The Liverpool Irish is a unit of the British Territorial Army, raised as infantry in 1860 and transferred to the Royal Artillery as an anti-aircraft regiment in 1947. The Liverpool Irish has since reduced to "A" Troop, in 208 (3rd West Lancashire) Battery, 103rd (Lancashire Artillery Volunteers) Regiment. The regiment provides individual reinforcements to regular artillery regiments equipped with the AS-90 and L118.[1]
Liverpool's large Irish community formed the 64th Lancashire Rifle Volunteer Corps on 25 April 1860, one of many volunteer corps raised in Lancashire during a period of heightened tension with France.[2] The corps (later renumbered the 18th) was briefly incorporated into the 2nd Administrative Battalion, which was formed to organise other volunteer corps in the county.[3] The 64th formally became the "Liverpool Irish" Rifle Volunteer Corps in 1864.[4]
Under the localisation scheme implemented during the Cardwell-Childers reforms of the British Armed Forces, the Liverpool Irish became the 5th (Irish) Volunteer Battalion of the King's (Liverpool Regiment).