THE welcome decision to relocate the National Museum of Ireland in Collins Barracks, Dublin focuses attention on the barracks itself, reputedly the oldest military barracks in the world. Any attempt to compile a definitive chronicle of the history of the barracks runs into difficulties at the start, for in, the early days of the Civil War, the records of the building were burned in the fire which destroyed the Four Courts. Fortunately, as a result of worthy, research by Col Michael Hefferon and Comdt P. D.
O'Donnell, a reasonably complete account of the barracks history is available.
Collins Barracks, known in its early years as the Royal Barracks, was built in 1706 and the architect was Col Thomas Burgh, better remembered for his later works - the library of Trinity College and the old Custom House at Essex Quay which, incidentally, was occupied as a barracks in 1798. Burgh held the post of Surveyor General of the army.
Site presented
After the restoration of Charles II, the Duke of Ormonde, who had captained the Anglo Irish forces loyal to the monarchy, returned to Ireland; whereupon the Corporation presented him with a site at Oxmanstown Green for the purpose of building a palace and gardens. In the event, the duke never built his palace there and his successor, the second Duke of Ormonde, sold the land to the Government as a site for a barracks. At a time when the military discharged police duties, the area around Arbour Hill, notorious for years as the haunt of highwaymen and robbers, was a logical site for a barracks.
No mention
Building, once begun, proceeded apace and the cost was estimated at £123,589 2s and 9d. In 1750 or thereabouts, a major reconstruction job was carried out which involved the rebuilding of the horse bar racks. Few 18th century guidebooks dealing with Dublin failed to mention the barracks. In 1735 it is described as "the most magnificent, largest and most commodious of its kind in Europe".
The barracks figures prominently in the 1798 rebellion. Wolfe Tone was imprisoned there and courts martial were held there after the rising. Gallows, outside the walls and on the main city bridges, quickly dispatched the victims. The ground for the disposal of the bodies lay between the barrack wall and the river, and became known as the Croppies Hole. Bartholomew Teeling and Matthew Tone, 1798 leaders, are buried there.
In the mid 19th century, the Duke of Cambridge commanded the Dublin district from there, and during this period the church at Arbour Hill had its most fashionable wedding when the duke, a grandson of George Ill and first cousin of Queen Victoria, married Miss Louisa Fairbrother, an actress. Queen Victoria did not give her consent, so it was a morganatic marriage and the eldest son, Col Fitzgeorge, did not succeed to the title.
The Dublin Journal of March 5 contained the following notice: "Deserted out of Lord Charles Hay's troop in the Royal Barracks; Philip McCran a dragoon, born in Sligo . . . Whoever secures him . . . shall have five pounds reward . .
The said McCran took with him one Mary Welsh, a barrack maid, born at Castlebar. A lusty, fresh full faced woman of middle size, a little inclined to fat, wears a dark olive coloured gown".
Epidemic
We learn that the occupants of the barracks in the late 19th century suffered an epidemic of enteric fever, as a result of which, on the recommendation of Sir Charles Cameron, the city health officer, improved sanitation works were carried out.
Gen Sir Neville McCready, son of the distinguished actor William Charles McCready, handed over the barracks to the newly established Irish Army in December 1922. A contemporary report states: "As the khaki clad soldiers marched out of the barracks and out of the country they had occupied for centuries, General Richard Mulcahy, Commander in chief and his staff, saluted the colours fluttering past, while with a smart `Eyes Right' the departing troops returned the compliment".
The Irish Times of the day reported as follows: "A smart and well disciplined quarterguard of the national troops under Captain P. Flood presented arms, while the officers of the National Army stood to attention and saluted the Regimental Colours of the British Army as they were carried past".