Barracks in Unknown Townland

Great Ship Street Barracks / Infantry Barracks   A 19th-century barracks on Ship Street Great 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; ‘The barracks at Ship Street was part of the larger Dublin Castle complex and functioned as an infantry barracks from c. 1804 till 1922. It offered a military presence and security for the castle as the main seat of government in Ireland. The barracks was a conversion of a row of buildings running along the eastern side of the southern half of Great Ship Street. The barracks had a parade ground within the castle precincts south of the Quartermaster General’s Office and the Ordnance Office, which was based in the Clock Tower Building (now the Chester Beatty Library). Originally leased in 1794 by the Board of Ordnance, in 1804 the barracks comprised nine houses. It was rebuilt a year later. In 1867 it had capacity for 21 infantry officers, 586 men and seven horses. In the aftermath of the 1916 Rising, a number of female rebels, including Irish Citizen Army volunteers Helena Moloney and Dr Kathleen Lynn, were imprisoned at Ship Street Barracks before being transferred to Richmond Barracks and later Kilmainham Gaol. The barracks was later handed over to the Irish Free State as part of the Dublin Castle complex. Used as offices and partly derelict thereafter, in the early 1990s it was refurbished in preparation for Ireland’s holding of the EU Presidency in 1996. The original buildings remain extant as part of Dublin Castle'.   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