Castlebar Military Barracks, sometimes referred to as Mitchell Barracks, was a military installation at Rock Square in

Castlebar Castlebar () is the county town of County Mayo, Ireland. Developing around a 13th-century castle of the de Barry family, from which the town got its name, the town now acts as a social and economic focal point for the surrounding hinterland. Wi ...

County Mayo County Mayo (; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. In the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht, it is named after the village of Mayo, County Mayo, Mayo, now ge ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. The barracks was closed in 2012 and sold to

Mayo County Council Mayo County Council () is the local government in the Republic of Ireland, local authority of County Mayo, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. As a county council, it is governed by the Local Government Act 2001. The council is responsible for housin ...

with an agreement to lease a portion of the barracks back to the Defence Forces for the use of a reserve unit.

History

The infantry barracks at

, which were built on the site of an old castle, were completed in 1834. The barracks became the home of the 3rd Battalion, the

Connaught Rangers The Connaught Rangers ("The Devil's Own") was an Ireland, Irish line infantry regiment of the British Army formed by the amalgamation of the 88th Regiment of Foot (Connaught Rangers) (which formed the ''1st Battalion'') and the 94th Regiment of Fo ...

in the late 19th century and it was at Castlebar that the battalion was disbanded in 1901. A part of barracks was burnt down by the

Irish Republican Army The Irish Republican Army (IRA) is a name used by various Resistance movement, resistance organisations in Ireland throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Organisations by this name have been dominantly Catholic and dedicated to anti-imperiali ...

in spring 1922. Blocks E/F and J/K/L and the hospital were completely destroyed before the site was secured by the forces of the

Irish Free State The Irish Free State (6 December 192229 December 1937), also known by its Irish-language, Irish name ( , ), was a State (polity), state established in December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. The treaty ended the three-ye ...

in summer 1922. On the night of 28 February 1957 the St. Patricks Boys National School building was burnt down, on 3 April 1957 the school was temporally relocated to blocks G and H of the barracks. A replacement school building was opened on 9 November 1961. The barracks, which latterly were used as a training camp by the

Reserve Defence Forces The Reserve Defence Forces (RDF) () are the combined Military reserve force, reserve components of the Defence Forces (Ireland), Irish Defence Forces. The RDF is organised into the First Line Reserve (FLR) and an active Second Line Reserve. Th ...

, closed in March 2012 and the site has since been acquired by

. On 29 January 2016 when workers were probing the ceiling of block A they discovered a human skull. Although the barracks has sometimes been referred to as "Mitchell Barracks", local media simply refers to it as "Castlebar Military Barracks".

References

{{reflist Barracks in the Republic of Ireland

Barracks Barracks are buildings used to accommodate military personnel and quasi-military personnel such as police. The English word originates from the 17th century via French and Italian from an old Spanish word 'soldier's tent', but today barracks ar ...