Violence-citizenship-and-virility-The-making-of-an-irish-fascist-1[Eoin O’Duffy, Garda Commissioner, 1922-33]

The guards, eh?

Where did they get all that hatt-itude?

“The chaos of the administration of law, rectified by 1924, was marked in its settling down phase by barristers who had acted as republican justices during the War of Independence and had been loyal to the Treaty side. the police force, particularly its detective branch, remained, in the words of David Fitzpatrick, ‘all too obviously the tools of political parties.”

The first recruit to the Gardai was officially attested in February 1922, and most of the initial recruits came from the ranks of the pro-Treaty IRA, with ex-Royal Irish Constabulary and ex-Irish Republican Police represented as well, causing certain tensions on account of former RIC men being promoted to higher ranks.

An initial mutiny on these grounds failed, and a subsequent commission of inquiry mapped out a role for the new force which was at variance with that of its predecessor, the RIC. The Civic Guard was to be the servant of the people – not militaristic or coercive. The Commission envisaged a greatly enhanced civilian role for the new police force, this meant disarming was essential.

This was one of the reasons for the Garda Commissioner Eoin O’Duffy’s emphasis of sobriety and clean living (which his own private life was later to make a mockery of); he emphasised that the force was on trial and moral probity essential. As well as bringing a party of 250 guards to visit the Pope in 1928, O’Duffy thundered against alcohol abuse:-

‘A police officer who has developed a taste for spirituous liquors is always a corrupt official… the stolen visits to the public houses are noted with an even greater care than the open violation… the disease is infectious. Evil communications corrupt good manners, and the drunkard, a scourge in every walk of life, is particularly obnoxious in the uniform of a public servant… no man of any rank who is addicted to drink will be permitted to remain a member of the Civic Guard. This is a penalty which will be rigidly enforced.

In July 1923 the name of the force was changed to An Garda Siochana (‘Guardians of the Peace) and between 1922 and 1952 10,135 men joined, with the sons of farmers strongly favoured over their urban counterparts, and recruits from the western counties preferred to those from the east. It had been important to O’Duffy that ‘the son of the peasant is the backbone of the force’.

During this era, 50 per cent of the police force were former farmers or landworkers, and over 98 per cent Catholic…”

Good times.

From The Transformation Of ireland 1900-2000 by Diarmuid Ferriter

Thanks Sibling of Daedalus

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