R.I.C. Depot, Dublin City, Co. Dublin

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Where: Dublin, Ireland

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When: Unknown

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Situated just inside the North Circular Road gates to the Phoenix Park these lovely, old, red bricked buildings always seemed separate from the old RIC Depot. Was Mr. French correct in his assertion that it was part of the Depot? It is certainly not the image that is shown these days for Garda Headquarters.

The suggestion (proposed by Bernard Healy and endorsed by Niall McAuley and swordscookie) is that these were the 'Married Quarters' for RIC members and families based at the main Depot. Though only very slightly modified over the years since, the modern StreetView doesn't include the armed sentries which Carol Maddock tells us patrolled the site in the decades around this photo....


Photographer: Robert French

Collection: Lawrence Photograph Collection

Date: Catalogue range c.1865-1914

NLI Ref: L_ROY_05563

You can also view this image, and many thousands of others, on the NLI’s catalogue at catalogue.nli.ie

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Owner: National Library of Ireland on The Commons
Source: Flickr Commons
Views: 20859
robertfrench williamlawrence lawrencecollection lawrencephotographicstudio glassnegative nationallibraryofireland royalirishconstabularydepot ricdepot gardaheadquarters redbricked northcircularroadgate phoenixpark gate ivy barrack obama depot marriedquarters terrace northroad sentries quarters lawrencephotographcollection

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  • profile

    ɹǝqɯoɔɥɔɐǝq

    • 21/Sep/2017 09:05:49

    I think Mr French / Lawrence made a distinction with this photo, calling it "Barrack" in the small white print bottom left, when the other 'similar items' refer to "Depot". Was this the dormitory for the R.I.C. officers or cadets? Streetview - www.google.com.au/maps/@53.3523713,-6.2999991,3a,60.6y,69... which shows double windows where there is one in the photo (see note).

  • profile

    sharon.corbet

    • 21/Sep/2017 09:12:44

    It's not entirely clear on the 25" OSI, but it looks like it may be part of the complex next door.

  • profile

    Bernard Healy

    • 21/Sep/2017 09:45:32

    https://www.flickr.com/photos/scorbet If I'm reading the map correctly, I think the railway tunnel runs underneath.

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    Niall McAuley

    • 21/Sep/2017 11:06:26

    The DIA has two entries. The main one is for the RIC Police Depot, now Garda HQ, but there is also this 1894 ref. to a Metropolitan police barrack.

  • profile

    Niall McAuley

    • 21/Sep/2017 11:15:36

    At this page from a guidebook to the Park there is a pic with a caption: Closing of Parkgate garda station circa 1930. The station had been a DMP barracks. left to right back row Sgt Thomas Keaveney plain clothes, gárdai Flynn, Thornton, McMahon (plain clothes), Delaney. Front row Park Ranger John Manning salutes Sgt Thomas Kelly. Note old DMP-style pointed helmets and the new flat Garda hat worn by the gárdai. The plain clothes gárdai constituted a vice squad for the park

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    Bernard Healy

    • 21/Sep/2017 11:19:25

    [https://www.flickr.com/photos/gnmcauley] I would have thought that referred to the Dublin Metropolitan Police Barracks at Parkgate Street. maps.osi.ie/publicviewer/#V2,713342,734476,12,9

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    Niall McAuley

    • 21/Sep/2017 11:22:29

    https://www.flickr.com/photos/bernardhealy I think you are right!

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    Bernard Healy

    • 21/Sep/2017 11:33:27

    [https://www.flickr.com/photos/gnmcauley] Or maybe even the DMP barracks at Bessborough which was also in the park. maps.osi.ie/publicviewer/#V2,710913,736869,11,9

  • profile

    Inverarra

    • 21/Sep/2017 12:01:20

    Some great sleuthing there. I always claim that I had a relation "out" in 1916 on the strength of a grand uncle who was a R.I.C sergeant in the Phoenix Park depot. D.M.P. were unarmed as opposed to the armed R.I.C.

  • profile

    Bernard Healy

    • 21/Sep/2017 12:54:12

    Okay - some wild speculation... phoenixpark.tumblr.com/post/139829857710/hansards-parliam... Is there any possibility that this might be the 'Married Constables Quarters' built c.1886? Hansard reports they were built on an 'acre and a half'. OS Map puts our building on a plot of 1.201 acres...

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    ɹǝqɯoɔɥɔɐǝq

    • 21/Sep/2017 12:59:19

    "Something About the R.I.C." - from Trove, a 1900 description of the R.I.C.; the six months of training at Phoenix park for new recruits, the rates of pay (12 shillings a week plus board and lodging) etc - trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/233731417

  • profile

    Niall McAuley

    • 21/Sep/2017 14:18:15

    https://www.flickr.com/photos/bernardhealy I like that Married Quarters idea - the building is clearly a terrace of small houses connected to the RIC depot, so it fits.

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    Swordscookie

    • 21/Sep/2017 17:49:24

    https://www.flickr.com/photos/gnmcauley This was the Married Quarters for the staff in (a) the RIC Depot until 1922 and later for members of the staff in the Garda Depot until the recruit training was moved to Templemore. Regrettably they are not small houses but small apartments and the reverse would show a balcony along the upper storey. These were considered very desirable due to their location and reasonable rental conditions! As regards the DMP Station in Parkgate St. that was used as a dormitory for the recruits right up to the transfer to Templemore and later became the Driving Test Centre for many years!

  • profile

    Carol Maddock

    • 21/Sep/2017 19:44:03

    From the Kerry Sentinel on Saturday, 6 January 1900 (vaguely close to the time this photo was taken?)

    SCENE AT THE R.I.C. DEPOT EXTRAORDINARY PRECAUTIONS AN EXPERIMENTAL NIGHT ALARM Much excitement, says the Dublin Evening Telegraph, prevails at the Depot, Phoenix Park, within the past few days owing to a scare as to some supposed danger to the buildings and extra precautionary measures are adopted by the authorities stationed there. The barracks, which, with the exception of two posts, was only guarded recently by side arms men, is now strengthened by the addition of fully armed sentries from sundown to morning. Patrols of men are also employed outside the establishment, and at the married quarters near the North Circular road gate of the Park an armed sentry is placed. At the commencement of these extraordinary proceedings the men were suddenly aroused in the evening by the sounding of the fire alarm bugle on the barrack square, to which all ranks hurried. The men were met by the commandant, Mr. Singleton, and the different officers of the staff, who ordered them to fall in, and in addressing them congratulated all on their sharp turnout. The Marlborough Cavalry Barracks, in which the 1st Dragoon Guards are stationed, to the rere of the Constabulary quarters, on hearing the bugle fire alarm the officers in charge of the cavalry immediately despatched a number of men to the outbreak. Nothing has caused so much excitement in Constabulary circles at the Depot, where all leave of absence is suspended for some time past, and additional numbers of men are daily arriving at the Reserve.

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    National Library of Ireland on The Commons

    • 22/Sep/2017 15:46:30

    Thanks https://www.flickr.com/photos/47297387@N03 - I've added that little nugget (together with the input from https://www.flickr.com/photos/bernardhealy, https://www.flickr.com/photos/swordscookie and others) into the description.

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    Dr. Ilia

    • 03/Oct/2017 09:00:05

    Beautiful

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    Niall McAuley

    • 06/Apr/2021 13:25:14

    OCO 65 in the archive, titled Residential street, in an unknown location, is this same terrace a few years later, with the creeper covering the gables. It is also flipped R to L. That one is an O'Connor and hence after 1900, in includes men in boaters, so probably 1905ish. I think that dates this one to the 1890s. Note the policeman in a pillbox hat, also pre-1900.