Martello towers were built in Ireland in 1804, due to a fear of invasion by Napoleon Bonaparte. At that time, Napoleon had conquered Spain, Italy, Switzerland and the Netherlands with his colossal army. There was a fear that Ireland and England were next on his list.
The contractor who built the towers in Dublin was a Mr Ross. The officer who purchased the land and supervised the building of the towers was Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin Fisher. The estimated cost of building each tower in 1804 was £2000, a substantial sum of money at that time.
The Corsican Connection
The design of the towers resembled that of a coastal defence tower at Mortella Point in Corsica. The name martello comes from this.
It is ironic that the towers, which were designed to keep Napoleon's army out, were based on a design from the island of Corsica. Napoleon was born in the Corsican town of Ajaccio in 1769.
Napoleon never actually invaded Ireland or England after the towers were built, so the towers and their cannons were never used. There is a possibility that his spies informed him of the newly constructed towers and that they acted as a deterrent.