Barracks

The National Monuments Service's description

Portobello Barracks / Cathal Brugha Barracks

 

Cathal Brugha Barracks was recorded in 2025 in the ‘Our Shared Built Military Heritage: The online mapping, inventorying and recording of the Army Barracks of Ireland, 1690-1921' a project that was funded by the North South Research Programme 2022-2024 and co-led by University College Dublin and The Open University' (Forbes and McGrath 2025).  The barracks was described in the inventory of the ‘Army Barracks of Ireland - Our Shared Military Heritage, 1690-1921’ as follows; ‘Portobello Barracks was built between 1810 and 1815 both as part of the response to the rebellions of 1798 and 1803 and the ongoing Napoleonic Wars, and out of a desire to consolidate and reduce the number of new smaller barracks that had proliferated in Dublin in the intervening years. Originally designated as a cavalry barracks, it was from the outset a large complex with two main squares, while later additions included an infant school for officers’ children, a garrison church, a hospital, a canteen and a football field. In 1831-2, the garrison consisted of 17 officers, 314 men and 342 horses, along with 16 hospital patients. By 1867 the barracks had expanded to accommodate artillery as well, with a combined capacity for 20 cavalry officers, 454 cavalrymen and 512 horses, and 20 artillery officers, 463 artillerymen and 360 horses. During the 1916 Rising, Francis Sheehy-Skeffington and two other innocent civilians were murdered by firing squad at Portobello Barracks on the orders of Captain John Bowen-Colthurst, who escaped punishment on the grounds of insanity. The barracks remained occupied by the British forces until the withdrawal in 1922. It was subsequently occupied by the National Army and briefly functioned as the headquarters of the army’s commander-in-chief, Michael Collins, during the Irish Civil War. In 1952 it was renamed Cathal Brugha Barracks, in honour of the Sinn Féin Minister for Defence during the Irish War of Independence. It remains an active installation of the Irish Defence Forces'.

 

Cathal Brugha Barracks described by the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage as a; ‘Detached twenty-bay two-storey barracks, built c.1810, having single-bay single-storey porches to north and south elevations and full-height red brick returns to rear (west) elevation. Pitched slate roof with granite eaves course, red brick chimneystacks, terracotta ridge tiles, cast-iron rainwater goods and cut calp limestone coping. Hipped roofs to returns. Snecked squared calp limestone walls having brown brick panels to chimneybreasts and red brick laid in English bond to returns. Square-headed window openings with brown brick surrounds, granite sills, six-over-six pane timber sash windows and tripartite timber sash windows. Six-over-six pane and two-over-two pane timber sash windows to returns. Square-headed door openings having cut granite Gibbsian surrounds and timber battened doors. Louvered vents to door to north. Square-headed timber-lined niche to north elevation. Portobello Barracks was constructed at the beginning of the nineteenth century as a cavalry barracks. It was taken over by Irish troops in 1922, and became the Headquarters of the National Army, under the leadership of Michael Collins. In 1952 it was renamed after Cathal Brugha, Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army during the War of Independence, and Minister for Defence in the first Dáil. The formal, functional plan of this building is apparent in the unadorned façade, and a regularity of design and proportion is seen in the even fenestration arrangement. The use of snecked calp in the walls contributes to its stoic, forbidding aspect, and is subtly enlivened by granite detailing.’ (NIAH Reg. No. 50081021).

 

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien based on description taken from inventory of the ‘Army Barracks of Ireland - Our Shared Military Heritage, 1690-1921

 

Date of Compilation: 11 November 2025

References

Forbes, S. and McGrath, C. I. 2025  Army Barracks of Ireland, 1690–1921: Barracks Dataset and Supplementary Files (version 1.0). The Open University. Dataset.