The best place to start learning about Irish small arms is to study British weapons. The Irish used anything they could get their hands on and this was predominately of British origin.
By the Easter rising of 1916, the Irish had managed to acquire a few thousand German Mauser 71/84 11mm rifles. They still had British .577 Sniders, .577/450 Martini Henrys, .303 Martini Metfords and Martini enfields along with double barreled shot guns etc.
During the period from 1919 to 1921, also known as the "tan War" the Irish Republican Army managed to arm itself mostly with #1 MkIII and MkIII* rifles, a few Lewis light machine guns and Vickers medium machineguns. After the truce treaty of 1922, the Irish Free State (Saorstat Eireann) was formed. The British government gave the Irish more Lee Enfields and other weapons. The Irish struck out the original serial numbers and re-numbered the rifles. They also added their own property mark, two capital "F"s in a circle. This stands for "Fianna Fail" or "Army of Destiny" in Irish Gaelic. The Irish provided their own style of uniform, but used British 1908 pattern web field equipment. The Irish also ordered steel helmets from Vickers LTD in Britain. These helmets were nearly identical to the German WWI "Stahlhelm" and have since been used as such in a number of war movies.
WWII is known as "The Great Emergency" in Ireland. The Irish Republic was simultaneously working on two war time plans. Necessity required she work with her old enemy, Great Britain, to plan for a defense against a German invasion. However, always aware of her agressive neighbor, she also made plans for the defense of Ireland against the British. The Irish still had their #1 MK III/III*s but they adopted British battle dress, helmets and Pattern 1937 web gear. Although the Irish had ordered rifles from Britain, none were delivered during the war.
After WWII, the Irish adopted the #4 MKII rifle. Most of these were made at the Royal Ordinance Factory, Fazackerley. However, because of the politics in Northern Ireland, many of these rifles were delivered and either used as drill rifles or sold to other countries. A great many of these "Irish" rifles came into the United States recently and some were still in arsenal wrappings. I have one of them that was used as a drill rifle (below) it has some dings in the stock, but appears to have never been fired.
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