The Cavalry Corps traces its history to the formation of the
Armoured Car Corps on 14 September 1922. Mechanised from the start, the corps used armoured vehicles that the
British Army left following the War of Independence. Following a debate on the use of the term "cavalry", and whether the word was meant to encompass horse, wheeled or tracked, the corps was renamed the
Cavalry Corps in 1934. The first
Landsverk L60 was delivered in 1935 and joined Ireland's only other tank, a
Vickers Mk. D in the 2nd Armoured Squadron. The second Landsverk L60 arrived in 1936. The Landsverk's were still in use up until the late 1960s. One L60 is preserved in running order and the other is in the National Museum of Ireland,
Collins Barracks,
Dublin. After
The Emergency, the corps established a
main battle tank cadre equipped with the
Churchill tank (total 4 tanks, in use 1948-1969), which formed the basis of the 1st Tank Squadron in 1959. This was equipped with the
Comet tank (total 8 tanks, in use 1959-1973) until its disbandment in 1973. The Cavalry Corps has served in many locations on UN
peacekeeping missions, including the
Congo,
Cyprus and
Lebanon, either as Cavalry groups on their own, or attached as part of a
battalion group. In these deployments the Cavalry Corps were equipped with
Panhard AML vehicles - prior to their retirement in 2013. In February 2026, part of a military modernisation program which also involved acquiring a national
primary radar system,{{cite web |title=Minister McEntee to Prioritise Delivery of Military Radar Programme ==Cavalry Corps today==