1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Rapparee

RAPPAREE, properly a short pike (Irish rapaire); the term being hence applied in the war in Ireland from 1688–92 to the Irish irregular soldiers armed with this weapon. It thus became synonymous with robber or freebooter, and in 1707 appears in the title of an act (6 Anne, cap. 11) “for the more effectual suppression of ... robbers and rapparees.”