On 7th November 1914, an announcement by 'The Meath Chronicle' that “German Prisoners” were coming to Oldcastle, openly declared – what many people living in the Oldcastle district had for months suspected – the British War Office had acquired the local workhouse to detain German and Austrian civilians residing in Ireland. Their intention was to hold them in this converted building until the war concluded. By early December 1914 local newspapers were reporting the steady arrival of German and Austrian men to the small north Meath town. They were brought to Oldcastle by “special train” and marched under armed escort, to the workhouse complex a mile away. The Oldcastle detention camp was the only permanent civilian POW camp in Ireland, detaining so called “enemy aliens”, although there were many more camps in the UK. The history of the detention camp at Oldcastle is unique and its story contributes to our knowledge of the First World War in Ireland.
