McCan Barracks

McCan Barracks is the site of two agents of the Irish state: the Garda Síochána College and the defence forces. It is located in Templemore, County Tipperary, Ireland.

History
The site was formerly the location of Richmond Barracks, a military installation built on land donated by Sir John Craven Carden, 1st baronet Templemore and completed in 1815. The barracks were built on the regular grid pattern for which the town of Templemore is noted and for which Sir John Craven Carden was also responsible. It occupied the most elevated ground in the town and was less than 50 meters from the main gate lodge of the Priory - the main residence of the baronet. A broad boulevard (Church Avenue) extended from the entrance gates over the River Mall at "Small Bridge" to the crossroads at Bank Street (called Military Street pre-independence). From the crossroads, the right hand road terminated at Templemore railway station which opened on 3 July 1848. During the First World War the barracks served as a prisoner of war camp for German soldiers. The 1st Battalion of the Northamptonshire Regiment were based at the barracks during the Easter Rising. Following the Anglo-Irish War, the barracks were handed over the Irish Republican Army in November 1921. They were renamed McCan Barracks after Pierce McCan, an Irish republican, and then handed over to the National Army at the end of the Irish Civil War. The site took on the role of Garda Síochána College - Ireland's Police College - in 1964 when Garda Headquarters in the Phoenix Park ceased to perform that role.