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The Curragh ( ; ) is a flat open plain in County Kildare, Ireland. This area is well known for horse breeding and training. The Irish National Stud is on the edge of Kildare town, beside the Japanese Gardens. Pollardstown Fen, the largest fen in Ireland, is of particular interest to botanists and ecologists because of the numerous bird species that nest and visit there. There are also many rare plants that grow there.
It is composed of a soil, formed after an esker deposited a sand load, and as a result has excellent drainage characteristics.
On 1 April 1234, The 3rd Earl of Pembroke lost a battle at the Curragh against a group of men loyal to Henry III of England. Lord Pembroke was wounded in the battle and died at his Kilkenny Castle on 16 April.
It was a common site for mustering the armies of the Pale (see Essex in Ireland). During the 1798 Rebellion there was a massacre in the Curragh at Gibbet Rath. The Curragh Camp is now located there, where the Irish Defence Forces undergo training. At a natural bowl-shaped amphitheatre on the Curragh known locally as Donnelly's Hollow the Irish champion boxer Dan Donnelly defeated the English champion George Cooper in 1815, before a large crowd. Donnelly had a famed reach and the remains of his arm were on show until recently in the Hideout Pub in the nearby town of Kilcullen.
In 1866, a commission was appointed by the British Treasury to report into the use made of the Curragh and make recommendations on legislation. It reported in 1868, and led to the Curragh of Kildare Act 1868 (31 & 32 Vict. c. 60).
On 2 January 1941 the Curragh was bombed by the Luftwaffe, the air force of the Nazi Germany, causing slight damage. One SC250 bomb remains unaccounted for.
In 1865 Parliament set up a commission to examine the Curragh. The findings of this led to the enactment of the (31 & 32 Vict. c. 60). This created the honorary position of a Ranger tasked with the care, management and preservation of the Curragh for the purpose of horseracing and training of horses.
The 1868 act also provided for a second commission to report on the use of the Curragh for common pasture. This report is detailed in the (33 & 34 Vict. c. 74). This act specifies sheep grazing rights for the Curragh.
On the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922, the lands of the Curragh passed from the Crown to the Minister for Finance of the Irish State.
The Curragh of Kildare Act 1961 repealed the 1868 Act and sections of the 1870 Act. It also abolished the office of the Ranger and transferred its duties to the Department of Defence.
Records of women, known as Wrens of the Curragh, who were paid for prostitution and other services (such as clothes-washing, mending, alcohol) by soldiers at the camp, go back to the 1840s. Up to 60 women lived in 'nests' half-hollowed out of banks and ditches, which were covered in furze bushes. Whilst many women were sex workers, others had common-law marriages to soldiers but were barred from living within the camp itself. The women's presence is not reported after the 1880s.
After The Emergency both motor cars and motorcycle racing took place on occasions drawing crowds up to 30,000. For eight years from 1947 until 1954 cars competed, while motorcycle racing continued until 1967. The first race was run by the Leinster Motor Club on 12 July 1947 over a course known as the "Short circuit" but eight years later the death of Don Beauman during at a different Irish venue plus other fatal racing accidents in 1955 brought an end to motor car racing at the Curragh. The 1951 Wakefield Trophy was won by the then 22-year-old Stirling Moss.
Other primary schools in the Curragh area include Newbridge Educate Together (a national school under the patronage of Educate Together) and Gaelscoil Chill Dara (an Irish medium school or gaelscoil). Gaelscoil Chill Dara, which was founded in 1995, was originally based in Herbert Lodge on the Curragh and later moved to a larger purpose-built premises at Curragh Grange. It is under the patronage of An Foras Pátrúnachta. The school, which was oversubscribed for a number of years, takes many of its pupils from the surrounding towns of Newbridge, Kildare, Naas, Kilcullen and Rathangan. Gaelscoil Chill Dara had an enrollment of 312 as of August 2024.
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