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| McCann Barracks | ||||||||
| Templemore is far better known for being the Home of the Garda College. The Gárda college is situated in the McCann Barracks at the top of Televara. | ||||||||
| The Barracks was built in 1810 to accommodate 1000 Soldiers. In 1964 McCann Barracks was made into a training centre for the Gárda Síochána. It was then called the Training Depot. Over the last few years the Training Depot has been renovated and is presently the best equipped Police Force Training Centre in Europe. After renovations it was renamed the Gárda College. | ||||||||
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As a young boy I always remembered on Sunday Mornings the clip clip of the Gárda recruits tipped shoes, as they were called then, as they marched to 9.30 am Mass in the local church. The Church is directly opposite the Gárda College. When I say directly opposite you can see the church form the Gárda College gates. There is a mile of avenue that separates the two. |
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| This college has not always been the home of our Gárda Siochána. During the years 1883 - 1922 , British Soldiers, and Irishmen in the British Army, marched this avenue from the barracks to church. In World War 1 (1914 - 1918) some of the German soldiers who were captured in the early battles of the war in France, were interned in the Military Barracks, and each Sunday sang their marching songs as they paraded to and from the church. Those prisoners of war were later transferred to Canada, likely on account of the unsettled political situation in Ireland. |
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| After the Anglo-Irish treaty (1922) Irish Soldiers occupied the Barracks. At present there is a cadre of Reserve Defence Forces (RDF) from the 3 FAR occupying Offices in the College/Barracks. |
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| Sergeant John Reynaolds M.A. of the Gards Siochana College Museuem has written a history of the Garda Síochána College. You can read it on teh Official Templemore website - templemore.ie - John Reynolds College History | |
