About: Franco-Irish Ambulance Brigade

The Franco-Irish Ambulance Brigade (known in French as the Ambulance Irlandais) was a volunteer medical corps sent from Ireland to assist the French Army in the 1870–71 Franco-Prussian War. At the time Ireland was part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and parliament had passed the Foreign Enlistment Act 1870 which, in most circumstances, prohibited British citizens from enlisting in foreign armies. As a non-combatant force the ambulance brigade was not covered by the act. Around 280 men joined the brigade which arrived in France in early October 1870. They served with the French armies of the North and of the Loire until the signing of the armistice in January 1871. The unit was controversial as only a minority of the men who enlisted were retained for ambulance service,