Band of the Royal Irish Regiment

The Royal Irish Rangers Band was established in 1968. It took part in the Edinburgh Military Tattoo in 1979.[3] On 12 January 1991, all 19 members of the band led by bandmaster WO1 Clarke were deployed to a transit camp in Saudi Arabia where they joined a unit of the Royal Marines in Operation Desert Storm. On 19 January the Band undertook a twelve-hour move towards the border with Iraq to reinforce the 32 Field Hospital, a unit consisting of 600 Military personnel of the British Armed Forces. On St Patrick’s Day a parade was led by the band at the hospital.[4]

Each battalion of the Ulster Defence Regiment had a section of professional bagpipers who were part of a formally pipe band (called the Pipes & Drums of the Ulster Defence Regiment).[5] In June 1986, the regiment held a two-day military tattoo at Ravenhill rugby ground in Belfast.[6] It attracted 12,000 residents of the city and the performance of a Beating Retreat by the Pipes and Drums and the Band of the Duke of Edinburgh's Royal Regiment and the Royal Ulster Constabulary Band.[6] The only UDR recording ever publicly released was the 5 UDR Pipes & Drums performing "Irish & Scottish Pipe Music", which includes the regimental and battalion marches as well as other Irish tunes.[7]

The band in 1993, a year later after the regiment. It uniquely combined the Bugles, Pipes & Drums from both regiments. As a result, boasted the largest regimental musical ensemble in the British Army before being reorganized in October 2007.[8] On 28 April 2012, a parade to a UDR memorial unveiled at the National Memorial Arboretum was led by the band.[9] The band was present during the Ranger's golden jubilee in 2018.[10] During the celebrations, the band performed a Beating Retreat in an event hosted by the Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council.[11]

Killaloe is the regimental march of The Royal Irish Regiment as well as the South African Irish Regiment. When playing the On such occasions, at a time generally given by the Sergeant-Major, the Band would make a pause, during which all ranks would give a 'Connaught Yell!', then continue playing.[12]