The name Beggarʼs Bush
was a common one in Medieval
Britain, most large
towns had a ʻBeggarʼs Bushʼ on
the outskirts where professional
beggars were said to gather. Beggar
ʼs Bush Barracks was built
in 1827 as a recruiting depot
to train soldiers to go on to the
Richmond, Royal and Portobello
barracks.

It has played a pivotal role in
Irish history up to the time of
Irish independence. It issued
troops for the Crimea and Flanders
as well as many other postings
across the British Empire.

The Barracks was also located
here to protect travellers coming
to Dublin from the asylum harbour
in Dun Laoghaire and the
harbours in Dalkey who were
being attacked by bandits strategically
located in the Beggarʼs
Bush area, shown above left in
an old engraving.

The Barracksʼs first big military
commitment was the disastrous
Crimean war of 1854-57,
with British and French forces
landing in the Crimea on the
Black Sea coast to stop Russian
expansion into Turkey.

After a bad winter in 1854-55,
when seventy per cent of soldiers
in the Crimea died from plague
or wounds, the troops sent out to
replace them were in the main
Irish and Catholic. So it was that
from Beggarʼs Bush that soldiers
of the Connaught Rangers and
various Fusilier regiments left
for battle, embarking from the
North Wall.

The big cannons placed around
the barracks with heavy chains to
make a perimeter are thought to
be from the Crimea.

The Barracks was locally
important in the 1916 Rebellion,
with heavy fighting at
nearby Mount Street Bridge and
Bolandʼs Mills.

ʻThe Gorgeous Wrecksʼ, whose
name derived from the ʻGeorgius
Rexʼ on their red tunics and who
were drawn from various citizens
who could not fight in France,
made up the Dublin Veteran
Corps (a kind of dadʼs army).

They had a parade on Easter
Monday 1916, which was ambushed
by rebels, with five men
killed and 46 wounded. It is
thought that sniper fire from the
rebels prevented any further engagement
from the Barracks during
the Rebellion.

Later came the Black and Tans,
who proceeded up and down the
Banks of the Grand Canal between
Portobello and Beggarʼs
Bush, which became known as
the ʻAuxies Trotʼ after the feared
Auxiliary Cadets.

Beggarʼs Bush Barracks was
the first barracks to be surrendered
following the treaty
in February 1922. The picture
above shows General Eoin
OʼDuffy accepting the
handover. There were a
number of executions here
in the following years, the
most notable being that
of Erskine Childers, who
wrote the ʻRiddle of the
Sandsʼ and was father of
President Childers (1973-
74).

In 1929, Pembroke
Township took over the
Barracks for housing local
families and that remained its
main use till recent times.
The Barracks now houses The
National Print Museum of Ireland,
above,
The Geological
Survey of Ireland, The Labour
Relations Commission and also
houses staff and artefacts from
the Natural History Museum.