Ireland's Military Story

Category: Irish War of Independence

  • Defence Forces Mark Centenary of the Handover of Beggar’s Bush Barracks

    Defence Forces Mark Centenary of the Handover of Beggar’s Bush Barracks

    Defence Forces Mark Centenary of the Handover of Beggar’s Bush Barracks

    Photos by John O’Byrne

     Yesterday a ceremonial event was held by the Defence Forces to mark the centenary of the handover of Beggar’s Bush Barracks from the British authorities to the Irish Provisional Government on 31 January and 1 February 1922. In the footsteps of the Provisional Government troops, members of the 7th Infantry Battalion marched through the gates of Beggar’s Bush at 15:00 from Haddington Rd. and paraded on the barrack square. General Officer Commanding 2nd Brigade, Brigadier General Tony Cudmore presided over the ceremony. 

    Following the handover in 1922, the barracks became the first headquarters of the new army. It was vacated by the military in 1929. Today the barracks is home to the Irish Labour History Society Museum which is based in the former central garrison headquarters and the National Print Museum, which is based in the former Garrison Chapel.

    At the end of the ceremony the 7th Infantry Battalion recreated the famous image of the Fianna Pipe Band and Dublin Guard.

    Photos by John O’Byrne

    Album of yesterday’s ceromony showing members of 7th Infantry Battalion marching into Beggar’s Bush Barracks. In attendance are also relatives of the Dublin Guard.
  • President Lays Wreath Commemorating Bloody Sunday

    President Lays Wreath Commemorating Bloody Sunday

    President Lays Wreath Commemorating Bloody Sunday

    Yesterday evening, at the invitation of the GAA, President Michael D. Higgins laid a wreath in Croke Park to commemorate the death of 14 people killed while attending a football match between Dublin and Tipperary on 21 November 1920.

    President Higgins laying a wreath at Croke Park yesterday evening. (Photo: Stephen McCarthy Sportsfile)

    Speaking about the event, President Higgins said:

    “At the close of that day of such killing and injury 100 years ago, 32 people, three of them children, lay dead or dying in Dublin. Countless others were wounded, many with their lives irrevocably changed as a result of the events of the day. More death and heartbreak was to follow.

    While details of these events and the context in which they occurred had initially been hidden, even denied, over the intervening period they continued to be contested, obscured or selectively recalled for various purposes. We recall today those lost and those who suffered with a sense of profound sadness and outrage even, but also as a reminder of the fragility of the hard-earned peace to which we have become accustomed and the consequences that flow from the abuse of power and the failure of diplomacy and politics.

    That the events that took place can, in their brutality and casualness to the taking of life, still shock and challenge us all is to be understood. People from different backgrounds on the island may reflect on Bloody Sunday in different ways. We must respect this and be open to differing perspectives, and encourage a hospitality for these differing narratives of the events of that day. For all of us, to avoid becoming captives of any frozen version of the events of our past, we must find the courage to remember painful events with honesty. Doing this can only assist us in taking responsibility for the present and our shared, peaceful future together.”