27 replies to this topic

[Haegl]

If you like the "beret" style but don't want to offend anyone, Try a Caubeen. Traditional headwear for the Irish.

[O'Callaghan]

I have a couple of caubeens, both green. One is British Army surplus, right size, but doesn't really fit. I suspect it was deliberately shrunk to get an exact fit by the original wearer. Otherwise I would have no problem wearing it, but with NO military badge. My other is a new J. Byous 'Canadian' summer caubeen, from the state of Georgia, and AFAIK is the only caubeen you can buy that is one size fits all (once bitten twice shy, you might say, after buying the other one), and adjusts to fit using ribbons. BTW, it looks nothing like a Canadian Army caubeen (wrong shade of green, plus see below).

Caubeens are basically a high crowned beret, or a balmoral with no toorie. Except the ones issued to the Canadian Army have a toorie! Irish pipe bands typically wear either green caubeens or black glengarries (but see below), despite the British Army also wearing green caubeens. That's probably where they get them, surplus. The IRA wear black caubeens or berets (worth noting if you want to wear your caubeen in places where the IRA is a banned organisation, which includes not only the UK, but also the Republic of Ireland), and the regular Irish Army (but only the pipers) wear black caubeens with a saffron band, but call them glengarries for reasons known only to Irish quartermasters.

FWIW, J. Byous do replicas of all the above, except for their 'Canadian' ones which seem to be rather different from military issue, and no, I'm not Canadian.

BTW, the Irish never wear a hat with red and white dicing, on the belief, right or wrong, that it symbolises loyalty to the British crown (unless of course they ARE loyalists). Worth remembering for those of us who are only hyphenated Irishmen.

ETA: Important - a caubeen should be worn raked, but a balmoral should be worn flat, unless you are American, LOL!

Edited by O'Callaghan, 10 March 2011 - 01:39 AM.

[gp_man]

Me wearing surplus black beret. I cut the blue shield off, this pic is from an Irish hooley so I added a shamrock, not as smart looking as Balmoral or tam, but I don't have them yet. I'd like to wear my brass crossed cannons on the beret and come up with a Army kilt pin.

Also, since the US Army has gone with black beret as a garrison hat you should be fine wearing one, they have become very common. As others have said, don't present yourself as a vet if you're not, but feel free to be proud to honor those who have.

And, I have to add that when I served ('89 - '97) Combat Arms were authorized to wear berets and cords in color matching there MOS when in Dress Uniform, as an Artilleryman I wore Red, I think Infantry had blue and Armor was yellow.

Brett

[Piipriker]

My usual headwear from autumn to spring is a basque cap, as it is worn in the basque country at the french-spanish border, or all over France for that matter.
It's clearly a civilian headwear, and as I am born near the french border it's also very common in my hometown.

Mine is from an italian company, that produces these caps since 1925.

I also wore it last e´week with my kilt outfit. Made a good combination with the black tweed of the kilt, because the cap is black as well.
And very comfy, being made of Cashmere.

http://www.biber.de/...538-3300-2.html

[Raptor]

It would suit quite well I'd think, as the Basques were most likely Celtic in origin too.

[misfit762]

I thought about picking up a Maroon Beret like this one:http://dunaddtrading...k/Headwear.aspx
because I wear a Maroon Beret in the Army now. I love my Beret, I earned it and loved being a paratrooper. I never thought about wearing my Army Beret with my kilt when I get out, but now I just may.

[CelticWolf]

I wear a black beret that i wore when I was in the GA State Defence Force. I only have my clan badge and a New World Celts pin on it. When I left the GSDF i was able to take my beret with me due to the fack that I bought it my self. We wore both a patrol cap and the Beret (of course not at the same time). As KC stated earlier as long as it is plan black beret you sould be fine. And if you do want to wear a beret you can go to just about any army surplus store and get one without anything on it.

[O'Callaghan]

This thread is a bit old, but I'd like to add that people seem overly concerned about the pitfalls of wearing a colour of beret that might indicate a service that they weren't in, when almost every colour seems to have been appropriated by some branch of the military, and the colour codes are different between countries as well. That doesn't seem to leave much in the way of neutral colours, does it?

For example, a green beret seems to be special forces in the US, but regular army in several other countries. I myself wear a green caubeen and won't wear a black one in case it looks like IRA headgear, and yet Americans (and I do live in the US, though I'm not a citizen) seem to buy black ones and apparently may be avoiding green so it doesn't look like they are pretending to be special forces. Given that those are the only two colours that caubeens seem to come in ...

As long as you don't wear someone else's cap badge, I think most of you will be all right!

Or we could all wear light blue berets like the UN, so that we can keep the peace between us, LOL!

Edited by O'Callaghan, 01 December 2011 - 11:57 PM.