High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Volunteer, often abbreviated Vol., is a term used by a number of Irish republican paramilitary organisations to describe their members. Among these have been the various forms of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA). Óglach is the equivalent title used in the Irish language.The original use of the term 'Volunteer' in this context dates back to the Irish Volunteers (18th century), an almost exclusively Protestant militia corps raised in 1778 to augment the army and to defend Ireland from foreign invasion.