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HISTORY OF CATHAL BRUGHA BARRACKS
Portobello
Barracks,
as it was
originally
known,
was built
in the
early part
of the
nineteenth century on a site
between the city of Dublin
and the village of Rathmines.
Designed as a cavalry
barracks, it took the form of
four squares divided by the
buildings housing the garrison,
two of which remain today.
Portobello guarded the southern
approaches to Dublin from
the Wicklow mountains and
provided an important military
presence on the south side
of the city in the immediate
aftermath of the 1798 Rebellion
HISTORY OF CATHAL
BRUGHA BARRACKS
By Comdt Donal Mitchell
Photos provided by Comdt Donal Mitchell
and Emmet's Rising of 1803.
Throughout the nineteenth
century, the barracks was
garrisoned by units of the British
Army, all the way up to the
tumultuous events surrounding
the birth of the nation, in the
early part of the twentieth
century. Cathal Brugha Barracks
was central to many of these
events, both in the early part of
the twentieth century and the
centenary commemorations
100 years later. Beginning in
1916, the garrison of Portobello
Barracks (as it was then) was
involved in the fighting in Dublin
throughout Easter Week.
One of
the most
infamous
events of
the Rising,
and indeed
of the entire
history of the
barracks, took
place when Francis Christopher
Sheehy-Skeffington was shot
without trial alongside two local
men, Patrick Dickinson and
Thomas McIntyre on the orders
of the Officer in Command,
Capt Bowen-Colthurst. Capt
Bowen-Colthurst had been
left in temporary command of
Six recruits standing at ease at the
church in Cathal Brugha Bks sometime
between 1930-1960
Cathal Brugha Bks
Recruits, Cathal Brugha Bks
In the background are Ford
Armoured Cars and truck
can be seen. Taken in Cathal
Brugha Barracks, Dublin,
sometime between 1958-1968
