Saffron kilt showdown

[macwilkin]

One person here gave the date as 1859, so that's 150 years ago, and I have seen a photo elsewhere dated 1870 of the Enniskillen Fusiliers wearing the saffron kilt, so the slightly earlier date doesn't seem a stretch atall.

Just a caveat to this statement: we haven't seen any definitive proof via primary sources of either date. Both Harris and Murphy's histories of the Irish Regiments seem to point to the adoption of the saffron kilt by pipers in Irish Regiments right around the turn of the century in the early 1900s. They have the sources, so until I see something from a documented source, this pednatic pedagogue remains skeptical of these dates. If anyone has an actual source (documentation preferred), I would love to see it -- I've been looking for sources on this tradition for years!

T.