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On March 29, 1922, the Royal Irish Constabulary, who had carried out law enforcement in Dundalk for nearly a century finally left the town forever - an event that would have seemed highly improbable less than a decade earlier.

The momentous event is vividly described in by Stephen O'Donnell in his book 'The RIC and Black and Tans in Louth, 1919 - 1922', using material provided in reports from The Dundalk Democrat of the time.
O'Donnell points out that the two police barracks in Dundalk, at Anne Street and Bridge Street, were the last in the County to be evacuated---and, probably, the last in the newly formed State outside of Dublin. R.I.C. stations in the sub-district of Ardee, Dunleer and Greenore were evacuated in February, while two barracks in Drogheda had been taken over by IRA forces two weeks before those in Dundalk. The RIC barrack at Quay Street had been evacuated over a year earlier and one at Blackrock burned to the ground during the War of Independence.

Quoting The Democrat of April 1, 1922, O'Donnell writes: 'We had one result of the Truce made apparent in Dundalk on Wednesday evening, when the RIC.in Dundalk evacuated their barracks in Bridge Street and Anne Street and companies of the IRA entered into possession.
For weeks past there have been rumours of evacuation; days were appointed for the task and then changed. But it came to a head on Wednesday and, to tell the truth, Dundalk took it very quietly.'
'There must have been 150 people outside Bridge Street (barrack) at 2 o'clock and of that number more than 100 were women and girls. The first announcement of the new order of things was when Mr John McGuill drove down in a motor, with him was Capt Donnelly the (IRA) liaison officer for the County. The crowd increased and awaited developments.'
'At length the door opened and out came the station force-- about 15 men all told, everyone of them carrying his rifle. They jumped into a waiting Crossley (lorry) and drove off. That was the last RIC occupation of Bridge Street Barracks. There was a cheer raised by the crowd and the police saluted in return.'

'At Anne Street it was much the same. The police had been going up and down the street in cars, taking their belongings with them. A fairly good crowd had gathered and this narrow thoroughfare became blocked. As this operation was in progress a sergeant was knocked down by a car. The good cheer he got from the crowd put him in good humour and he arose smiling. Then somebody booed as the car went away and one of the occupants is alleged to have drawn a revolver. Maybe he did but, at all events, he went no further with it.'
'Somewhere about four o'clock a company of IRA marched through Park Street and entered into possession. They were very heartily cheered and, like their comrades in Bridge Street, placed a large Republican flag from one of the upstairs windows.'
The incident about the revolver being drawn, probably by a former Black and Tan, shows that tensions were still high in Dundalk.
Two weeks later, on the morning of April 12, 1922, the last British soldiers, 217 men of the Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry began evacuating the local military barracks. On the following morning, Thursday April 13, the last of the British garrison departed and thus ended centuries of British occupation in Dundalk.
At noon on that same day 50 men of the 4th Northern Division of the IRA, under the command of General Frank Aiken, took over the barracks.

From The Dundalk Democrat, 30 March 2006