156 THE IRISH PEOPLE. 



of his family, is Fag an bealach ! the charging shout 

 of the 87th. 



Of this celebrated regiment Lieutenant John 

 Skipp, an Englishman, who rose from the ranks, 

 thus speaks in his Memoirs : " I must confess I 

 do love to be on duty of any kind of service with 

 the Irish. There, is a promptness to obey, an 

 hilarity, a cheerful obedience and willingness, which 

 I have rarely met with in any other body of men. 

 But, whether in this particular case, these qualifica- 

 tions were instilled into them by the rigid discipline 

 of their corps, I know not, or whether these are 

 the characteristics of the Irish nation. But I have 

 also observed in that corps (I mean the 87th or 

 Prince's Own Irish) a degree of liberality amongst 

 the men, I have nerer seen in any other corps, a 

 willingness to share their crust and drop on service 

 with their comrades, an indescribable cheerful- 

 ness in obliging and accommodating each other, 

 and an anxiety to serve each other, and to hide 

 each others faults. In that corps there was a unity 

 I have never seen in any other, and as for fighting 

 they were very devils. During the Peninsular War 

 some General observed to Wellington how un- 

 steadily that corps marched. The noble Duke 

 replied ' Yes, General, they do indeed, but they fight 

 like devils.' So they always will, while they are 



