The Curragh is a plain in County KildareIreland. The Military College, Curragh Camp is located there, where members of the Irish Army undergo training. The Camp was the location of a military detention centre where civil war prisoners and, later, members and suspected members of Sinn Féin and the Irish Republican Army were interned on various occasions between the 1920s and the 1950s. The plain is very flat, and is composed of a sandysoil formed after an esker desposited a sand load.
As the soil is sandy it has excellent drainage characteristics. This makes it a popular location for training racehorses, and the Curragh Race Track is located there. The Irish Derby Stakes are held there annually during which Iarnród Éireanntrains halt at a seasonal station near the track.
From the peculiarity of its herbage, the district is known in the neighborhood as the short grass ; and the young men of Kildare are jocularly distinguished as the boys of the short grass.
The land is the property of the crown, which appoints a special officer as the ranger of the Curragh; but the right of pasturage is possessed by the landowners of the vicinity.
1789 the Curragh was the great rendezvous for the volunteers, and in 1804 it saw the gathering of 30,000 United Irishmen.
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