The barracks were designed as a training depot for the British Army and were completed in 1827,[1] built on lands received from George Herbert, 11th Earl of Pembroke.

Two squadrons of the South Irish Horse were formed at the barracks in the early 20th century.

[2] The squadrons were mobilised at the barracks in August 1914 before being deployed to the Western Front.

[5] Erskine Childers, a leading IRA revolutionary, was executed at the barracks on 24 November 1922 after conviction by an Irish military court for the unlawful possession of a gun, a weapon presented to him by Michael Collins.

[6] The barracks were decommissioned in 1929 and handed over to the "Gaeltacht Industries Depot" which had responsibility for marketing goods produced in Ireland.