Royal Artillery Barracks — Unknown Townland

Islandbridge Barracks / Royal Artillery Barracks / Clancy Barracks A large rectangular-shaped area enclosed by an unfinished wall standing on the footprint of the Royal Artillery Barracks (Island Bridge Barracks/Clancy Barracks) that is shown on a painting by Thomas Bates dated c. 1695 was suggested to be the site of an unfinished barracks of late 17th century date.  This identification of a barracks was refuted by Igoe and Dwyer (1998, 79) who suggested that this was the site of a brewery rather than that of a barracks. Thomas Bates' oil painting of A View of Dublin from the Phoenix Park c. 1695 was mistakenly attributed by Strickland to the Swedish artist Michael Dahl (1656-1743).  This painting is in the possession of the Evelyn family of Wooton House, Surrey, England. It shows the eight-arched 16th-century bridge with a large unfinished building in the background which stands in the area where the Island Bridge Barracks/Clancy Barracks stands today.  Strickland (1926, 94) suggested that this building was the site of a barracks that was never finished. The unfinished structure in the painting consisted of a large area enclosed by a stone wall which ran alongside the northern bank of the River Liffey.  A tall central archway is shown in the centre of the western wall of the structure facing towards Island Bridge.  In 1698 an Act was passed in the Irish Parliament for the building and finishing of Barracks in Ireland and Strickland suggested that this unfinished structure was  one of those unfinished barracks referred to in the 1698 Act.  He suggested that a Pamphlet in the Halliday Collection in the R.I.A. stated that before 1704 a number of Barracks had been actually built or building, but that some had been "cast" on the score of expense, and that the Island Bridge site may have been one of this barracks that was never completed (ibid.).  There is no supporting documentary evidence for the presence of a barracks at this site in the late 17th-century.  However the oil painting clearly shows the presence of a large walled structure of 17th-century date on the footprint of the Royal Artillery Barracks which was later renamed Island Bridge Barracks/Clancy Barracks. According to Maher (1932, 10) a painting by Francis Place dated 1698 of a similar view to Bate's painting shows that the unfinished building was completed by 1698 and he suggested that it ‘is highly probably that they were military barracks and near their site were erected in 1820 the present Island Bridge barracks'. Research by Igoe and O'Dwyer (1988, 79) attributed this painting to Thomas Bate which they dated to c. 1695 and described the scene as; 'Bate's 'View of Dublin' is most striking and richly coloured and while the foreground appears somewhat amateurish the buildings are well executed. Their accuracy can be verified by comparison with Francis Place's view taken from the same spot in 1698. However, Bate's is clearly the earlier view since he shows a building at Islandbridge under construction, while Place shows it completed and roofed. This was Davies' brewery, which Strickland mistook for an unfinished barracks. The present Islandbridge Barracks on the same site was not begun. until after 1797. The date of the painting can be further narrowed down by examining the wall of the Master's garden which is shown joined to the flanker of the bawn wall. We know that this was not done until 1695, suggesting that the Bate painting was executed around that time. To the right of the brewery are a pair of oast houses, and immediately behind them a curious tiered house known as 'Mitchell's Folly', built by Alderman Michael Mitchell on ground leased from Robinson. Robinson's own house, a substantial hip-roofed building with dormer windows, lay in front of it, facing the Islandbridge road. Its date has not been established but it is probably contemporary with the Hospital. He added a servants' wing in 1691.  Adjoining the house to the north was a timber yard owned by Robinson who allegedly profited handsomely from the supply of material used in the construction of the hospital’. Islandbridge Barracks 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; ‘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).  Collins Barracks was described in the inventory of the ‘Army Barracks of Ireland - Our Shared Military Heritage, 1690-1921’ as follows; ‘The barracks at Islandbridge, which was sometimes referred to as the Royal Artillery Barracks, was constructed in or around 1798. Originally designed for artillery, it was supplemented by the addition of Islandbridge Cavalry or ‘Lower’ Barracks in the 1850s nearer to the River Liffey. The capacity of the barracks in 1867 was 25 cavalry officers, 625 cavalrymen and 435 horses. The establishment of ordnance repair workshops on the centrally-located Cambridge Square in the 1860s was part of the shift in use towards becoming an Ordnance Depot as well as the location for the Transport Corps and a repository for captured or surrendered rebel weapons. The British Army remained in situ until December 1922 when the barracks was taken over by the National Army during the Irish Civil War. It remained in use as an Ordnance barracks thereafter and was renamed Clancy Barracks in 1942 after Peadar Clancy. It remained an Irish Defence Forces installation until 1998. The site was sold to a developer in the early 2000s, with a plan for a number of residential dwellings. Due to the global financial crisis, the project was only completed in 2022. A small number of historical buildings remain extant, most importantly the renovated Victorian Cavalry Officers Mess (formerly Ordnance Corps HQ House), which has been incorporated into the Clancy Quays development of residential apartments on the site'. 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