The Inniskilling Fusiliers

This chapter recounts the mutiny of the Inniskilling Fusiliers (the 27th Regiment) at Fort Napier in 1887. For most of the 1880s, two or three infantry battalions, a cavalry regiment, and a full mountain battery of artillery were deployed in Natal and Zululand. Small detachments scattered across Zululand undertook tedious and arduous patrolling. The breakup of the regiments into small units serving in out-of-the-way places compromised regimental discipline. This chapter examines whether external factors played any part in the Inniskilling Fusiliers mutiny, which has also been described as a mere “drunken brawl” involving Irish troops, by assessing the situation in Ireland and among the Irish communities in England at the time. In particular, it looks at the Land Wars and the Home Rule movement in Ireland in the 1880s and goes on to discuss the mysterious circumstances surrounding the the Inniskilling Fusiliers rebellion. It also considers the trial of four mutineers—Patrick McKeown, Joseph McCrea, Charles Orr, and John Campbell—which saw the execution of McCrea.