An Cosantóir

An Cosantóir October 2016 www.dfmagazine.ie 30 | the curragh, home oF the warrior by LT COL DAN HARVEY View of the Water Tower from McDermott Square (Courtesy of the National Library of Ireland) Curragh Camp looking West (Courtesy of the National Library of Ireland) Curragh Camp looking East (Courtesy of the National Library of Ireland) T he Curragh impacts on you: its out-of-the-ordinary openness confronts you: a strong sensation of space sud- denly strikes you. the visitor arriving onto the Curragh is exposed to a boundless, semi-natural grassland of well-grazed, flat and undulating terrain. the abundant acreage is inter- spersed with copious furze bushes and framed to the north by mature trees, behind which resides a complex building centred on seven red-bricked barracks. The Curragh is a landscape dominated by space; stark, vast and vacant. It tricks you into thinking there is nothing there, when nothing could be further from the truth. The Curragh's overt emptiness belies its abundant covert content. Hidden among its humps and hollows are ancient sites, silent ageless sentinels. On the Curragh space and time are bound together, deliver- ing an archaeological, ecological, geographical, historical and mythical uniqueness. Of significant cultural importance, the Curragh has a strong story to tell. Its extensive, distinctive, spectacular, 5,000-acre expanse (4,870 to be exact) is steeped in strong historical overtones, with horses, sheep and soldiers as its traditional occupants. The Curragh also contains a millennia of myths and memories; legends, fables and folklore; unique flora and fauna; and archaeology. Long before its present, permanent military presence, it had wit- nessed armies mustering and manoeuvring, camping and training. It was the site of battles, massacres, defeats and victories. Mythologi- cal stories predating recorded history tell of military encounters on the Curragh. For millennia its expanses have made it an attractive place for warfare. Whether as an assembly area or an arena for ag- gressive encounters this extraordinary space has been exploited by countless warriors throughout its history. Regular use of the Curragh as a military base became the norm during the 17th and 18th centuries, with the Wars of the Confedera- tion during the 1640s witnessing armies camping on the Curragh. Nearly 50 years later, in 1689, nine Jacobean regiments, with 4,500 men, gathered on the Curragh. A year later, en route to their ill-fated involvement in the historic defeat at the Battle of the Boyne, the Jacobeans were joined on the Curragh by a force of 7,000 French troops. This strong and specific association, with its deep mythological footprint, saw the Curragh slowly become moulded to the military. It was little surprise then, when, in the mid-19th Century, its sweeping, unhindered vastness, its inexhaustible supply of wa- ter, and its central location, near the capital but also facilitating the easy movement of troops to different points throughout the country, made it ideally suited for the building of a permanent military camp. The specific occasion that saw it come into being was the British response to the Crimean War in 1855. Since then its continual consolidation has seen troops travel from the Cur- ragh to the many 'little wars' of Empire, to the Boer War, to the Great War, and to Dublin in 1916 in response to the Easter Rising. The raising of the Irish tricolour for the first time at the camp, on 16 May 1922, signalled no change to its level of military service as the Curragh's forces were quickly embroiled in the Civil War, fol- lowed by the Emergency, and later the Troubles, while also forging a hard-earned, much-envied reputation as international peacekeep- ers. The next time you look across the Curragh plain, close your eyes; it shouldn't be hard to take that leap in imagi- nation required to see images of ancient armies, bands of warriors, French expeditionary forces, Jacobean regi- ments, great British garrisons, soldiers of the newly-formed Irish state, and blue- helmeted peace- keepers forming up to travel overseas, looming in front of you. about the author: Lt Col Harvey is the author of Soldiers of the Short Grass - a His- tory of the Curragh Camp, a book that spans 150 years of Curragh history, from the establishment of a permanent camp in 1855 until the present. He is also joint-author, together with CQMS Gerry White, of The Barracks - a history of Victoria/Collins Bar- racks, Cork.

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