Cathal Brugha Barracks

Detached twenty-bay two-storey barracks, built c.1810, having single-bay single-storey porches to north and south elevations and full-height red brick returns to rear (west) elevation. Pitched slate roof with granite eaves course, red brick chimneystacks, terracotta ridge tiles, cast-iron rainwater goods and cut calp limestone coping. Hipped roofs to returns. Snecked squared calp limestone walls having brown brick panels to chimneybreasts and red brick laid in English bond to returns. Square-headed window openings with brown brick surrounds, granite sills, six-over-six pane timber sash windows and tripartite timber sash windows. Six-over-six pane and two-over-two pane timber sash windows to returns. Square-headed door openings having cut granite Gibbsian surrounds and timber battened doors. Louvered vents to door to north. Square-headed timber-lined niche to north elevation.

Portobello Barracks was constructed at the beginning of the nineteenth century as a cavalry barracks. It was taken over by Irish troops in 1922, and became the Headquarters of the National Army, under the leadership of Michael Collins. In 1952 it was renamed after Cathal Brugha, Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army during the War of Independence, and Minister for Defence in the first Dáil. The formal, functional plan of this building is apparent in the unadorned façade, and a regularity of design and proportion is seen in the even fenestration arrangement. The use of snecked calp in the walls contributes to its stoic, forbidding aspect, and is subtly enlivened by granite detailing.