The Irish Volunteers, nicknamed the Volunteers of 1782, were local militias raised by local initiative in Ireland in 1778 with the dual purpose of guarding against prospective French invasion (and maintaining law and order in the absence of British Army garrison troops) and pressuring Westminster into conceding legislative independence to the Dublin parliament.
During the American Revolutionary War, the British military garrison in Ireland was transported to North America to reinforce the Crown forces battling the American Patriots, leaving Ireland undefended against a potential French or Spanish invasion once war was declared in 1778. Irish Protestants fearful of a Catholic invasion and the imposition of absolutist tyranny responded by forming companies of volunteers as a de facto home guard for their island. While the Penal Laws stated that only Anglicans were allowed to bear arms, the Volunteers admitted Presbyterians and (after the Papists Act 1778) a limited number of Catholics, and the volunteers, whose corps also functioned as debating societies and patriotic outlets, were controlled by liberally-minded people and not by the conservative establishment. The volunteer companies were diverse both in their uniform colors (114 had scarlet uniforms, 18 blue, 6 green, 1 dark green, 1 white, 1 grey, 1 buff, and 12 undetailed) and their politics (many continued earlier anti-Catholic traditions by naming their corps after the Battle of the Boyne, the Battle of Aughrim, and the Battle of Culloden).
While the Volunteers never saw action against any invading army, they believed that their service entitled them to secure concessions from London such as the lifting of tariffs on Irish goods (parading with the slogan "free trade or a speedy revolution") and calling for legislative independence for Ireland. The British agreed to lift the tariffs against Ireland, while Irish Patriot Party MP Henry Grattan secured greater autonomy and powers for the Irish Parliament under the "Constitution of 1782." While the Volunteers varied in their attitude towards Catholics, they supported the easing of the Penal Laws on Catholics and recruiting Catholics into the Volunteers (Catholics generally cheered on the Volunteers). The 1790s saw sectarian tensions flare up as the Protestant Peep o' Day Boys and the Catholic Defenders clashed, while the end of the Revolutionary War led to volunteering rapidly decline outside of Ulster. In 1793, the passing of the Gunpowder Act and Convention Act killed off volunteering, while the creation of the militia and the yeomanry deprived the Volunteers of their raison d'etre.
The majority of Volunteers were inclined towards the Yeomanry during the Irish Rebellion of 1798, while a minority joined the United Irishmen. During the Home Rule crisis of the early 20th century, both the Irish Volunteers and Ulster Volunteers claimed to be the successors of the Volunteers of 1782.
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