The 17-acre site for Richmond Barracks was donated to the Crown by a local landlord, Sir John Craven Carden, 1st Baronet, in September 1808.

The barracks had two squares, surrounded by company lines, stores, married quarters, officers mess block, church, military prison and hospital.

This name and those given at the time to facilities in close vicinity recalled historic events of that era, such as Talavera Place, Vinerma Mall, Regent Bridge and so on.

The establishment of the barracks gave an enormous boost to the economic and social life of Templemore, with business in the town developing around it.

They also supplied the various messes and canteens; Richmond Barracks was also an important post during the various Irish rebellions, and also during England's foreign wars.

In the Irish 1848 Rising troops were assigned from here to round up and arrest suspects in Ballingarry after their brave but ill-prepared attempt for freedom.

[2] The situation of the barracks was on the regular grid pattern for which the town of Templemore is noted and for which Sir John Craven Carden was also responsible.

From the crossroads, the left hand road proceeds directly to the Town Hall while straight ahead, the Avenue leads to the Church of the Sacred Heart (Roman Catholic).

As the number of combatants grew the soldiers began to gather in groups, then taking off their belts they attacked the crowd indiscriminately.

The troops were lined up ready to march back to the barracks when a civilian approached an officer to lodge a complaint.

That night in the Templemore barracks, the casualty list showed 3 men near to death, another close to losing an eye and an officer with a broken arm.

[2] In addition it may be mentioned that the 11th Battn hunted its own pack of hounds, and when leaving, the officers offered for sale by private treaty "30 dogs, 27 horses, and a large amount of leather equipment for same".

Had the Rising taken place on that night (rather than in 1867) it is interesting to speculate what the outcome might have been considering the large number of Fenians in the Regiment at the time and the huge amount of armaments that could have been made available.

[2] At a local Petty Sessions Court in Templemore on 15 May 1865, an old woman was sentenced to one month imprisonment for stealing a key from the door of one Capt.

[2] By 1909 Richmond barracks had been vacated, and Templemore town council were informed by the War Office that there was ‘no prospect of troops being quartered there in the near future’.

[2] To contain them the two barracks squares were divided into four typical concentration camp compounds surrounded by heavy barbed wire entanglements, each with a high sentry observation tower having a well-sited machine gun and search lights.

[1] The prisoners were about equally divided between the Catholic and Protestant faiths and each Sunday they marched down to their respective churches usually singing their National songs.

Thousands were trained here and sad scenes were often witnessed when 'drafts' were entrained for the Western Front on their way to the battle fields of Passchendaele and the Somme.

[2] While in the camp the troops learnt all about digging full-sized trenches complete with redoubts in the area that was restored from what looked like a battle ground into the local Golf Links, when the Garda Síochána College arrived in 1964.

During their stay in Templemore the Chaplain to the Munster Fusiliers was a local man Father Francis Gleeson, who became well known for his unselfish devotion to duty on the Western Front.

[2] During those years the troops were used against the Irish Republican Army in County Tipperary, together with the Black and Tans and the Auxiliaries (stationed in Sir John Cardon's residence, later burned down in the civil war).

Through the intervention of Dr. John Harty, then Archbishop of Cashel and Emly, hostilities were called off and the troops in possession were allowed to evacuate.