Established in 1992 the Northern Ireland Home Service Medal is a long service medal awarded to part-time officers and men of the Ulster Defence Regiment and its successor the Royal Irish Regiment.

The medal was awarded to for 12 years of long and efficient service after 1st July 1980, with clasps awarded for six additional years of qualifying service. Full-time members of the Royal Irish Regiment qualify for the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal.

Description:

Materials: The majority of the British medals and clasps are made of solid silver, though some were issue in bronze versions, mainly to Indian non-combatants. The majority of the British campaign awards are circular, usually 36mm in diameter.

Ribbons: Medals are worn suspended from their own specific ribbons. These were first made of silk but cotton was increasingly used as the nineteenth century developed. Their own colours often have a symbolic significance: the equal stripes of the ‘1939 to 1945 Star,’ for example, are dark blue to represent the service of the Royal and Merchant Navies, red, to represent that of the Armies and light blue to represent that of Air Forces.

Ribbon width can vary slightly though it is generally 32mm wide.

Ribbon – Dark green with broad central light blue stripe

Northern Ireland Home Service Medal ribbon

Suspender - Straight

Type – Long service medal

Established - 1992

Eligibility – Part-time members of the Ulster Defence Regiment and Royal Irish Regiment

Awarded for – 12 years efficient service

Established – Part-time members of the Ulster Defence Regiment and Royal Irish Regiment

Post nominals - None

Clasps / Bars – Clasps awarded for six additional years of qualifying service

Description – The medal is silver, 36 mm in diameter. The obverse bears the crowned head of Elizabeth II wearing a state crown and the inscription around the edge ELIZABETH II DEI GRATIA REGINA FID.DEF. The reverse depicts a scroll with four lines of wording FOR / HOME SERVICE / IN / NORTHERN IRELAND surmounted by a crown, superimposed on a design of flax with harps below.

This guide will help you through all the parts and descriptions of military medals

Sources:

< gov.uk/medals-campaigns-descriptions-and-eligibility>

Some of the material on this page was also partially derived from

<en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Northern_Ireland_Home_Service_Medal>

Which are released under the terms of

Creativecommons.org/licenses/by-s/3.0/.