Napoleon's Irish Legion was an invasion force for an invasion that never sailed. Raised in 1803 from Irish exiles — many of them veterans of the failed 1798 rebellion against British rule, who had fled to France — it was meant to form the spearhead of a French landing in Ireland that would set the country alight. But the landing never came; after Trafalgar in 1805 ended any hope of crossing the Channel, the Legion's green-coated Irishmen were sent to fight elsewhere instead, in Spain, the Low Countries, and Germany. They carried a French Imperial Eagle, one of the few foreign units so honored, and the green coats and golden harp on the flag here kept their lost cause in plain sight.

The seven-figure set marches in column — a Flag Bearer carrying the green harp colour, a drummer beating the step, and five grenadiers with shouldered muskets, all in the emerald green coats and red-plumed shakos of the Legion. It belongs in a diorama of Napoleon's foreign contingents. Fall it in alongside the Neuchâtel Battalion and the 3rd Swiss Regiment, the other foreign units that filled the Emperor's ranks, and extend the march with the French Line Infantry Marching.

Tradition of London model 0730. 54mm, white metal, hand-painted in gloss enamel. Seven-figure set — a Flag Bearer, a drummer, and five grenadiers, 1812. Supplied in the Tradition Classic Red Box. Allow 2–3 weeks delivery.