2012:078 - ENNIS: Clonroad Beg, Clare

The construction of the Inner Relief Road Section E, Station Road, Ennis, Co. Clare has revealed significant elements of the County Gaol constructed c. 1813. This structure was used as the State Inebriate Reformatory from c. 1899 and as a military barracks from c. 1918 until its substantial demolition in the 1920s when the site was used for a factory.

Although the ground plan exposed in the excavations differs little from the OS map of 1879, it is the physical record that is most valuable. This is poignantly evidenced by the worn thresholds of the cells, timber and slate-tiled floors, drains, whitewashed lime-plaster and mustard yellow and cobalt blue paint. The personal items discovered—a child’s toothbrush, a soldier’s cap-badge and a teaspoon—as well as live rifle bullets, are evocative reminders of the thousands of people that passed through the institutions’ gates.

Parts of the gaol site were excavated by Aisling Mulcahy in 2010 prior to the construction of a furniture store (Excavations 2010, No. 96, 10E0432).