I’m Dr Aoife Bhreatnach. Welcome to my blog on military barracks and the towns around them. I am interested in how urban life in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Ireland was shaped by the thousands of soldiers who lived in the giant barracks that were built from the early 1800s onwards.

I also hope to publish guest posts from other historians and literature specialists because there are too many interesting stories about garrisons for one person to tell.

But the blog won’t all be about the history of garrison towns. My published work is about the position of Irish Travellers in society, so expect some thoughts on this issue.

And there will also be random posts on the denial of class in Ireland, TV history and why so many of the clever, well-read women I know never read ‘serious’ history books.

Drop me a line at