3. R.I.C. Barracks
The
Royal Irish Constabulary barrack has a preservation order on it and is owned by
our Speech and Drama instructor, Corin Walsh. It was written about by some of
our former pupils at Portlaw N.S. They entered their newspaper report into a
competition by the Waterford News and Star on Friday, August 7th,
1998. They were highly commended in this Design a Page competition. The account
is below.
Attack on R.I.C.
Barracks
Village in shock after early morning attack
Residents of the model village of Portlaw were shocked at the attack on the local R.I.C. barracks. It appears that the mob responsible for the attack originated from the direction of Carrick-on-Suir.
Indications of possible trouble could be observed by a number of measures undertaken by Lord Waterford and the concerned residents.
We have been reliably informed that on August 1st Lord Waterford went to Portlaw to fortify the police barracks. While there, he had ninety special constables sworn in. During the month of August Lord Waterford had the constables on high alert as he felt an attack was imminent.
As an added precaution he sent Lady Waterford to stay with her mother in England. The actual attack didn’t happen until the 12th of September.
Here
is an account of a nearby witness: ``I was awoken at 4.00am. by the sound of
breaking glass and the commotion outside. I could see a lot of people carrying
pikes trying to break into the R.I.C. barracks. There was utter chaos all
around".
To
Stop 4
