BRITISH SCHOOL, 19TH CENTURY | CURRAGH CAMP MEETING

Frost & Reed Ltd., London

The first recorded race on the Curragh plain, County Kildaire, took place in 1727 and following its first Derby in 1866 was officially declared a horse racing and training facility by an act of parliament in 1868. Throughout the nineteenth century, the area was also the site of many military camps training for defense during the Napoleonic Wars and the Crimean War, and by the beginning of the twentieth century six barracks had been constructed to support army life. This meeting of racing and military life appears to be illustrated in the present work, probably painted circa 1830. Today the Curragh Camp remains an army base and military college while the Curragh Racecourse remains one of Ireland’s most important Thoroughbred racecourses. In May 1971, the Firestones’ King’s Company landed the Irish 2000 Guineas at the Curragh.