Quote Originally Posted by cajunscot View Post

And just a point of clarification; the Republic's armed forces are known as the Irish Defence Forces, not the "INA". In the Irish the name is Óglaigh na hÉireann. And, to further clarify, in the IDF, caubeens are known as "glengarries". So while the Irish Air Corps Pipe Band wears Scottish glengarries, Army pipers technically also wear glengarries as well. As a reference/source, I would recommend The Irish Defence Forces since 1922 by Donal MacCarron and Bill Younghusband, Osprey Men-at-Arms Series No. 417. It is one of the best one-volume works on the IDF available, and it does discuss the glengarry/caubeen issue.

Regards,

Todd
When I said INA I was talking about the Army, not the defence forces as a whole, which I know very well are the IDF. The INA and the IRA split from oneanother in the civil war, the former being the uniformed army of the Irish Freestate as then was, and the latter being the rebels who were against partition. It was these two I was trying to distinguish between. If there even is any different current term for just the Army, and there may not be, I don't know what it is, but AFAIK the IDF includes the Air Corps and the Naval Service as well. If they don't have a term to describe just the Army, then INA will do, as anyone who knows the history will know what it means.

I also knew perfectly well that the Army piper's caubeen was officially listed as a glengarry, but you know that just confuses people. Just because some quartermaster mislabelled it and the term stuck doesn't mean it looks like one.

It should be obvious by now that I am not terribly into militaria, just someone trying to describe things in common sense terms.