was effected in 1870.
During the same year (1866) as the Curragh Commission was in session in Newbridge Courthouse, on the Curragh plains the Countess of Kimberley presented new colours to the 1st Battalion 24th Regiment of Foot (2nd Warwickshire’s) who were stationed in the camp at that time. Thirteen years later on the 22 January 1879 many of the battalion members present at the presentation were wiped out by a massive Zulu warrior onslaught at the infamous Battle of Isandlwana (Anglo-Zulu War, 1879) in what was one of the British army’s most devastating defeats of the Victorian era. The colours themselves were bravely taken from the field by Lieutenants Teignmouth Melville and Neville Coghill, the latter from Castletownsend, Co. Cork. Neither survived the incident but both were later posthumously awarded the VC. Later that day the dramatic defence at Rorke’s Drift, a tiny hastily fortified supply station, occurred. Irishmen were prominent, amongst those who successfully conducted a stirringly epic and heroic action against overwhelming odds. A victory that is remembered as one among the most famous soldierly last stands in military history. Disciplined courage, steadfastness and soldierly skills learned on training grounds like the Curragh plains and barrack squares like those in the Curragh Camp contributed significantly to this outcome.
CHAPTER 2
Royalty, Rebels and Reform
A Royal ‘Romance’
During the summer of 1861, twenty-year-old Edward, the Prince of Wales, heir-apparent to the British throne, came to the Curragh Camp for a ten-week period of training to learn the practical duties of a regimental officer. Edward, later King Edward VII, was automatically a field officer in the 11th Hussars (Prince Albert’s Own) but was attached to a battalion of the Grenadier Guards under a Colonel Percy for the duration of his ‘drilling’. The Illustrated London News on 13 July 1861 described how,
...the Prince proceeded to the Curragh camp where he was received by the Commander-in-Chief, Sir George Brown, and a Royal salute was fired by a field battery of horse artillery. A grand review took place on Wednesday and yesterday there was a brigade review.
The quarters of the Prince of Wales, which are those formerly occupied by Lord Seaton when Commander of the Forces in Ireland, can be seen by anyone passing on the road through the Curragh to the encampment, from which road they are only a few yards distant. Two men of the Grenadier Guards are placed on sentry outside the entrance, and on the grounds inside, which are tastefully laid out, two small tents have been erected. His Royal Highness goes through the routine of military duties every morning with as much exactness as any other officer in the camp. When his morning exercises are over he usually, after lunch, plays games of racket.
Edward, however, did not progress speedily and his mastery of the spoken word of command required significant improvement. Brought up in isolation and lacking academic promise, he struggled initially with the projection of a martial presence. As a colonel he wished to be allowed to lead a battalion but since, according to the officer commanding the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards to which the prince was attached, he was deemed to be ‘imperfect in his drill’ and ‘indistinct in his word of command’, he was not regarded as having progressed sufficiently and was not allowed to do so. His mother, Queen Victoria, on hearing the news of his not receiving preferential treatment, praised the decision. In August, at the height of the drill season, with between 10,000 and 12,000 troops on the Curragh, she visited the camp to see her son and inspect the men on what was her third time in Ireland as queen, a stay that would last from 21 to 29 August. Accompanying her on the trip was her husband, Prince Albert, and three of her children, Princesses Alice and Helena and Prince Albert. At the Curragh, Sir George Brown, the General Commanding Officer in Ireland, and his headquarters staff ensured the proceedings were fitting for a royal visit, with the troops manoeuvring in proper regimental fashion: infantry advances, then forming defensive squares, horse artillery being drawn up and, of course, spectacular cavalry charges involving thousands of mounts and ‘sabres’ (troopers) – all in all a magnificent spectacle despite the onset of rain. Later, on the Queen’s return, and under strict supervision, Prince Edward was allowed to issue instructions and ‘command’ a large, brigade-sized formation. Victoria and Albert continued their tour, content that Edward was gainfully employed.
Looking east from the Water Tower circa 1905 (courtesy of the National Library of Ireland).
Within days of their departure, however, Edward’s stint at the Curragh became a lot more enlivened when he was introduced by his fellow officers to Nellie Clifden, an Irish actress, whom they were to smuggle into his quarters on no fewer than three occasions (6, 7 and 10 September). News of this liaison eventually reached his parents that November, by which time Edward was studying at Cambridge. Appalled by his son’s indiscretion and concerned about possible adverse consequences, Albert visited Edward at Cambridge to issue a stern reprimand. This, according to one BBC documentary, involved a long walk during which it rained heavily and both received a drenching. Two weeks later Albert fell ill and died. A grief-stricken Victoria blamed Edward for her husband’s death – ‘killed by that dreadful business’, the worry over Edward’s conduct. Albert had been diagnosed with typhoid fever but may well have been suffering for some time before with a chronic disease; speculation suggests he may have had Crohn’s Disease, renal failure or abdominal cancer. Edward’s ‘romance’ with Nellie Clifden was fleeting and he soon moved on from this indiscrete dalliance, marrying Princess Alexandra of Denmark in 1863. Edward, who was neither clever like his father nor authoritative like his mother, nevertheless had charm and continued to have affairs with other women despite his lengthy marriage to Princess Alexandra of Denmark. When Victoria died in January 1901 the overweight and then fifty-nine-year-old philanderer became the new monarch. Few sovereigns had come to the throne with so little expected of them; it was generally believed that he would be unable to emulate his mother. But Edward VII was to forge his own distinctive brand of monarchy. Victoria’s withdrawal from public life on the death of her husband years before had removed the role from public view. In stark contrast, Edward was to become highly visible. Even though he commenced his reign with a huge deficit of experience in terms of dealing with public life, was dangerously overweight and chain-smoked cigars, he immediately conjured a coronation of great splendour to create the maximum impact, thus transforming the public face of the monarchy. To the surprise of many of his contemporaries, he proved himself a more than capable monarch, playing an important role in renewing relationships with allies that had been damaged by the Boer War. He was to become a people’s king and, on his death in May 1910, his body lay in state. No other British monarch had ever received such an honour.
Bold Fenian Men
In 1858, just two years after the end of the Crimean War, and while the role of the Curragh Camp was being consolidated, the Irish Republican James Stephens founded the Irish Republican Brotherhood or Fenian Brotherhood in Dublin. John Devoy, a labourer’s son born in County Kildare was one of its leading members and his heartfelt aim was infiltration of the British army, mutiny and the internal take-over of military barracks as a signal for an all-out insurrection. During the Fenian preparations for a rebellion against British rule in Ireland, Devoy was made responsible for the recruitment of members among the Irish in the ranks of British regiments, both in Ireland and England. This task he undertook effectively. Many had a sympathy for insurrection, a smouldering disaffection having turned to defiance against British rule as a result of the Great Famine (‘An Gorta Mór,’ 1845–52) and its legacy of death, eviction and emigration; there was also huge discontent over land ownership and the associated oligarchy of predominantly absentee landlords. Limited electoral franchise was another flashpoint, the right to vote being confined to a few adult males. With Irish loyalty to the Crown dwindling, General Hugh Henry Rose, the 1st Baron Strathnairn, was appointed commander of the forces in Ireland to confront the Fenian conspiracy. If there were fears
