Curragh Camp

The Curragh Camp (Irish: Campa an Churraigh) is an army base and military college in the Curragh, County Kildare, Ireland. It is the main training centre for the Irish Defence Forces and is home to 2,000 military personnel.

The Curragh has historically been a military assembly area, owing to the wide expanse of plain. In 1599, Henry Harvey noted "a better place for the deploying of an Army I never beheld." However, the Curragh's history goes further back; it is mentioned in the Annals of the Four Masters that Lóegaire Lorc, the king of Ireland, was slain on the Curragh by Cobthach Cóel Breg.

Richard Talbot, 1st Earl of Tyrconnel chose the Curragh as a muster point for the cause of James II during the Williamite War in Ireland. In 1783, a review of the Irish Volunteers raised to assist in the defence of the country while Great Britain was at war with America held on the Curragh attracted upwards of 50,000 spectators.

It was also a muster point during the 1798 Rebellion and was mentioned in the Irish peasant song The Sean-Bhean bhocht. As translated by Padraic Colum in 1922:

And where will they have their camp?

Says the Shan Van Vocht;
Where will they have their camp?
Says the Shan Van Vocht;
On the Curragh of Kildare
the boys will be there,

with their pikes in good repair.

There were numerous training camps organised on the Curragh in the 19th century including for training militia to defend the UK during the Napoleonic Wars. However, the first permanent military structures were designed and built from 1855 by British soldiers of the Corps of Royal Engineers to support efforts in the Crimean War. These structures for 10,000 infantry were constructed of wood. The camp also had its own post office, a fire station, ten barracks, two churches, water-pumping station, courthouse and clock tower.