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esearched and written by Joseph McDonnell, this is the second booklet produced by the Medal Society of Ireland and deals with all of the known insignia of the various Officers’ Training Corps (OTC) and some related Cadet and school units that existed largely in the British period to 1922 in Ireland. Click on image for more pics.
The establishment of OTC units in universities and schools began in 1908 and were to provide a reservoir of potential officers for the armed forces in the light of any emergency. The units were divided in Senior and Junior divisions, the former based upon universities and the latter on schools and colleges. With the establishment of the “Free State” in 1922 the link with the British Crown and its armed forces was broken in the South of Ireland but continued in Northern Ireland. As well as the units still operating in Northern Ireland the new Irish State also established an Officers Training Corps in the South in 1927 in five universities, which was later increased to seven when the OTC was incorporated into the new Volunteer Force in 1934. All of these units at schools, colleges and universities adopted distinctive insignia in the form metal cap and collar badges, shoulder titles in both metal and/or cloth, buttons and a range of other insignia. The booklet is an attempt to document the range of insignia worn, to identify and portray the various images and to assist collectors and historians with a further piece of the military iconography in Ireland. It is hoped that it will elicit from the readers and collectors further aspects of this story and thus complete an other chapter in the military life of the nation
