What is recorded here

Five years of drums and gun oil may have lingered in the town before the soldiers left. A small garrison of three officers and fifty men occupied Swords from 1801 to at least 1822, large enough to demand a kitchen, a guard room and a bed for every man, yet brief enough to vanish without a monument. The barracks may have stood on Church Road or beside the Star Public House on Main Street, but no gate, yard or chamber survives to mark the exact spot.

Swords Barracks Swords Barracks was recorded in 2025 in the ‘Our Shared Built Military Heritage: The online mapping, inventorying and recording of the Army Barracks of Ireland, 1690-1921' a project that was funded by the North South Research Programme 2022-2024 and co-led by University College Dublin and The Open University' (Forbes and McGrath 2025). The barracks was described in the inventory of the ‘Army Barracks of Ireland - Our Shared Military Heritage, 1690-1921’ as follows; ‘A barracks was located in Swords from approximately 1801 to at least 1822. It had a small garrison of three infantry officers and 50 men. Like many of the smaller barracks established at the time, it was short lived and its exact location is unknown, though it may have been on Church Road in a building later identified as a Royal Irish Constabulary barracks and which has since been demolished'. The RIC Barracks was not located on Church Road as described above but was located on the east side of the Main Street between the post office and the Star (Taylor's) Public House (NIAH Reg. No. 11343017 ), it was the building immediately to the S of the public house and is annotated ‘Constabulary Bk.’ on the 25-inch OSi map. Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien based on description taken from inventory of the ‘Army Barracks of Ireland - Our Shared Military Heritage, 1690-1921 Date of Compilation: 11 November 2025

The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.