The Cape Town Irish Volunteer Rifles was a volunteer part-time military unit, which existed for a few years in late Victorian South Africa.
It formed in Cape Town in 1885, in response to fears of a war between the United Kingdom and Russia (the Cape Town Highlanders formed at the same time for the same reason).
Thomas O'Reilly, a Irish-born Cape politician, commanded it.
Never a large unit, its greatest strength, in 1888, was only 214 (all ranks).
This South African military article is a stub.