Kilkenny based soldiers will today (Friday) celebrate a special milestone.
It’s a hundred years since the 3rd Infantry Battalion was formed in Donegal making it the country’s oldest in continuous service.
The unit’s personnel have been headquartered at James Stephens army barracks in our city for the past 25 years and, with about 450 people working across the Battalion in Kilkenny and surrounds, it’s a major local employer.
Today they’ll host an event for invited guests and that’s something the Second in Command (2IC) Commandant Stephen MacEoin says they’re delighted to do. He’s told KCLR News “We’ve themed our centenary as ‘Bloods 100’ because the Battalion’s nickname for a long time has been The Bloods because of our red and white colour and our old unit emblem which is based on the red hand of the O’Neill Clan given our origins in the North West of the country during the Civil War in January of 1923”.
He’s adds that to mark the occasion troops are hosting “A major parade for veterans and serving members of the Battalion, now that won’t be open to the public per se but we will be inviting the Mayor, a number of our friends from the city will be in attendance also so overall we’re really delighted and we hope we can reach out to people in the city who want to see what it’s all about”.
The refurbished Veterans Centre will also be opened today while a new museum exhibition and oral history collection will be unveiled as Commadant MacEoin notes; “We’re very excited to bring in our communities to see what’s going on in the Barracks and we’re doing that I suppose through the exhibition that we’ve launched at our Barrack museum, so people will be able to contact the Barracks and come in and see it at the museum, which tells the story of the 100 years of the 3rd Infantry Battalion”.
