Glencree

Glencree (Irish: Gleann Crí) is a valley in the Wicklow Mountains in eastern Ireland. It is the second closest valley in the mountains to Dublin city, the first being Glencullen. The River Dargle flows down the valley, which rises to a height of about 400 metres (1,312 feet). The foot of the valley is site of the village of Enniskerry.

The top of the glen emerges onto the military road, constructed by the British Army in the early 19th century in order to hunt down the United Irishmen guerrillas, holding out in the mountains after the Irish Rebellion of 1798. A barracks was built at Glencree, just off the road in 1806. With the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, the building was vacated by the British Army.

In 1858 the buildings were converted into a reformatory school. St. Kevin’s Reformatory was operated by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI). It closed in 1940.

It was used to house German prisoners of war during the First World War 1914-18, when Ireland was still part of the United Kingdom. During the Second World War, 1939–45, when Ireland was neutral, Glencree housed German Air Force pilots who crashed in Ireland as well as German agents who were captured trying to plan anti-British activities with the IRA.

Under Operation Shamrock the Irish Red Cross and the French Sisters of Charity cared for German and Polish war orphans here from 1945 to 1950.

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Wikipedia