Eglinton Street - Galway

Ireland's turbulent history ensures that many now innocuous streets and buildings were often the site of dramatic events. Eglinton Street, Galway, is one such site. Today it is a main road leading from the Salmon Weir Bridge and the river Corrib through to Eyre Square. However, on 2 July 1922 (around twenty years after the image on the left was taken) it was witness to a revolutionary act of arson.

Eglinton Street was at the time home to an army barracks. As people made their way to Mass on that Sunday, word began to spread that the barracks was on fire. Alarmed, some made their way to see what was happening. Indeed the barracks was ablaze, and more reports began to arrive that the barracks at Renmore and at the Naval Base at the Galway docks. Clearly, this was no accident. Luckily the calm weather ensured that the fire was mostly contained to the barracks, which were gutted.

A garda barracks was built on the site, and this remained in state hands until 1988, when it was sold on.

References:
EAS_2175, National Photographic Archive
Galway Observer (8 July 1922)
Dáil Éireann Debates Vol. 381, No. 1 (25 May 1988)