During the period of British rule, press gangs operated in Ireland as they did in Britain, conscripting men to serve in the Royal Navy. Impressment in Ireland began in the early modern era, with such activities peaking during major conflicts and then subsequently receding.[1] In 1793, the Irish Militia was established by the Dublin Castle administration as a result of the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars to defend Ireland from invasion. Enlisted members of the Irish Militia were officially intended to be randomly chosen by local ballots, though widespread opposition to this led to the introduction of an amendment to allow for parishes to pay fines in lieu of holding ballots, which would be used to recruit volunteer replacements.[2]
The Irish Volunteers, a paramilitary organisation founded in 1913, took the name of the 18th-century militia units raised in Ireland; both groups saw the fact that they were all-volunteer forces as a source of pride. The term "volunteer" is used as a title for members by Irish republican paramilitary groups descended from or inspired by the Irish Volunteers, such as the Provisional Irish Republican Army.
^Cookson, J. E. (1997). The British Armed Nation, 1793–1815. Clarendon Press. p. 104. ISBN9780198206583. Retrieved 18 January 2018.; Bartlett, Thomas (May 1983). "An End to Moral Economy: The Irish Militia Disturbances of 1793". Past & Present (99). Oxford University Press on behalf of The Past and Present Society: 41–64. doi:10.1093/past/99.1.41. JSTOR650584.
^Laffan, Michael (1999-12-02). The Resurrection of Ireland: The Sinn Féin Party, 1916–1923. Cambridge University Press. pp. 128–129, 163–168. ISBN9781139426299.
^Franklin, Mark; Marsh, Michael; McLaren, Lauren (1994). "Uncorking the Bottle: Popular Opposition to European Unification in the Wake of Maastricht". JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies. 32 (4): 455–472. doi:10.1111/j.1468-5965.1994.tb00509.x. ISSN0021-9886.