Redcoats on the Curragh of Kildare

Soldiers of the Short Grass: A History of the Curragh Camp

by Dan Harvey

(Merrion Press, €14.99)

J. Anthony Gaughan

This book is in two parts: the first part deals with the Curragh Camp under the British regime, the second narrates its history since it was taken over by the Irish Provisional government in May 1922. 

The beginnings of the camp can be traced to 1855. In that year General Sir John F. Burgoyne, inspector general of fortifications, directed that a camp for 10,000 infantry be built in the Curragh of Kildare to handle troops to be trained for service in the Crimea. Lieutenant Colonel H.W. Lugard supervised its construction. 

Of 111,000 men who fought in the British Crimean army over 37,000, 40% were Irish and of these 7,000 were killed. 

Nearly all of those Irish Crimean war servicemen had been trained on the Curragh. The author points out that these soldiers were not the only Irish who served in the Crimea.  

Wounded

Mother Mary Francis Bridgeman and 14 other members of the Mercy Order attended the wounded and dying outside Sevastopol and it has recently emerged that their service was far more significant than that of the much lionised Florence Nightingale and her colleagues.

Owing to the infiltration of the movement by informers and spies, the Fenian Rising of March 1867 was doomed to failure and was quickly suppressed by troops dispatched from the Curragh. 

These were from English regiments as, to ensure that they did not fraternise with the local population, Irish soldiers were invariably sent to serve in the far-flung outposts of the British Empire. 

The troops in the Curragh were employed in the struggle between tenants and landlords known as the Land War (1879-82).  They provided escorts for prisoners and personal protection for sheriffs, bailiffs and landlords, assisted at evictions, and guarded jails and public gatherings.  The training of regiments for the Boer War (1899-1902) was the main activity in the camp at the end of the 19th Century.  

The camp was again to the fore in training most of the Irish soldiers who featured in World War I (1914-18) during which 49,000 of them lost their lives.

In the meantime one of the seminal events in recent Irish history occurred in the camp.  It became known as the ‘Curragh Mutiny’.  

The Ulster Volunteer Force was established in 1913 to prevent Home Rule. As tensions rose in Belfast troops from the Curragh were directed to protect military installations in the North. Officers from the 3rd Cavalry Brigade and other units tendered their resignations rather than obey the order which was then cancelled.  

A few years later most of the garrison was involved in defeating the insurgents in Dublin during the Easter Rising and the camp was the focal point for the Crown forces in their unsuccessful attempts to pacify the country during the War of Independence (1919 -21). 

In his survey of the camp’s history up to and including World War I Harvey provides a fascinating account of developments in military strategy, tactics, training-procedures and weaponry, while not neglecting to record the spartan social conditions prevailing in the camp.

No sooner had the camp passed from British into Irish hands than it became a focal point in the Civil War between the Pro-Treaty and the Anti-Treaty factions of the IRA, becoming the HQ of the National Army (Pro-Treaty IRA) which set about establishing the authority of the Irish government throughout the country. 

Civil war

During and following the Civil War many hundreds of prisoners were detained on the Curragh Camp. Subsequently this was to recur from time to time following IRA activity.

The author describes the preparations made to cope with a possible invasion following the outbreak of World War II (1939-45). During that time 1,500 prisoners were detained in the camp, most were members of the IRA the rest were Allied and Axis personnel most of whom had strayed into Irish territory.

Harvey concludes with an account of the participation of the Irish army in peacekeeping duties overseas and the preparation of the various units to this end on the Curragh. 

This service began in 1960 in the Republic of Zaire (Belgian Congo), continues down to the present and, as Harvey notes, has been widely acclaimed.

This splendid monograph will enthral the general reader as well as those interested in our military history. 

I can’t refrain from adding a sentimental postscript. It resonated with me at a personal level as my parents met in the Curragh Camp!