SOLDIERS OF THE SHORT GRASS
To my daughter Mary-Claire in remembrance of when an extended peacekeeping tour of duty to KFOR (Kosovo, October 2011 to October 2012) meant I missed two of your birthdays in a row. This is an example of the many real everyday sacrifices Irish peacekeepers continually experience and I wish to therefore make this book a heartfelt dedication to the men and women of the Curragh Camp past, present and future, and to their families, for their unstinting service and many countless sacrifices small and large.
SOLDIERS OF
THE SHORT GRASS
A History of the Curragh Camp
DAN HARVEY
Published in 2016
Merrion Press
8 Chapel Lane
Sallins
Co. Kildare
© 2016 Dan Harvey
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
An entry can be found on request
978-1-78537-061-8 (Paper)
978-1-78537-062-5 (Cloth)
978-1-78537-063-2 (PDF)
978-1-78537-065-6 (Kindle)
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
An entry can be found on request
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved alone, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
Inside design by www.jminfotechindia.com
Cover design by www.phoenix-graphicdesign.com
Cover/jacket front: ‘Drill Season’ on the Curragh Plains, late nineteenth century.
Cover/jacket back: A View of the Water Tower from the East, late nineteenth century. (Images courtesy of the National Library of Ireland)
Printed in Ireland by SPRINT-print Ltd
Contents
Chapter 1Construction and Consolidation of the Curragh Camp
Chapter 2Royalty, Rebels and Reform
Chapter 3By the Turn of the Century
Chapter 5The Easter Rising, 1916
Chapter 6The War of Independence
Chapter 8From a Revolutionary to a Regular Army
Chapter 12The Task of Modernization
Preface
by Maurice Sweeney
The Curragh of Kildare has, for a long time, held a special place in the Irish imagination, secured there first of all by the unique geographical nature of its vast sward of common pasturage. Its significance has been reinforced more recently by the presence of two establishments that each represents an important aspect of Irish life: the Curragh Racecourse, the spiritual home of an ancient and world-famous horse-breeding industry, and the Curragh Military Camp which, to the lay person at least, is synonymous with all things soldierly and represents the long military tradition of which this country can boast, whether in the service of others or fighting for ourselves. It is with the story of the military camp that this book is concerned, a story that is inextricably entangled with the story of Ireland itself. The benefits of the Curragh as a training ground − as well as an excellent position for a garrison in a troublesome country – had no doubt appealed to the British army for a long time, but it was not until the early 1850s, with the outbreak of the Crimean war, that the first move was made to establish a permanent presence.
Since then, the shape of the camp and the functions it carries out have been determined by the exigencies of the time. It has played
