Collection of books, press cuttings, photographs, and memorabilia related to the Leinster Regiment at Birr Barracks, collected by Henry G. Farmer (1882-1965), son of Sergeant Henry G. Farmer, quarter-master, Leinster Regiment, Birr Barracks.

Box of leases of Crinkle, alias Crinkhill, barony of Ballybritt, on the outskirts of Birr, and many of them therefore including holdings in the town. The Crinkle leases also contain an above-average number of integral maps, some of
them rather handsome. Included under Crinkle are the sub-denominations of Whiteford and Birr View, the latter of which is described in a lease of 1797 as ‘the spot of ground whereon the viewing-house for the quality is placed to see the races of Birr’. Crinkle was also the site of the Birr Military Barracks, and a lease of 1831 is from the 2nd Earl of Rosse to the Ordnance Department. A number of the leases are dated 1763 (the earliest date in the box), which would suggest that a substantial middleman’s lease, perhaps of the whole townland, fell in in that year. The box also includes papers relating to the sale of a fee farm grant of the Military Road (purchased by Michael O’Dwyer) and to the sale of the Old Schoolhouse (purchased by John and Sophia Hogan).

Letters and papers of the 4th Earl about Parsonstown/Birr: the Castle – his youthful recollections of it, extensions to it 1867-72 [see also M/25], a magazine portrait of his way of life there, 1898, and magazine obituaries of him, 1908; an incident which took place on the road between Banagher and Parsonstown and in which the 4th Earl and his party were stopped and temporarily put in gaol by a drunken R.I.C. man, 1868; the Parsonstown Barracks, 1869, 1899 and N.D.; the Parsonstown Town Commission and Commissioners, 1870 and 1885; admissions to the demesne of privileged locals, 1876-1910; and one of the bridges in the Birr Castle demesne, and the Rivers Brosna and Camcor, 1880 and 1896. The correspondents include Gladstone, W.E. Forster and Lords Strathnairn and Roberts. The sub-section also includes a small account book recording local subscriptions to the Parsonstown Defence Association, the Property Defence Association, the legal fund of the Irish Land Committee, and the Field and Rossmore Testimonials, c.1882.

Typescript of memoir titled ‘Do You Remember’. Recounts the life in Birr and covers the following subjects: soldiers from Birr returning from World War I (1918), the Treaty (1921), occupation of Free State Troops of ‘The Gorm' (the workhouse) in Birr (1922), burning of Crinkle Barracks (1922) and other reminiscences of life in Birr from 1930s to 1980s.

Volume of drawings and specifications of pattern articles to be adapted in War Department works and buildings. Issued to Birr Barracks.

Collection of photographs relating to Birr Barracks and the Leinster Regiment, many of which are reproductions of original photographs by William Lawrence and others. Contains an original group portrait King's County Rifles, Birr (1872), and several images of the Barrack Square. Also contains the only known image of the interior of the barracks, 'The Coffee Bar, Leinster Depot.'