Saffron Kilt and Irish Regiment of Canada

[macwilkin]

Hi,
incidentally the Irish Guards pipers wear a saffron kilt as do the pipers of The Royal Irish Regiment and those of the London Irish Rifles - whose march is also Garryowen* (which is about an 18th century drinking club of well appointed chaps in Limerick). Slainte.

* It was a very popular song during the Victorian era and it probably got into the 7th Cav. via the various Irish members, particularly Miles Keogh an Irish born officer who, I think, served previously with the British Army.

Myles Keogh served with the Papal Army in the 1860s. The myth of Keogh's service may stem from the Errol Flynn movie They Died With Their Boots On, where a fictional ex-British Officer, "Queens Own Butler", teaches Custer the song in an officer's mess at Ft. Abraham Lincoln. Butler mentions the 5th Royal Irish Lancers. Butler is believed to be a composite of Keogh and W.W. Cook, who was a Canadian.

T.