38th (Irish) Infantry Brigade

38th (Irish) Infantry Brigade 38 (Irish) Brigade
Current insignia of 38 (Irish) Brigade.
Active	1942–1947 2007–present
Country	United Kingdom
Branch	British Army
Type	Territorial Army
Size	Brigade
Part of	6th Armoured Division 78th Infantry Division 1st (United Kingdom) Division
Garrison/HQ	Thiepval Barracks, Lisburn
Motto(s)	"Ubique et Semper Fidelis"
Commanders
Notable commanders	The O'Donovan
Insignia
Identification symbol	Insignia of the 78th Battleaxe Division.

The 38 (Irish) Brigade, is an infantry brigade formation of the British Army that served in World War II. It was composed of Irish line infantry regiments and served with distinction in the Tunisian and Italian Campaigns. A similar formation, the 38th Brigade had served in World War I, but contained no Irish connection.

During the Second World War the 38th (Irish) Infantry Brigade came into existence on 13 January 1942 by the redesignation of the 210th Independent Infantry Brigade (Home), a Home Defence formation organised in October 1940. The 210th Brigade had been serving in Dorset County Division. When that division was disbanded on 24 November 1941, 210 Brigade transferred to the 1st Infantry Division. By then all of 210 Brigade's English home defence battalions had been posted away and were being replaced by frontline Irish battalions. They were the 1st Battalion, Royal Irish Fusiliers, the 6th Battalion, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers and the 2nd Battalion, London Irish Rifles. Of the three battalions, only the 1st Royal Irish Fusiliers had seen active service nearly two years prior, fighting in the Battle of France where they were forced to retreat to Dunkirk where they were subsequently evacuated to England. With this composition, the brigade therefore had pre-war Regular Army, Territorial Army (the British Army's part-time reserve) and war-time raised units within its structure.