2010:278 - St Michael’s Estate, ‘Four Acre Site’, St Vincent Street West, Inchicore, Dublin

An excavation was conducted on the site of the former Richmond Barracks, on the southern bank of the Grand Canal and to the east of Goldenbridge Cemetery, for a Dublin City Council housing scheme in December 2010. Topsoil over the two-acre site was stripped down to 19th-century layers (c. 0.65m depth), and numerous barracks structures (many of which retained their original floor surfaces) were identified. The excavation identified boundary walls, yards, military stables, general stores, offices and a three-chambered underground sand-filter water treatment system. No artefacts were recovered.
The Richmond Barracks were established in the first decade of the 19th century. Most of the signatories of the 1916 Declaration of Independence, as well as large numbers of their fellow rebels, were temporarily interned in Richmond Barracks prior to their execution or internment in British prisoner camps. With political independence in the early 1920s, the barracks were handed over to Irish government forces. They were found to be surplus to military requirements and were sold off, and converted into social housing in the 1930s. The barracks buildings were finally demolished in the 1970s and replaced by modern multi-storey housing blocks, which have been recently demolished to make way for the existing scheme.