thout being wounded. The
Germans lost heavily; so did we. I was in a ward with the Germans, and
they told me they were glad they got wounded, for they would have to
be killed anyway."

Rifleman Sharkey, who was wounded, and is in hospital at Netley,
writes:--"We got a bad cutting-up, and lost our beloved Colonel and
adjutant and the two officers of our company."

("_Morning Post_," _September 20th, 1916._)

THE ROYAL IRISH RIFLES.

ULSTER GALLANTRY.

(_From a Military Correspondent._)

"Well done; very well done indeed." Such was the remark of a General
standing at a Ginchy debris heap as the Irish battalions moved past
him on the way to a rest point in the captured line. The numbering of
the platoons did not reach the morning's total, but the men had
conquered, and they bore aloft the trophies of the battle, helmets and
such like, which they waved at the General. All had contributed to the
joy of Ireland from Cork to Derry, Ulsterman and Nationalist, and the
Royal Irish Rifles had made Belfast glad.

Colonel Fitch raised the regiment in Dublin six score years ago, and
the Army of that time called them "Fitch's Grenadiers," because the
men were small of stature. When they fought they were as giants, and
later on the good physique of the men and their hardy endurance earned
them the name of the "Irish Giants." One branch of the regiment was
raised in County Down, and to-day the name is perpetuated in the 4th
and 5th Battalions, which are known as the Royal Down Militia, despite
official changes of designation; and as a further link with the past
the depot is in Belfast and the Record Office in Dublin.

When mobilization was ordered, one battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles
was scorching under the sun at Aden, and the other was at Tidworth, on
Salisbury Plain. The former were to take over the barracks of the
latter, which unit was to commence at Malta, in the Winter of 1914,
and a tour of service abroad. The latter, however, went out with their
Tidworth comrades. It would be covering very old ground to repeat what
magnificent work was done in the Great Retreat, when the Royal Irish
Rifles showed themselves possessed of the grit which had characterised
them at Stormberg, where the writer witnessed them scaling the face of
a cliff of rock to get at the Boers, who had ambushed Gatacre's
force--an unforgettable and heroic sight. In the retreat towards Paris
and the advance to the Aisne Lieutenant-Colonel W.D.