This photo shows the old Royal Irish Constabulary barracks at No. 10 Priory Street, New Ross. It was was taken over by Free State troops in February 1923 and the military nature of the building can be seen by a pair of opposed gun loops in the gable walls. These allowed flanking fire along Priory Street.
On St. Patrick’s Day 1923 the anti-Treaty IRA attacked the building with snipers who were mainly located on the Kilkenny side of the river Barrow. They fired numerous shots at the rear of the barracks and a stray bullet hole from this attack can be clearly seen in an adjacent building (No. 6 Priory Street). Fortunately no one was injured during this brief assault.
The Archaeology of Conflict: Wexford in the Civil War, 1922-1923 