Born to a Choshu samurai family, he was one of the outstanding disciples who studied under Yoshida Shoin at the Shoka Sonjuku. After Shoin's death he carried on his mentor's will and threw himself into the sonnō jōi movement. He acted alongside Kusaka Genzui and Takasugi Shinsaku, playing his part in Choshu's expulsion movement. In the Kinmon Incident of July 1864 he led Choshu forces together with Kusaka Genzui in an assault on the Kyoto Imperial Palace, fighting fiercely against the Satsuma and Aizu armies. He continued fighting after Kusaka's suicide but was ultimately wounded and took his own life. He was twenty-seven. Among the graduates of the Shoka Sonjuku he is remembered alongside Kusaka as one of those who fell in the Kinmon Incident. As one of the many heroes raised by Yoshida Shoin, his name is engraved at Shoin Shrine and the Shoka Sonjuku site in Hagi. Irie's way of life—staking his existence at such a young age—is passed down to later generations as a symbol of the Shoka Sonjuku spirit.

A sincere and fiercely loyal young man with strong initiative. His willingness to fight to the end without fearing death was a pure embodiment of Shoin's teachings.

Irie Kyuichi, who fell in the Kinmon Incident as a hero of the Shoka Sonjuku, is remembered by later generations as one of the symbols of the sonnō jōi activists produced by Yoshida Shoin's teachings.