[5] The 94th were based in South Africa at the time of amalgamation; as the 2nd Battalion, it returned to Ireland the following year and sent a small detachment on the Nile Expedition in 1884 as Camel Mounted Infantry.

[6] The Rangers fought at Spion Kop in January 1900 and the Tugela Heights in February 1900 during further attempts by General Sir Redvers Buller to relieve the besieged town of Ladysmith.

[11] The 2nd Battalion landed at Boulogne-sur-Mer as part of the 5th Brigade in the 2nd Division with the British Expeditionary Force in August 1914 for service on the Western Front.

In turn, the 1st Battalion was redeployed to the Middle East in 1916, where it fought primarily in modern-day Iraq as part of the British Tigris Corps.

[11] In April 1916, during World War 1, in what became known as the Easter Rising, Irish Republican forces in Ireland launched an armed insurrection against the authority of the government of the United Kingdom, with the declared aim of establishing an Irish Republic wholly independent in its sovereign governance from the United Kingdom.

In response, the Connaught Rangers and other British Army units were deployed to fight against the paramilitary forces of the "Irish Volunteers".

[22] The Connaught Rangers Column reached Clonmel on 16 May 1916, searching further residences in the town and capturing another large number of rebels and their weapon-stocks.

This Column marched to Skibbereen on 16 May, and entering the town and fanning out through the surrounding area, succeeded in rounding up yet more rebels with their arms.

[23] This was part of a general policy aimed at minimizing the pressures of divided loyalties, by relocating serving Irish regiments during "the troubles".

[24] On 28 June 1920, four men from C Company of the 1st Battalion, based at Wellington Barracks, Jalandhar in the Punjab, protested against martial law in Ireland by refusing to obey orders.

One of them, Joe Hawes, had been on leave in Clare in October 1919 and had seen a hurling match prevented from happening by British forces with bayonets drawn.

[26] The protestors were soon joined by other Rangers, including several English soldiers, such as John Miranda from Liverpool and Sergeant Woods.

[30][31] Initially, the protests were peaceful with the men involved donning green, white and orange rosettes and singing Irish nationalist songs.

At Solon, however, on the evening of 1 July a party of about thirty men led by James Daly, carrying bayonets, attempted to seize their company's rifles,[32] stored in the armoury.

[36] Due to substantial defence cuts and the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922, it was decided that the six former Southern Ireland regiments would be disbanded,[2][37] including the Connaught Rangers.

[10] With the simultaneous outbreak of the Irish Civil War conflict some thousands of their ex-servicemen and officers contributed to expanding the Free State government's newly formed National Army.

[39] In 1966 a stained glass memorial window to the Connaught Rangers was included in the new Galway Cathedral, which renders honour to a regiment so long associated with that part of Ireland.

However, there is no contemporary record of the 88th receiving this sobriquet, and subsequent regimental histories and memoirs make no reference either to the nickname or its origins.