{"id":1972,"date":"2014-11-28T14:19:21","date_gmt":"2014-11-28T14:19:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kildare.ie\/ehistory\/?p=1972"},"modified":"2014-11-28T14:19:21","modified_gmt":"2014-11-28T14:19:21","slug":"the-last-of-the-black-hole-at-curragh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/the-last-of-the-black-hole-at-curragh\/","title":{"rendered":"THE LAST OF THE “BLACK HOLE” AT CURRAGH"},"content":{"rendered":"

LEINSTER\u00a0 LEADER<\/em> 25th June 1955<\/b><\/p>\n

The Last of the \u201cBlack Hole\u201d at Curragh<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Crashing down in a welter of broken bricks and powdered mortar last week came one of the few remaining direct associations with British rule in this country.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The tall chimney stack of the old R.I.C. Barracks at Brownstown, Curragh, had to be strenuously treated by crowbar and judiciously applied battering ram before it finally disintegrated in defeat.\u00a0 And now all that is left to mark the site of a symbol of British authority is a heap of bricks.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There were originally three wooden huts forming the police station.\u00a0 All were built at the same time, but there is no local history of the actual date of construction.\u00a0 Found in the rafters of the hut demolished last week was a cardboard \u201cNotice to Constabulary\u201d, dated 1845, and signed by D. McGregor, Inspector General, DublinCastle.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Up to quite recently a local family occupied the hut, demolished last week.\u00a0 It was the last of the trio, the first being taken down about ten years ago, and the second about two years ago.\u00a0 The sole survivor became too dangerous for habitation and was vacated by the occupants.\u00a0 A few months ago the Department involved, sold the hut for demolition, and the final chapter was added last week when that tall chimney came tumbling down.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Black Hole<\/b>\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This last hut was, fittingly enough, the actual police barrack, complete with cell; the huts previously demolished were the Sergeant\u2019s Quarters and the Police Quarters.\u00a0 And the British were extraordinarily thorough in their efforts to prevent their prisoners from escaping.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In the room set aside for detention purposes (local history refers to it as \u2018the black hole\u2019) the cavity between the wooden walls had been packed with bricks and mortar, and the inner walls had been panelled with broad planks over an inch thick rigidly bolted and stapled to the inner brick-work.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The cell door was of mass concrete, over a foot deep, and even the ceiling was completely bricked in.\u00a0 What little ventilation there was came from narrow slits set just below ceiling level.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Floor boards, joists, rafters and the timber construction generally were found on demolition to be remarkably well preserved.\u00a0 While one might expect it nothing of historical interest was discovered, although the \u201cNotice to Constabulary\u201d referred to previously made interesting and amusing reading.<\/b><\/p>\n

Re-typed by Mary Murphy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LEINSTER\u00a0 LEADER 25th June 1955 The Last of the \u201cBlack Hole\u201d at Curragh Crashing down in a welter of broken bricks and powdered mortar last week came one of the few remaining direct associations with British rule in this country. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The tall chimney stack of the old R.I.C. Barracks at Brownstown, Curragh, had to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newspaper-articles"],"blocksy_meta":[],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Kildare Local Studies","author_link":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/author\/localstudies\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1972\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}