Royal Irish Rifles, but which unit?

[Guest alib7]

Hope I have posted this in the right place. I am trying to identify the unit in the attached photo. One of the men according to family legend is a relative, but unfortunately I have no names to assist my search yet. They are kindly holding up a piece of paper with unit details, but it is not that clear. I think it indicates they are "A" company of the 3 RIR, 1st Platoon. However, in another photo of some of the same men in 1916 they are wearing light coloured half moon shoulder patches - which I think would place them in the 11th or 12th RIR. I am wondering if the paper they are holding might refer to the 3 South Antrim Volunteers who joined the 11th RIR. Any ideas/interpretations would be welcome.

Ali

[andiS]

Don't know if this will help you, or if I'm teaching my granny to suck egges here, but you could try scanning just that piece of paper at some insane resolution and mess around with the contrast settings in your scanner software; sometimes this brings out detail which you can't see as clearly with the naked eye. Might make it easier for you to read?

[Desmond7]

3rd (Reserve) Battalion

August 1914 : at Belfast. A depot/training unit, it moved on mobilisation to Dublin. Returned to Belfast in April 1916. Moved to England in April 1918, going to Larkhill. Absorbed the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th (Reserve) Battalions in May

Above from Chris Baker's Long Long Trail site ( see LLT tab at top of page)

I would say these are recruits in training. It is quite possible they were posted to 11th or 12th Rifles ... what's in the second picture which makes you think they end up with these units? Any name/details to work with?

Des

[Guest alib7]

Andy - thanks I had mucked about with the image, but not concentrated solely on the paper itself so its worth a shot.

Desmond - second photo attached. It was taken at Amiens 1916. From the very limited amount I know the colour patches on their shoulders might indicate 11 or 12 RIR, but I could be wrong. My family were from the Ballyclare area so either battalion is a possibility. In terms of names, possibly a Higginson or a Beggs. One possiblity I had was a William James Higginson, but having just seen his medal card today he had ASC, Worcestershire and

R I Regt service (Service no 47797) rather than RIR Rifles service. The family legend is that the mysterious relative took a bullet near the heart on the 1 July, lived, but ended up in a POW camp eating black bread for the rest of the war.

Thanks for your help.

Ali