The Irish Guards were formed on 1 April 1900 by order of Queen Victoria to commemorate the Irishmen who fought in the Second Boer War for the British Empire.

The 1st Battalion suffered huge casualties between 1–8 November holding the line against near defeat by German forces, while defending Klein Zillebeke.

The 1st Battalion took part in an action at Flers–Courcelette where they suffered severe casualties in the attack in the face of withering fire from the German machine-guns.

In 1918 the regiment fought in a number of engagements during the Second Battle of the Somme, including at Arras and Albert.

[11] During the Second World War, the regiment fought in Norway, France, North Africa, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands and Germany.

Following a challenging sea voyage to Norway, the 1st Battalion arrived in May 1940 and fought for two days at the town of Pothus before they were forced to retreat.

[13] In November 1942, Jean, Grand Duke of Luxembourg joined the British Army as a volunteer in the Irish Guards.

[14] In March 1943 the 1st Battalion landed, with the rest of the 24th Guards Brigade, in Tunisia, to fight in the final stages of the campaign in North Africa.

The battalion saw extensive action while fighting through Tunisia and was subsequently deployed to the Italian Front in December of that year.

On 29 August, the 3rd Battalion crossed the Seine and began the advance into Belgium with the rest of the Guards Armoured Division towards Brussels.

[19] Following the conclusion of Market Garden, the Irish Guards remained in the Netherlands until taking part in the Allied advance into Germany and seeing heavy action during the Rhineland Campaign with Guardsman Edward Charlton earning the final Victoria Cross to be awarded in the European theatre.

[22] The Irish Guards were one of the few regiments in the British Army initially exempt from service in Northern Ireland during The Troubles.

However, a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) bomb blasted a bus carrying members of the regiment band to Chelsea Barracks in October 1981.

[22] The Irish Guards were involved in the Balkans Conflicts when they were deployed to Macedonia and Kosovo in 1999 and were the first British unit to enter the Kosovan capital city of Pristina on 12 June.

The regiment played a significant role in the initial stages of the Iraq War as part of the 7th Armoured Brigade and they led the British advance into Basra in March 2003.

[30][31] In 2014 the entire regiment deployed to Cyprus to patrol the buffer zone as part of Operation Tosca 20.

However, the deployment rapidly changed in January 2020 with the escalation of the 2019–20 Persian Gulf crisis following the American strike on Major General Qasem Soleimani.

[37] Following the Integrated Review and after the Queen's Birthday Parade 2022, 1st Battalion took on the security force assistance role for 4 years.

[38] These are Numbers 9 and 12 Companies, taking on Irish Guardsmen fresh out of the Infantry Training Centre before the young soldiers progress to the 1st Battalion.

[43] A plume of St Patrick's blue was selected because blue is the colour of the mantle and sash of the Order of St Patrick, a chivalric order,[44] founded by George III of the United Kingdom for the Kingdom of Ireland in February 1783[45] from which the regiment also draws its cap star and motto.

[46] The Irish Guards pipers wear saffron kilts, green hose with saffron flashes and heavy black shoes known as brogues with no spats, a rifle green doublet with buttons in fours and a hat known as a caubeen.The regimental capstar is worn over the piper's right eye and is topped by a blue hackle.

[58] It is customary for the regiment to begin the day's celebrations with the Guardsmen being woken by their officers and served gunfire.

[60] In 1950 George VI marked the fiftieth anniversary of the formation of the Irish Guards by presenting the shamrocks on St Patrick's Day.