Survey Data
Reg No
13008016
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Social
Previous Name
Longford Cavalry Barracks
Original Use
Hospital/infirmary
In Use As
Officers' mess
Date
1800 - 1840
Coordinates
213104, 275776
Date Recorded
08/09/2005
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached four-bay two-storey former military hospital, built c. 1820. Now in use as barrack related building. Former morgue and auxiliary building to rear (north). Addition to west elevation, and two-storey extension to rear (north). Pitched artificial slate roof with painted rendered chimneystacks to either end gables (east and west) and cast-iron rainwater goods. Hipped artificial slate roof to addition. Painted rendered walls. Projecting buttresses/pilasters to either end of the main façade (south). Dressed limestone snecked walls to addition. Square-headed window openings with stone sills. Some two-over-two pane timber sliding sash with a variety of replacement windows. Tooled limestone block-and-start surrounds and stone sills to addition window openings. Square-headed entrance opening with replacement glazed timber panelled entrance door. Hipped slate roofs with dressed limestone eaves courses and tooled coursed limestone chimneystacks to morgue and auxiliary building. Random rubble stone and dressed snecked limestone walls. Square-headed openings with six-over-six timber sliding sash windows and timber frame windows with hinged panes. Tooled limestone block-and-start surrounds. Timber battened entrance doors. Random rubble limestone walls to rear. Situated within the grounds of Sean Connolly Barracks and to the north end of Longford Town centre.
Appraisal
Despite some modern alteration, this plain but well-built former military hospital retains its early form and character. The buttresses to either end of the main façade (south) help give this building a distinctive character. The proportions and the slightly projecting chimneybreasts to either gable end hint that this building may be one of the earlier structures within the complex. However, it is likely that it was erected as part of a major phase of construction at the barrack complex between 1808 and 1843. This structure was originally built to accommodate 24 patients (Lewis 1837). Of particular interest are the auxiliary buildings to the rear (north), one of which originally accommodated the barracks morgue. Fine craftsmanship is apparent in the tooled surrounds and chimneystacks. This building, along with the ancillary structures to the rear, forms part of an interesting collection of related structures within the Sean Connolly Barrack complex (13008016 - 20), which is an important element of the architectural heritage of the area and is of considerable social and historical importance to County Longford. Sean Connolly Barracks is named after Brigadier Sean Connolly, of the Longford Brigade, who was fatally wounded in action in 1921 by British forces during the War of Independence.