Signs of hope and reconciliation: Irish troops to operate with British unit in Mali

Pretty small to
start: Six Irish troops with work
with 21 British troops.
And less than 100 years after the Easter Rising! (And why six Irishmen -- for the "six counties that live under
John Bull's tyranny"?)

I wonder: Has the
British Army ever formally recognized and honored the role that Irishmen (not
Anglo-Irish aristos) historically played in its enlisted ranks?

In other
Anglo-foreign military news, a Canadian reservist who presided over a lethal
screw-up with Claymore mines in Afghanistan was demoted from major to
lieutenant.
I don't remember that sort of two-grade demotion occurring in the U.S. military
-- do you?