[2] Richard Talbot, 1st Earl of Tyrconnel chose the Curragh as a muster point for the cause of James II during the Williamite War in Ireland.

In 1783, a review of the Irish Volunteers raised to assist in the defence of the country while Great Britain was at war with America held on the Curragh attracted upwards of 50,000 spectators.

[5] However, the first permanent military structures were designed and built from 1855 by British soldiers of the Corps of Royal Engineers to support efforts in the Crimean War.

A great troop review was held for the visit and an album of the occasion can be found in the Royal Archive at Windsor Castle.

However, the camp was well provided for, with recreational facilities (including, for the officers, hunting with the local gentry), several postal deliveries a day (last collection for England at 11pm), and a daily Mass for Catholics at the East Church.

It was mentioned in the British Parliament's Contagious Disease Acts, which allowed the authorities to stop and arrest women if they suspected them of being prostitutes.

[12] Their story gained prominence in a series of articles in the Pall Mall Gazette by the English journalist James Greenwood in 1867.

[4][13] The problem of sexually transmitted diseases due to the prevalence of prostitution and men willing to partake in their services can be seen by the numbers reporting with gonorrhea in the military hospital in the 1911 census.

[20] In August 1920, the British Parliament passed the Restoration of Order in Ireland Act 1920, which permitted military authorities to arrest (intern) any Irish person without charge or trial.

The handover took place at 10 o'clock on Tuesday 16 May 1922, when the camp was handed over to a party of Irish troops commanded by Lieutenant General O'Connell.

The Leinster Leader of 23 December 1922 reported that a column of ten men had operated against railways, goods trains and shops in the vicinity of Kildare for some time.

[26] On 13 December, the men were surprised in a dug-out at a farmhouse at Moore's Bridge, on the edge of the Curragh plains, by Free State troops.

One version has it that his arm was broken when he was being apprehended and he was subsequently killed by a blow of a rifle butt on the head at the scene of the raid when he was unable to climb on the truck that conveyed the men to the Curragh.

[29] During the Irish Civil War, at least two men died in the Curragh Camp while in custody: Owen Boyle on 13 November 1923 and Frank O'Keefe also in 1923 (day of year not stated).

[34] IRA members who were arrested by the Garda Síochána (the police and security service of Ireland) were also interned in the Curragh under the Offences against the State Acts 1939–1998 for the duration of hostilities.

[37] Two days later Irish Republican internee Barney Casey from County Longford was shot and killed by military police in the camp.

[38] After these fires and killings 40 Camp leaders were placed in solitary confinement for ten weeks and subjected to severe beatings.

According to historian Tim Pat Coogan, around 2,000 IRA men passed time in the internment camp during the war years.

According to Coogan: "Gaeltachts, peopled entirely by Irish-speaking internees, were set up and Máirtín Ó Cadhain ran highly successful language classes.

"Most men, on leaving the internment camp, were so unable to deal with ordinary life that it took upwards of six months before any of them could screw up their courage to do normal things such as signing on at the Labour Exchange to draw unemployment benefits or applying for jobs.

[43] The Allied and Axis "internees" at the Curragh were not strictly contained, and were allowed to attend social events outside the detention camp.

[44] The Curragh Internment Camp held members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) during its 1956–62 Border campaign.

[1] The Curragh Camp has seen modernisation in late 20th and early 21st century, with billet blocks being refurbished and dining and messing facilities upgraded for all ranks.