Their role was to man coastal defences and fortifications, relieving the Royal Artillery (RA) for active service.

Kidd transferred from the Armagh Light Infantry Militia and assumed command of the new unit.

It was the smallest of the artillery militia units, with an establishment of three officers, one surgeon, 5 NCOs, one drummer and 75 gunners.

In 1874 the training returns showed that the unit had 206 men enrolled out of an establishment of 218, and the following year it formed the basis of the Mid-Ulster Artillery.

[9] The paymaster-serjeant was Bernard Kilkeary, a veteran of the 8th Frontier War and Indian Mutiny and a survivor of the Birkenhead disaster.

[13] Following the Cardwell Reforms a mobilisation scheme began to appear in the Army List from December 1875.

This assigned places in an order of battle of the 'Garrison Army' to Militia Artillery units: together with a number of other Irish units, the Mid-Ulster Artillery's war stations were a number of small forts and batteries, including Athlone, Belfast, Lough Swilly, Lough Foyle, Enniskillen, Kilkerrin, Tarbert, Carrig, Scattery Island, Limerick, Charles Fort, Kinsale and Waterford.

There were moves to reform the Auxiliary Forces (Militia, Yeomanry and Volunteers) to take their place in the six Army Corps proposed by St John Brodrick as Secretary of State for War.

[15][16] Under the sweeping Haldane Reforms of 1908, the Militia was replaced by the Special Reserve, a semi-professional force whose role was to provide reinforcement drafts for Regular units serving overseas in wartime.