help identifying uniform in photo

[vito321]

this is a photo found in grandfathers collection trying to identify uniform and a date if possible appears to have been taken in dublin?
Thanks for any information that migh help identify it.
have posted back and front of photo.

[vito321]

here is photo

[PrueM]

Hi vito 

I can't help with the uniform, but I can tell you that the card back is a standard design used by a lot of photographers - it's by Spicer Bros, London. This is an 1884 design but mostly used about 1888, and the last one I have seen dates from 1892 (from Roger Vaughan's website http://www.cartes.freeuk.com/time/back85.htm )

[vito321]

thanks that helps home in on a date.

[km1971]

Nice photograph. The only discernable thing is that the name of the regiment is quite long judging by the shoulder title. If you have a scanner that has pre-scan you could try copying just his right collar badge at the highest resolution setting. Keeping it as colour will add depth to the scan. If your scanner doesn't have pre-scan you could do the whole thing at a high setting, then 'cut' the collar badge using something like Paint, then 'paste' it into a new file.

The picture 'looks' end of the 1800s/early 1890s. If you can get to Kew you can look for his papers - http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/militaryhistory/army/step4.htm. These are in alphabetical order so you can search for a short list of surnames. Each search should only take about 20 minutes, as long as it is not a very common name.

Ken

[vito321]

Did try the scan at high detail but quality not much better I thought the collar badge might have been a royal irish rifles badge? anybody think it is or if rest of uniform is typical of a royal irish rofles uniform in 1890ish.

Thanks

[Old Warrior]

Hi everyone,

This is my first post here so I'd better make a wish !

The photograph was taken in Inchicore Dublin?

The mearest Barracks to Inchicore would have ben Islandbridge Barracks later known as Clancy Barracks and now being redeveloped having been sold by the DoD to a property developer in the last year or so. From defence.ie:

CLANCY BARRACKS
Clancy Barracks, formerly known as Islandbridge Barracks, dates from about 1857. It is sited on the south bank of the river Liffey and close to one of the most westerly of Dublin city's bridges, Islandbridge, formerly known as Sarah Bridge. The barracks has had a long association with artillery, cavalry, and ordnance.
 The barracks was taken over by the Irish Army on the 15th December 1922 when a rifle company commanded by Captain Condon was sent to take over Islandbridge Barracks. In that Company was Captain Robert Fitzgerald who was the first Officer Commanding.
 It was renamed Clancy Barracks in 1942 after Peader Clancy, a County Clare man killed during the War of Independence in 1920.
 The barracks has been associated with various military events including the Crimean War, the Boer War, World War 1, and the 1916 rising.

As far as I know, the Queens Dragoon Guards were based there around 1870, but regiments in those days would have changed around in Irish Barracks every few years. There is a picture of an Adjutants Parade at the Barracks at http://www.qdg.org.uk/shop/qdg.php/products_id/664?osCsid=1c23fff685a4197800b37f799c6525f0 .

Hope this helps !

[neil1821]

I don't think the photo shows the uniform of the Royal Irish Rifles or any other specifically Irish regiment I'm afraid, based on facing colours. 
In the photo, the collar is a light colour (probably white? but maybe yellow, buff or something else light).

However, the facing colours of Irish regiments at the time:
Royal Irish Regiment - dark blue
Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers - dark blue
Royal Irish Rifles - dark green (rifle green?)
Royal Irish Fusiliers - dark blue
Connaught Rangers - green
Leinster Regiment - blue
Royal Munster Fusiliers - dark blue
Royal Dublin Fusiliers - green

[scrimnet]

I was going to say that just because the barracks are in Dublin (perhaps...just where the photographer was based....perhaps he was peripatetic!) don't suppose that the parent regt is an Irish one....

Horseshoe shoulder titles were quite common prior to 1902, here is a close up of one of mine...



Also, the Northamptons (both battalions) were in Ireland at the right time , and the facings are the right colour!!!