Military & Defence Sites

Ireland's military history is long, complicated, and written into the landscape in ways that are not always immediately visible. The forts that line the coastline were built to repel invasions that sometimes came and sometimes didn't. The barracks that once garrisoned British troops became, in many cases, the first buildings handed over to the new Irish state - often still containing everything that had been left behind in haste. Spike Island held prisoners before it held soldiers, and soldiers before it held tourists.

These are places defined by authority, confinement, and violence - sometimes all three at once. The reports from them reflect that. Figures in uniform seen in empty corridors. Sounds of drilling or marching where no drill has taken place in decades. A presence in the cells and guardrooms that staff and visitors have noted independently, without any knowledge of each other's accounts.