THE 18th ROYAL IRISH.

Auckland Star, Volume LII, Issue 157, 4 July 1921, Page 6

THE 18th ROYAL IRISH.

VETERANS OF OTHER DAYS,

CELEBRATION. OF LANDING.

Wrapped in their great coats, and' with the same enthusiasm of previous years, a tidy number of members of the 18th Royal Irish Regiment, who landed here on July 4, 1863, met in Albert Park this morning and in the drizzling rain celebrated the 58th aniversary of the occasion. There were none in the uniform in which they went to war so long ago, but they carried on their chests the medals of the many battles in which they fought and helped to make history. In their soldierly bearing none of them appeared to be their age, and a number of young people, some heroe3 of the recent war, were surprised to learn that of the 30 of the old regiment still in this country, not one is under SO years of age. It was appropriate that they should meet alongside Queen Victoria's statue and close to the old guns—which long since have ceased to boom, and stand like sentinels in the triangle of the park with the more modern smaller gun, several of which were captured by our boys from the Germans during the recent war. After hand-shaking and fraternising the old brigade filed into line' under Colour-Sergeant Forsythe. The Mayor. Mr. J. H. Ounson. addressed the old "soldiers and later on in the day they were his g-uests at luncheon. The original force which landed in New Zealand was 1,000 strong, and went straight to the Waikato, where it engaged in some of the hardest fighting experienced during the Maori War.