Soldiers of the Short Grass. Dan Harvey
counted. The side which applied its plan best, won.
It is the primary role of any army at any age to train. Wars interrupted such training. When not actually fighting, armies prepare for war, and training in the aftermath of the Crimean War continued apace on the Curragh, having changed to encompass the effect of the increased range, accuracy and lethality of the newly introduced Enfield Pattern 1853 rifle musket. The aim was a cohesive effect from all arms (infantry, artillery and cavalry) and it was training at the Curragh plains that helped the British army to achieve this.
Consolidation
In March 1857, just a year after the end of the Crimean War, Prince George, Duke of Cambridge, who was general commander-in-chief of the army issued a dictum that the encampments at Aldershot and the Curragh were to be the principal summer (April to September) training grounds for the regular and reserve armies in England and Ireland. The Curragh, the largest military station in Ireland, became the training ground for the battlefields of wars and military operations conducted by the British during the latter half of the nineteenth century and the early part of the twentieth century; most of these were colonial in nature and included the Indian Mutiny, the First Afghan War (1878), the Zululand War (1879), the Egyptian Campaign (1882) and the Boer War (1889–1902).
Now ordained as a permanent camp of instruction, the economic and social links between the camp dwellers and their civilian neighbours were maintained and set to strengthen. Each year thereafter the lives of the local people and the economies of the surrounding towns, villages and farmsteads became increasingly intertwined with the camp, either on a business basis, through employment or recruitment, or on social terms. Every year a great number of regiments from the home stations in Ireland arrived at the Curragh for training, while the camp’s permanent garrisons developed the new training establishment into a self-sufficient community, but one that maintained a strong relationship with the townspeople of Newbridge, Kildare and Kilcullen and with its neighbours at Brownstown, Maddenstown and Ballysax on the fringe of the Curragh plain.
The age-old practice of combining fire and manoeuvre needed new impetus. New capabilities with developing weaponry required new tactics that would both maximize and mitigate against their effects. Large numbers of British units required collective combined training as part of larger formations. Training for conventional war-fighting, combining cavalry, infantry and artillery, received a new focus, and the Curragh, with its large plain and a camp that could accommodate large numbers of troops, proved to be the place for this. The summer months, with their better weather and longer days, became known as the ‘drill season’. When the camp could not accommodate the numbers involved, the plains played host to tented villages, the excess numbers living ‘under canvas’ for the duration of the season.
The camp itself also saw regular changes in personnel. The policy of the War Office was that, in principle, regiments should change stations after a year, but that cavalry units could remain longer. The intention was to prevent undue fraternization which might lead to unions between the men and local women. Although the official policy was not always strictly adhered to and many regiments stayed for longer periods or returned again to a particular station, the nature of military service ensured that there was a constant rotation of men and their families. The excitement generated by the arrival or departure of troops, often from or to exotic stations throughout the empire, and the regular weekly financial stimulus of the soldiers’ pay-packets into the shops and public houses combined to create the special atmosphere of a garrison location and led to the formation of a less inward-looking resident community. If other ranks sometimes found companionship locally – the non-commissioned officers with the tradesmen and contractors with whom they had contact, and the troops with their counterparts in the general population – the officers were automatically welcomed by the landed gentry whose activities they came to share. The highly stratified military society was reflected in life beyond the camp boundaries and social interaction flourished accordingly.
In times of war, the expansion of forces would bring monetary gain to the locality. Not only ‘war finances’ but ‘war fever’ gripped the civilians as they waved the soldiers off to battle, mourned the dead or celebrated returning heroes. Their lives became interwoven monetarily, socially, emotionally and politically with those of the troops, underlining the extent to which the county came to depend on the military presence, something that was reflected in the reaction of the local people to the fortunes of the soldiers during times of war.
The impact on the surrounding area of a permanent camp, and the consequent military manoeuvres, weapons’ practice and the huge and rapid growth during ‘drill season’ from April to September, raised a number of issues that needed to be addressed. The loss of a great amount of grazing for sheep, for instance, as well as rights of way for residents and the traditions of the Turf Club and the racing fraternity, had all to be balanced against the needs and interests of the army. It was also necessary to ensure that none of the Curragh’s users damaged the grass surface of the plain irretrievably through practise cavalry charges, movements of artillery such as gun carriages and heavy usage by infantry troops. In May 1866, a Bill to make better provision for the management and use of the Curragh was circulated in the House of Commons. Before its second reading, the Board of Treasury announced that the government intended to appoint a commission to inquire into the question on the spot, with a view to introducing legislation for the following session. On 14 September 1866 the Curragh Commission, as it was called, sat at Newbridge Courthouse and, over eight days, heard evidence from the interested parties, including land owners and local residents. Lord Strathnairn was to the fore amongst the military representatives, while the Turf Club, County Grand Jury and Naas Board of Guardians all had an input.
The findings of the Commission determined that the area should come under the control of the War Department and the making of bye-laws should be authorized (promulgated in 1868); the Turf Club’s status was confirmed and all rights of common pasture, rights of way and other rights were guaranteed to continue as before. Some 400 claims on the Curragh plains were considered in January 1869 by three commissioners convened at Newbridge; six months later, just over 50 per cent of these applicants had their rights affirmed with awards, and an act to confirm these was effected in 1870.
During the same year (1866) as the Curragh Commission was in session in Newbridge Courthouse, on the Curragh plains the Countess of Kimberley presented new colours to the 1st Battalion 24th Regiment of Foot (2nd Warwickshire’s) who were stationed in the camp at that time. Thirteen years later on the 22 January 1879 many of the battalion members present at the presentation were wiped out by a massive Zulu warrior onslaught at the infamous Battle of Isandlwana (Anglo-Zulu War, 1879) in what was one of the British army’s most devastating defeats of the Victorian era. The colours themselves were bravely taken from the field by Lieutenants Teignmouth Melville and Neville Coghill, the latter from Castletownsend, Co. Cork. Neither survived the incident but both were later posthumously awarded the VC. Later that day the dramatic defence at Rorke’s Drift, a tiny hastily fortified supply station, occurred. Irishmen were prominent, amongst those who successfully conducted a stirringly epic and heroic action against overwhelming odds. A victory that is remembered as one among the most famous soldierly last stands in military history. Disciplined courage, steadfastness and soldierly skills learned on training grounds like the Curragh plains and barrack squares like those in the Curragh Camp contributed significantly to this outcome.
CHAPTER 2
Royalty, Rebels and Reform
A Royal ‘Romance’
During the summer of 1861, twenty-year-old Edward, the Prince of Wales, heir-apparent to the British throne, came to the Curragh Camp for a ten-week period of training to learn the practical duties of a regimental officer. Edward, later King Edward VII, was automatically a field officer in the 11th Hussars (Prince Albert’s Own) but was attached to a battalion of the Grenadier Guards under a Colonel Percy for the duration of his ‘drilling’. The Illustrated London News on 13 July 1861 described how,
...the Prince proceeded to the Curragh camp where he was received by the Commander-in-Chief, Sir George Brown, and a Royal salute was fired by a