Fermoy, A Garrison Town
1798-1998
by Paudie McGrath
Mainistir Fhear Maighe |
Tradition has it that the first Military force, Militia, to come to Fermoy did so from the South
in the year 1797 and camped and watered their horses at a stream on the
South side of the town. The place where this occurred is believed to be the stream at Fant's Cross
at Strawhall.
This was the beginning of Fermoy as a Garrison town. At that time the Barracks had not been built
and the Militia forces occupied premises as a Commissariat. In the meantime, the East Barracks was
built in 1806 covering 16½ acres and costing £50,000.
The West Barracks, which included a small 42-bed hospital, was built a few years later in
1809.
A general Military Hospital of 130 beds was later built on the east side of the Dublin Road.
These were fully occupied until the spring of 1922 when the general
evacuation took place. The number of British troops in Fermoy varied consistently with the
Military situation in the continent and of course Britain's involvement.
On one occasion about the year 1850 the Military content of the Barracks
was so small that the Fermoy Town Commissioners petitioned the Secretary of State in England
complaining about the reduction in the number of troops in the Barracks. They said that this
affected the town's trade.
In the year 1909 the total compliment of the
East Barracks was 112 officers, 1,478 non-commissioned officers and privates, 24 cavalry officers,
and 120 cavalry troopers, 112 horses of cavalry.
When both Barracks were complete there was accommodation for 14 Field Officers, 169 Officers,
2,816 men, and 152 horses.
Towards the end of the First World War in 1917 the number of troops in
the Fermoy area was at its highest. The entire Military complex included the Barracks,
Moorepark (which was for the Cadets), Kilworth Camp and Fermoy Aerodrome, which was acquired by
the Military from the Fermoy Race Committee. Prior to that the Military had the right to exercise
troops in the Racecourse; this was the only Aerodrome in the South of Ireland.
During manoeuvers, when there wasn't sufficient accommodation in the Barracks, billeting
took place. This meant that houses in Fermoy, generally public houses, were compelled to take
in soldiers. Each house had its own assessment by the Military Authority covering three or four
soldiers, as accommodation permitted. Up to 10,000 troops were stationed in Fermoy in the
entire complex in 1917-1918.
It is of interest that Alfred Hitchcock did part of his National Service in Fermoy.
The late Sir Alfred Hitchcock who was born
on August 13, 1899 to a strict Catholic family in London, and was the youngest of three children.
He attended a Jesuit school, St. Ignatius College until the age of 14, when his father died, and so he
could no longer afford the fees. Two years later
the First World War began and sometime during that time, he was stationed at Fermoy during
the years when the Sacking took place. He finished his Military Service and went back to London to
began his movie career in 1920.
It is interesting to discuss what effect the troops had on the social life of the town.
Apart from business connections, the officer class had little or no social contact with the
townspeople. They had their own Tennis Club on the Pike Road. They founded the Fermoy Golf Club
on the Duntahane Road and they had their own club known as the Gentlemen's Club at the main
entrance to the Grand Hotel. The Club was open to retired Military Personnel of the Officer class
whose social contact was solely with the owners of the bigger houses in the vicinity of Fermoy,
again generally occupied by retired Generals or Colonels of the British Army. They had the use
of the Military Bands for the entertainment of their friends, for garden parties and other social
functions. The only business connection the Officer class had with the public was in the
purchase of horses for hunting and general use.
They had their own Polo field at the north side of Rathealy Road opposite Isleclash House.
There are several very sharp bends on the road at this point, as the Military would not
allow a road to be laid through the Polo field.
There was a somewhat closer social contact with the lower ranks of the army and the townspeople.
Curiously enough, the number of marriages between these ranks and Fermoy girls was very low.
This no doubt was largely due to the religious difference. Practically all the British Regiments
would have had very few Catholics serving in them.
On the other hand there was a large number of marriages of local girls and the Military at the
time when the Royal Irish Rifles and the Connaught Rangers were stationed in Fermoy.
From the business point of view, the Military provided a goldmine of business, not only for Fermoy
but also for the surrounding area. Soldiers had to be fed and all the food was purchased locally.
Likewise, the horses provided the local farmers with a ready market for their hay and straw.
To some extent the Barracks were self-sufficient and provided their own private lighting system
from a Gasworks in the West Barracks. They had their own schoolteachers' married quarters.
It may be of interest that several commissions were set up by the Army authorities investigating
the conditions under which the serving soldiers lived, and each commission in turn commented very
unfavourably on the living quarters,-- bedding, cooking facilities and lack of proper sanitary
accommodation for the men.
Generally speaking, there were good relations between the Army personnel and the people of the town.
During the Famine years, the Army provided blankets and tents for those in the outlying areas
where there were no workhouse buildings. In 1916, the year of the great
flood, they provided hand pumps to pump the water from the basements of the houses in
Patrick Street and the Quays.
On Armistice Day, 1918 the whole town, in commission with the Military,
celebrated the end of World War One. Union Jacks were freely sold in the shops and the houses had
buntings and Union Jacks in their windows.
Who could imagine that two years later the Military would sack Fermoy?
On Sunday evening, 9th.September 1919, as a reprisal for the death of Private Jones in an engagement
at the Wesleyan Church, the Military broke Barracks and smashed the windows of the shops in
Pearse Square, Patrick Street, O'Neill-Crowley Quay and portion of MacCurtain Street.
Serious looting took place and some of the shop contents were thrown into the River Blackwater.
Earlier that day the troops had tried to stop a feis which was being held in St.Colman's College.
However a second sacking took place as a reprisal for the capture of General Lucas, who was kidnapped
while fishing on the Blackwater below Careysville. At this time of course, whatever goodwill
existed between the Military and the people of Fermoy had vanished.
Curfew was imposed, firstly, from 9pm to 6am, but in March 1921
it operated from 7pm to 4am.
1921 was one of the warmest summers recorded in Ireland and
the confinement of the public within
doors during curfew hours was a serious hardship on the people of the town of Fermoy.
Shops closed at 5 o'clock in the evening and to relieve distress dances were held in the street
until the dreaded Army lorries appeared.
Signals were given to the public from watchers in the Square when the lorries appeared,
coming down Barrack Hill from the Barracks, so that by the time they arrived the streets were
clear of all persons. Sometimes a cat and mouse game developed as the lorry would leave Fermoy
in the early afternoon, and instead of coming down Barrack Hill as expected they would suddenly
approach the town from the Court House Road, hoping to catch the public unawares.
The punishment for those who were unlucky enough to be caught in the street was generally to be
brought around the town all night in the lorries as hostages.
PUBLIC NOTICE
RESTORATION OF ORDER IN IRELAND:
Regulations
I, Colonel Commandant N. G. Cameron,
C.B, C.M.G., A.D.C., Commanding 16th. Infantry Brigade,
Competent Military Authority,
in exercise of the powers conferred on me by Regulation 13,
of the Restoration of Order in Ireland, Regulations,
do hereby order and require every person
within the area specified in the Schedule hereto to remain within doors between the hours of
7 o'clock, pm. and 4 o'clock am, unless provided with a permit in writing from the Competent
Military Authority or some person duly authorized by him.
This order shall come into force at 7 o'clock pm, today, the 19th March 1921.
SCHEDULE
ALL THE AREA COMPRISED WITHIN THE URBAN DISTRICT COUNCIL OF FERMOY
Given under my hand, this 19th. Day of March. 1921.
N. G. Cameron, Colonel Commandant
Commanding 16th. Infantry Brigade,
And Competent Military Authority.
NOTICE
1. Application for permits should be made in the first instance to the nearest Police Station.
Permits will be actually granted by O.C. Troops.
2. Permits will be granted to Clergymen, Registered Medical Practitioners, Nurses engaged in
urgent duties.
Permits will not be granted to other persons save
In exceptional cases of absolute necessity, such as Corporation employees, whose duties are
such as require them to be out during these prescribed hours.
3. Every person abroad between the hours mentioned in the foregoing Order when challenged
by any Policeman, or by any Officer, Non-Commissioned
Officer or Soldier on duty must immediately halt and obey the order given him, and if he fails
to do so, it will be at his own peril.
The biggest military operation in Fermoy took place in 1921
when the whole urban area was
surrounded on a Sunday morning by military with fixed bayonets. Each house was raided in turn and
all males over sixteen were marched in groups to the paddock field next to Lisseux Terrace.
They were then transferred by escort in groups of 10 or 12 and ordered to pass slowly in single
file by a large window towards the end of O'Rahilly Row. Inside the window were members of the
R.I.C. and British Intelligence Officers. The R.I.C. identified each man as he passed the window
and when vouched for by them, he was sent to the Gasworks nearby which was fully guarded.
A small number of those who failed to pass the Identification Parade were sent by escort to the
Courthouse. The military operation had failed, as those who were in the Courthouse were later
identified and released. Obviously, the British had hoped to capture some important personage
in the fight for freedom but failed to do so.
With the truce in the summer of 1921 and the subsequent Anglo Irish Treaty in December, tension
eased almost at once and after an occupation of 125 years the last British soldier left Fermoy
by train in the spring of 1922 and a short time later Fermoy was an Irish
Garrison town.
In the summer of 1922 the Civil War started and on the
11th August of the same year. Irregulars
burnt Fermoy Barracks, and the Military Hospital. Just before the arrival of what was known as the
Free State Army, there being no buildings available, the Army occupied Abercromby Place and had
a temporary Hospital in St.James Place. They also occupied the Wesleyan Church and Courthouse and
a short time later the Irish Air Corps occupied the Aerodrome.
The evacuation of the British
troops and the burning of the Barracks deprived Fermoy of its principal source of income. Overnight
the town's trade came to a standstill and the shopkeepers found it very difficult to adapt
themselves to the new conditions. For so many years they had been accustomed to dealing with the
large numbers of the British Army and their wives, and they now had to fall back on the countryside
for their survival.
Unfortunately for the shopkeepers, their change was the greatest as it is said that
in dealing with customers,
they gave preference to Army personnel over the private citizens and they now had to face a complete
reversal of that practice.
In common with most other towns Fermoy felt the brunt of the economic war in the early
1930s but
with the outbreak of World War 11, once more the International situation had its impact in Fermoy.
The Aerodrome, which up to then had been merely occupied by a holding force, became active
once more and occupied a very important and strategic position in the South of the country.
Extensive additional building took place and the complement of troops was increased.
This position
continued until 1998 when the 1st.Cav.Sqdn.Vacated Fitzgerald Camp,
Fermoy and re-located to Collins Barracks Cork.
Looking back, in hindsight, one begins to wonder if after all, the presence of the British Army for
125 years, and the presence of the Irish Army for over 76 years have not left a significant
mark in Fermoy.
It would be wrong to dismiss the Military presence as having no effect whatever on the town in a
social way. Fermoy has its own particular personality, rather unique perhaps in the south of Ireland,
and one of which all Fermoy people are very proud.
© 2003-2006 Paudie McGrath.
|
