An Cosantóir

50 HISTORY OF COLLINS BARRACKS HISTORY OF COLLINS BARRACKS By Capt Oisín O'Higgins Situated on top of Military Hill, Collins Barracks has occupied a prominent place in the history of Cork City since the early 19th Century. The site of the current barracks has held some form of military installation since pre-Christian times, when the area was dominated by An Ráth Mór (the Big Fort), from where the Rathmore Gate takes its name. The existing domestic threat of nationalist insurrection, the rapidly emerging threat of Napoleon and the expansionist aims of post-revolutionary France, necessitated a large programme of improvements to British military infrastructure across Ireland in the early 19th Century. Designed by John Gibson, construction on "The New Barracks" started in 1801 and was completed in 1806. The updated structure housed 2,000 troops and 230 horses and would go on to billet and train troops that would fight for Queen (and later King) and Country in Spain, France, and Belgium against Napoleon, Alma and Sevastopol against the Tsar, across the Transvaal against the Zulu, and again in France and Belgium against the forces of the Kaiser. The 1849 visit by Queen Victoria led to an expansion of the barracks, and the facility was then renamed "Victoria Barracks" in her honour. Victoria barracks and the troops based there played a pivotal role in the British effort to quell the revolutionary spirit of the people of Cork during the days following the 1916 Easter Rising, and throughout the War of Independence. Thomas Kent was executed by a British firing squad inside the barracks for his role in the Easter Rising, and further republican prisoners met their end before the firing squad during the 1919 – 1921 period, as Crown Forces struggled to maintain a hold on the Cork region. Troops and Auxiliaries involved in the 1920 burning of Cork City were stationed there. By the end of the War of Independence, Victoria Barracks was the largest military installation in the south of the country, and held the headquarters of the British 6th Division. The ratification of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in January 1922 led to the gradual British handover of military infrastructure to the emerging National Army. This handover took place against a backdrop of emerging pre-Civil War tensions. While the first barrack handover, Beggars Bush in Dublin, took British troops pulling out of Victoria Barracks (Collins Barracks) in 1922 Éamon de Valera inspects a guard of honour in Collins Barracks, Cork. (Irish Examiner)

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