The future of former Mayo barracks is up in the clouds

THE title Earl of Lucan was granted to the Bingham family, Castlebar, in 1795 by King George III and was derived from a marriage connection with the Sarsfield family.

The best known of the Lucans was the Third Earl, who delivered the message from Lord Raglan to Lord Cardigan for the ill-fated charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava in the Crimean war, one of the gravest errors in military history.

Castlebar was made a garrison town in 1691 and in the18th century the Welsh Fencibles and a number of Scottish regiments were based in the local barracks on different occasions.

The barracks was burned down during the Civil War in 1922 but were later partly restored.

Many proposals have been put forward in relation to the barracks but from what Auld Stock knows nothing concrete is going to happen soon.

Like the Imperial Hotel, opposite the Green, the future of the barracks seems to be up in the clouds.

I have no doubt, if both buildings were located in the eastern part of the country, decisions in relation to their future would have been arrived at years ago.