Victoria Barracks was a military installation in New Lodge, Belfast in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label=Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is #Descriptions, variously described as ...

History

The barracks were completed just before the Irish Rebellion in 1798. In 1873 a system of recruiting areas based on counties was instituted under the

Cardwell Reforms The Cardwell Reforms were a series of reforms of the British Army undertaken by Secretary of State for War Edward Cardwell between 1868 and 1874 with the support of Liberal prime minister William Ewart Gladstone. Gladstone paid little attention ...

and the barracks became the depot for the

83rd (County of Dublin) Regiment of Foot The 83rd (County of Dublin) Regiment of Foot was a British Army line infantry regiment, which was formed in Ireland in 1793 for service in the French Revolutionary Wars. The regiment served in the West Indies, South Africa and the Peninsular War, ...

and the

86th (Royal County Down) Regiment of Foot The 86th (Royal County Down) Regiment of Foot was an infantry regiment of the British Army, raised in 1793. Under the Childers Reforms it amalgamated with the 83rd (County of Dublin) Regiment of Foot to form the Royal Irish Rifles in 1881. Histo ...

. Following the

Childers Reforms The Childers Reforms of 1881 reorganised the infantry regiments of the British Army. The reforms were done by Secretary of State for War Hugh Childers during 1881, and were a continuation of the earlier Cardwell Reforms. The reorganisation wa ...

, the 83rd and 86th regiments amalgamated to form the

Royal Irish Rifles The Royal Irish Rifles (became the Royal Ulster Rifles from 1 January 1921) was an infantry rifle regiment of the British Army, first created in 1881 by the amalgamation of the 83rd (County of Dublin) Regiment of Foot and the 86th (Royal County D ...

with its depot in the barracks in 1881. A major extension was built between 1880 and 1881 to accommodate the extra troops. The Royal Ulster Rifles moved to

St Patrick's Barracks St Patrick's Barracks was a military installation in Ballymena. History The site was requisitioned by the War Office and the barracks were put into use as the depot of the Royal Ulster Rifles, who had relocated from Victoria Barracks, Belfast, Vi ...

in 1937. The barracks were bombed and badly damaged by the

Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German '' Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the '' Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabt ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

and fell into a complete state of disrepair in the 1950s before being finally demolished in the early 1960s. Some of the officers’ houses are still in use as private housing, the Sergeants’ Mess is now a social centre known as “the Recy” but most of the site is now occupied by the “Artillery Flats”.

References

{{reflist Barracks in Northern Ireland Installations of the British Army