 121–6.Richey, pp. 18–9; Appendices IV & V. Conygham appears to have given up the command of the Clare Militia in 1797, because his twin brother the Hon Francis Nathaniel Burton was appointed colonel on 27 October.War Office, 1805 List.
Irish Rebellion The expected Irish Rebellion finally broke out in May 1798. The Light Company with 4th Light Battalion was present at the battles of New Ross on 5 June, after which Major Vandeleur of the regiment (probably John Ormsby Vandeleur, Member of Parliament for Ennis) was Mentioned in dispatches by Major-General Henry Johnson. The 4th Light Battalion was also present at the Vinegar Hill on 21 June.McAnnaly, Appendix VIII.London Gazette, 9 June 1798
The rebellion was effectively ended at Vinegar Hill, and although a small French invasion force landed in August and inflicted a defeat on the government troops at the Battle of Castlebar it was too late to have any real effect, and soon surrendered. By that time the Clare Militia had resumed recruiting heavily.McAnally, p. 121. After the rebellion the Irish Militia settled down to garrison duty once more. While stationed at Londonderry the band of the Clare Militia entertained the local people with Sunday concerts.McAnally, p. 165.
By the end of 1801 peace negotiations with the French were progressing and recruiting and re-enlistment for the Irish Militia was stopped in October. The men received the new clothing they were due on 25 December, but the Treaty of Amiens was signed in March 1802 and the regiments were disembodied over the next two months, leaving only the permanent staffs of non-commissioned officers (NCOs) and drummers under the regimental adjutant.McAnally, pp. 164–72.
Napoleonic Wars However, the Peace of Amiens was short-lived and preparations to re-embody the militia begun in November 1802. Early in 1803 the regiments were ordered to begin re-enrolling former militiamen and new volunteers as well as using the ballot. The proclamation to embody the militia was issued on 15 March and carried out on 25 March.McAnally, pp. 172–8.
Anti-invasion preparations were now put in hand and the reconstituted militia regiments underwent training, although most were not considered well enough trained to go into camp during the summer of 1804. The light battalions were reformed in September 1803 but were discontinued in 1806. Over the following years the regiments carried out garrison duties at various towns across Ireland, attended summer training camps.They also provided volunteers to transfer to the Regular Army. In 1805 the militia establishment was raised to allow for this.McAnally, pp. 179–94, 216.
An 'Interchange Act' was passed in July 1811 permitting British and Irish militia units to volunteer for service across the Irish Sea. By the end of July 34 out of 38 Irish militia regiments had volunteered for this service, including the Clare Militia. The Clare, Louth and Mayo militia regiments boarded transport ships but were unable to leave Dublin Bay for some time because of contrary wind, and then the convoy was driven by a storm into Milford Haven with some damage. Furthermore, contagious fever broke out among the men in the ships, and they were put in quarantine when the first landed. Over the following months the Clare Militia were successively stationed at Ipswich, Woodbridge, Harwich, Horsham, Brighton, Chichester, Haslar and Gosport. The Irish Militia regiments returned home during 1813.McAnally, pp. 246–8.Sleigh, p. 131. The war ended in 1814 with the abdication of Napoleon in April. Militia recruiting was halted and the regiments could be progressively disembodied.McAnally, p. 256.
Napoleon escaped from Elba in 1815 and the Irish Militia were called out again on 26 June as the bulk of the regular army crossed to the Continent for the short Waterloo campaign and occupation duties in its aftermath. There were some disturbances in. Ireland during this period, but these had died down by February 1816 and the militia could be gradually reduced. The last regiments had been disembodied by the end of April 1816.McAnnally, pp. 26–4.
Long Peace After Waterloo there was a long peace. Although officers continued to be commissioned into the militia and ballots might still be held, the regiments were rarely assembled for training and the permanent staffs of militia regiments were progressively reduced.Hay, p. 154.McAnally, p. 264. Francis Conyngham, Earl of Mount Charles, later 2nd Marquess Conyngham, was appointed Lt-Col of the Clare Militia on 28 December 1825. At the time he was a half-pay captain, having served in several cavalry regiments, and was the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.) William Vesey-FitzGerald, 2nd Baron FitzGerald and Vesey, who had been a major in the regiment since 1805 and was Lord Lieutenant of Clare, was promoted to colonel of the regiment in 1832.Vesey-FitzGerald at History of Parliament Online. After FitzGerald's death on 11 May 1843, Crofton Moore Vandeleur (probably the son of the Maj Vandeleur who distinguished himself at New Ross) was appointed colonel in succession on 24 June 1843.Hart's, various dates.
1852 Reforms The United Kingdom Militia was revived by the Militia Act 1852, enacted during a period of international tension. As before, units were raised and administered on a county basis, and filled by voluntary enlistment (although conscription by means of the Militia Ballot might be used if the counties failed to meet their quotas). Training was for 56 days on enlistment, then for 21–28 days per year, during which the men received full army pay. Under the Act, Militia units could be embodied by Royal Proclamation for full-time home defence service in three circumstances:Litchfield, pp. 1–7.Dunlop, pp. 42–5.Grierson, pp. 27–8.Spiers, Army & Society, pp. 91–2. 'Whenever a state of war exists between Her Majesty and any foreign power'. 'In all cases of invasion or upon imminent danger thereof'. 'In all cases of rebellion or insurrection'.
Crimean War The outbreak of the Crimean War in 1854 and the despatch of an expeditionary force led to the militia being called out for home defence. The Clare Militia was reformed and embodied by early March 1855.Edinburgh Gazette, 6 March 1855. It remained at Clarecastle until it moved to the Curragh outside Dublin during the autumn.Edinburgh Gazette, 2 October 1855. In December it went to Newport.Edinburgh Gazette, 8 January 1856. The war ended with the Treaty of Paris on 30 March, and the militia were stood down at the end of May.Edinburgh Gazette, 6 May 1856.
The militia now settled into a routine of annual training (though there was no training for the Irish Militia from 1866 to 1870 at the time of the Fenian crisis). The militia regiments now had a large cadre of permanent staff (about 30) and a number of the officers were former Regulars. Around a third of the recruits and many young officers went on to join the Regular Army. The Militia Reserve introduced in 1867 consisted of present and former militiamen who undertook to serve overseas in case of war.Army List, various dates.Spiers, pp. 195–6.
Cardwell and Childers Reforms