Barracks

The National Monuments Service's description

McKee Barracks / Marlborough Barracks (Cavalry)

 

A 19th-century barracks on on Blackhorse Avenue 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; ‘A barracks was built on Blackhorse Avenue, near the Phoenix Park, between 1888 and 1892 in order to accommodate a war-strength regiment of cavalry comprising 862 men of all ranks and their horses. It was the last permanent barracks to be constructed in Dublin and completed the project for encirclement of the city first envisaged and commenced at the time of the Napoleonic Wars at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Its strategic location also allowed easy access to the Phoenix Park for training purposes as well as close proximity to sea and rail transport links. It was initially known as Grangegorman Barracks but was thereafter renamed Marlborough Barracks, possibly after the former lord lieutenant of Ireland from 1876-80, John Winston Spencer Churchill, 7th duke of Marlborough, though more likely after his more famous ancestor, John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough. It remained in continual service as an active military barracks during the final decades of the British Army’s presence in Dublin and was handed over to the National Army during the Irish Civil War. Renamed McKee Barracks in 1926 in honour of Richard ‘Dick’ McKee, an Irish Republican Army officer from the Dublin Brigade who was killed while in custody after the events of Bloody Sunday in November 1920, the barracks remains in use by the Irish Defence Forces'.

 

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.