St Patrick's Day

Smiling soldiers receive shamrocks at a traditional St Patrick's Day ceremony.

The annual presentation of shamrocks to the London Irish Rifles on St Patrick's Day was a newsreel favourite. As ever, these scenes of the 1916 ceremony show smiling soldiers proudly parading and raising a cheer. The film seeks to reinforce a sense of national stability at a time when British power was wavering both in Europe and in Ireland - and just weeks before the Easter Rising in Dublin.