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Cross belts worn by Rifle regiments have a number of silver fittings that show the history of the Regiment. The symbol of the Sphinx is in recognition of the Regiment's antecedent regiment's role during the Napoleonic Wars in Egypt during 1801. The harp and shamrock show the regiment's Irish lineage.
Following a referendum in November 1804, Napoleon was elected as Emperor of the French. His coronation ceremony was performed at Norte Dame cathedral in the presence of Pope Pius VII on 2 December 1804. Napoleon had travelled to the ceremony wearing a golden laurel wreath reminiscent of the Caesars, and at the moment of consecration symbolically lowered the crown to, but not onto, his own head and then placed it on his consort Josephine’s head and she became Empress of France.
Napoleon Bonaparte, imprisoned aboard HMS Northumberland for several months, finally arrived ashore at Jamestown quay, St Helena to begin his permanent exile until death some six years later.
Napoleon entered Paris and thus began his 'One Hundred Days' that ended after the Battle of Waterloo and the second restoration of King Louis XVIII on 8 July 1815.
On 26 February 1815, when the British and French guard ships were absent, Napoleon Bonaparte escaped from Portoferraio, Elba, on board the brig Inconstant and so began the Hundred Days of Napoleon.
The events were recorded by the Captain of HMS Bellerophon, Sir Frederick Lewis Maitland:
The Napoleonic Wars from 1803-1815 was a series of conflicts fought by the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon, against European powers formed into various coalitions. The Napoleonic Wars included the War of the Third Coalition (1805), the War of the Fourth Coalition (1806-07), the War of the Fifth Coalition (1809), the War of the Sixth Coalition (1813), and the War of the Seventh Coalition (1815). The Wars were concluded by the Treaty of Paris signed on 20 November 1815.
On 7 October 2001, US and British armed forces had invaded Afghanistan to oust the Taliban regime which harboured al-Qaeda. Operation HERRICK was the codename for all British military operations in Afghanistan in support of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and the US-led Operation ENDURING FREEDOM.
Operation HERRICK ended in October 2014 when British operations ceased in Afghanistan following NATO officially declaring an end to its 13-year long combat role in Afghanistan.
Following the Battle of Neuve Chapelle from 10-13 March 1915, the actual village of Neuve Chapelle was finally in British hands on 17 March 1915, after severe follow-on fighting and heavy casualties by several Irish regiments in the 27th Division. An Irish sergeant of this Division wrote this song which is sung to the tune of “The Rambling Irishman”
For when we landed in Belgium the girls all danced with joy;
Says one unto the other, ‘Here comes an Irish Boy’
Then it’s fare thee well mother dear, we’ll do the best we can
For you know that Neuve Chapelle was won by an Irishman
The Duke of Abercorn presented a Stand of Colours to the 6th Battalion The Ulster Defence Regiment at St Lucia Barracks, Omagh.
