The Royal Irish Rifle Volunteers was a Volunteer Corps established in Dublin, Ireland in 1860, in response to the Volunteer Force movement in the United Kingdom. The establishment of the corps was largely instigated by Colonel Fitzstephen French, of Frenchpark, County Roscommon, an MP for that county. Proponents of the force saw it as a way of uniting Irishmen of differing religious and political backgrounds in the common defence of their country. French attempted, but failed, to introduce a bill, the Volunteer Corps (Ireland) Bill, which would legitimise the setting up of a Volunteer Corps in the country. The following year the organisation was renamed the Loyal Association for Irish Rifle Volunteers.