Curragh, << KUHR uh, >> is a grassland plain in County Kildare in the Republic of Ireland. The plain covers nearly 8 square miles (20 square kilometers) between the towns of Droichead Nua (Newbridge) and Kildare. The Curragh is famous for its Thoroughbred horse breeding and its racecourse. Its name in Irish, an currach, means a racecourse or place of the running horse. The area also has a military camp.
According to tradition, Saint Brigid, the patron saint of Kildare town, received the Curragh plain in the late A.D. 400’s as a gift from the king of Leinster. Saint Brigid is Ireland’s most important female saint.
The Curragh has a rich history in the training and racing of horses. Races took place there centuries before formally recorded racing began in the early 1700’s. The Curragh Racecourse hosted the first Irish Derby in 1866. The 1868 Curragh of Kildare Act preserved part of the Curragh for horse training and racing. Later Curragh of Kildare acts established new rules for the use of the land.
The Defence Forces Military Centre at Curragh Camp is an important training base for the Irish Army and the site of several military training colleges. Curragh Camp began as a British military base in 1855. Ireland became independent in 1921, and the camp was turned over to the Irish Army in 1922. During World War II (1939-1945), Ireland remained officially neutral. A camp set up at the military base held British and German sailors and pilots found on Irish soil. Between the 1920’s and 1950’s, another camp at the base imprisoned members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA). The IRA is an organization that for many years used violent acts in an effort to unite Northern Ireland, a political division of the United Kingdom, with Ireland.
A spring-fed marsh called Pollardstown Fen lies at the northern edge of the Curragh. A variety of rare vegetation and animal life lives in the area of the marsh.
See also Kildare, County .
