Line Infantry at Castlebar

This post is a little niche – more so than usual – but it gives a useful insight into how we have worked to find out information about specific barracks. I will be discussing how one single word, typed in connection with Castlebar and lost in a seemingly uninteresting 86-page long official document, shed light …

Retiring barracks18c.ucd.ie

The ‘Our Shared Built Military Heritage’ project has its roots in a pilot project, ‘The Army Barracks of Eighteenth-Century Ireland’. That project was was led by Ivar McGrath, Patrick Walsh and Suzanne Forbes, and supported by seed funding from UCD Research, a research award from UCD College of Arts and Celtic Studies and an IRC …

The British evacuation from barracks in the Irish Free State

In January 1922, the British administration began to withdraw from the newly established Irish Free State. The public aspect of this process began with the iconic handover of Dublin Castle and culminated with the more muted handover of Marlborough barracks in December 1922. The initial withdrawals in January were across Leinster and Munster, as shown …

Ireland’s Martello Towers

What does the term ‘Martello’ mean to you? It sounds exotic, doesn’t it? Does it make you think of Ireland at all, or do you instead picture warm, sunny Mediterranean beaches? Probably the latter, and for good reason. Martello Towers, as their sunny-sounding name suggests, emerged in the Mediterranean region. More specifically, the tower which …

When is a barracks not a barracks? Part 2

As we prepare our map of historic army barracks, we have had to make decisions about what barracks to include and exclude. In some cases, we have made a decision to leave out a building or complex because it was never used as a regular army barracks or was only used on a temporary basis.  …

Why study barracks?

At first glance, barracks are not necessarily the most exciting of buildings. When it comes to military architecture, they tend to be overlooked in favour of fortresses, ramparts, batteries and towers, which are all more glamorous than accommodation blocks. The former are also easier to interpret than the latter. Anyone can roughly understand the purpose …

When is a barracks not a barracks?

Very often the first question we get asked about the project is [take your pick from the following]: ‘Are you including … Martello Towers … Military Hospitals …. Naval Bases …. Forts … Castles … Batteries … all of the forementioned?’   The thing is, all of the aforementioned might have, and some certainly occasionally did, …

Why Barracks?

Army barracks mean many different things to many different people. In stable secure modern democracies they can seem wholly benign, a source of employment, evidence of a civic commitment to humanitarian activity through service with UN peace keeping missions, or places of national pride, ceremony and celebration. Under other systems of government, they can be …