Lower Castle Yard The term “Lower Castle Yard” was often used to refer to all the buildings outside the Upper Castle Yard, including those around this secondary courtyard, behind the Castle and around the Castle garden. These structures housed many of the ancillary offices and lodgings that supported the functions housed in the Upper Yard. As described by David Neligan during the War of Independence:
The Lower yard contained the H.Q.’s of the D.M. Police and the R.I.C.; the British Army’s Dublin Command, the … Tower containing state archives and the Chapel Royal. … In the Lower yard was also a police station of the uniformed D.M.P., a central telephone exchange, and the house of the Chief Superintendent. The Castle had a military garrison who manned each gate, strengthened by steel plates since 1916. When things got hot, a pass was necessary to enter. … The police offices were cramped and shabby.
As officials began to seek refuge in the Castle, these buildings were also taken over. In September 1919, the G (detective) Division of the DMP moved to the Castle from Great Brunswick Street (modern-day Pearse Street). They took over the two houses formerly used by the Viceroy’s aides de camp, requisitioning twenty bedsteads and mattresses, cooking utensils and delph, including twentyfour porridge bowls and one dozen egg cups. In early 1920, the house of the Master of the Horse was occupied by T.J. Smith (Deputy Inspector-General, RIC). Typically, the Yard was bustling with activity, as described by British novelist and journalist Wilfrid Ewart:
The interior of Dublin Castle presented itself as a hive from which … all subsequent activities sprang. In and out of the great gate, with its ramshackle flankments of barbed wire and sandbags, a constant procession of armoured cars, lorries, tenders, and Ford cars passed. … In the wide courtyard, scene of so many mysterious happenings … rows of now familiar lorries and cars stood grilling in the sunshine, their green or khaki crews smoking cigarettes, joking, fingering their revolver-holsters. In their midst, or sitting on one of the lorries, a row of nondescriptlooking civilians – spitting. … Within the buildings, soldiers, staff-officers, and officials bustling to and fro: it resembled a General Headquarters in the Great War.
The building along the north terrace was constructed between 1712 and 1717 to house the Treasury, but by 1919 a large part of it had been taken over as Constabulary Offices. At the bottom of the Yard, where the large modern offices are today, was the East Coach House (a large warren of stables, coach houses, outbuildings and staff accommodation), the Aides de Camp’s Quarters and the house of the Master of the Horse.
Along the south side of the Lower Castle Yard stands the Chapel Royal and, next to it, the Record Tower. 12
