Royal Barracks — Unknown Townland

The Royal Barracks / Dublin Barracks / Collins Barracks Collins 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).  Collins Barracks was described in the inventory of the ‘Army Barracks of Ireland - Our Shared Military Heritage, 1690-1921’ as follows; ‘The Royal Barracks was the first barracks to be constructed in Dublin and was built between 1704 and 1708-9 on land at Oxmantown purchased from the incumbent lord lieutenant of Ireland, James Butler, 2nd duke of Ormonde. Throughout the eighteenth century it was simply known as the Dublin Barracks, but in 1803 it was renamed as the Royal Barracks. It was the largest permanent barracks complex in the British Empire until the building of Aldershot in England in the 1850s.  The original construction contained four main squares, each with three facades and an open-ended fourth side. Three of the squares were sited in a row facing towards the River Liffey running from West to East, and were initially known as Horse, Barrack and Little Squares and then later renamed Cavalry, Royal and Brunswick squares. The fourth, initially known as New Square and later changed to Palatine Square, was located behind Brunswick Square with its open side facing east towards Dublin city. In the 1760s Palatine Square was fully enclosed with a fourth façade when major repairs were undertaken on the earlier buildings. Further additional buildings were added to the site during the eighteenth and nineteenth century, including the Riding School which was built in 1746 and originally intended to be a chapel. In 1889 the central and largest of the four main squares, Royal Square, was knocked down owing to a typhoid epidemic. From the outset the barracks had a mixed usage and was garrisoned by infantry and cavalry units. In 1867 the capacity was 71 infantry officers, 1,568 infantrymen, 14 cavalry officers, and 361 cavalrymen, as well as17 infantry and 394 cavalry horses.  The barracks was occupied by the British Army continuously until the withdrawal in 1922 being one of the last to be evacuated in December of that year. It was then occupied by the National Army during the Irish Civil War and remained an active Irish Defence Forces barracks until 1997. Renamed Collins Barracks (after Michael Collins, the first commander-in-chief of the Irish National Army who was killed in an ambush during the Irish Civil War in 1922) it is now one of the four sites of the National Museum of Ireland. The main museum exhibitions are located in the old Palatine Square complex (renamed Clarke Square after Thomas Clarke, one of the executed leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising), which is accessed via Brunswick Square. The original Horse or Cavalry Square at the western end of the site also remains intact, as does the Riding School, which is used for events and temporary exhibitions. The location of Royal Square in front of the Riding School serves as a car park for visitors to the museum’.   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