Showing posts with label An Garda Siochana. Show all posts
Showing posts with label An Garda Siochana. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 19, 2022
Garda Siochana members from Athy and the G.A.A.
We are about to celebrate the centenary of the founding of our police force, a celebration which would throw up memories good and bad for every family and every household in Ireland. For many households it will be good memories of family members who joined the Garda Siochana, for others sad memories of Garda members who were killed or injured in the course of their duties as Guardians of the Peace. Others may have memories which centre on wrongdoings and the part played by Gardai in bringing offenders to justice. Whatever our memories, the Garda Siochana has played an important role in the lives of several generations of Irish people. We may complain about the apparent lack of interaction between the Garda Siochana and the general public drawing comparison with the Gardai of an earlier age for whom “policing” was such an important part of the policeman’s role.
Whatever about the strength and weaknesses of the modern day Garda Siochana one welcomed aspect of the earlier force was a decision of the then Commissioner Eoin O’Duffy to encourage Gardai to be involved in Gaelic sports. It was a decision which helped to break down the barriers which existed between the Irish people and the previous policing force, the RIC, during the War of Independence.
Over the last 100 years Gaelic football and hurling has had many great exponents of the games who in their everyday life wore the uniform of An Garda Siochana. Here in Athy we were privileged to have one of the great footballing greats of the past, Garda George Comerford who captained the Athy team which won the Kildare senior championships in 1937. George was stationed as a garda in Athy working out of the Garda barracks in Duke Street which was then directly opposite what was Maxwells Garage. During his footballing days George togged out for four different counties, his native Clare, Dublin, Kildare and Louth. He joined the gardai in 1931 and that same year he was the only non Kerry man on the Munster team that defeated Leinster in the Railway Cup final. He also played on the Irish team in the Tailteann games of 1932. As captain of the Athy senior team in 1937 he played alongside Johnny McEvoy of Woodstock Street who would later join the Garda Siochana. Johnny who played for the Kildare senior county team for several years also won a county Dublin championship medal as a member of the Garda football club.
The 1950’s saw the emergence of two young Athy club members as stars on the Kildare County senior team. Brendan Kehoe whose father John W operated a pub in Offaly Street first played for the county team in 1957. For the following four years he was a regular on the Kildare County team. Brendan joined the Garda Siochana and retired some years ago as a Sergeant. Another Athy player to feature in the 1957 Kildare county team was Mick Carolan whose county playing career extended over a period of 18 years. Mick, who has been the subject of a previous Eye in the Past, like his team mate, Brendan Keogh also joined the Garda Siochana. He won an All Star award in 1966 and retired from the Garda Siochana as a Superintendent several years ago.
Another retired member of An Garda Siochana who played football for Athy Gaelic Football Club and County Kildare is Eamonn Henry. Eamonn who is now a retired member of An Garda Siochana played as did his father for his native County Roscommon. Eamonn featured as a County player on the Kildare team between 1984 and 1987 following which he lined out for County Roscommon for another 3 years. He won a senior championship medal playing for Athy in 1987 and indeed won the Man of the Match award in that final. Anthony McLoughlin currently serving as a Superintendent in the Garda Siochana also played football for Athy and Kildare County. He was on the Athy senior championship winning team of 1987 with his garda colleague, Eamonn Henry.
These men all members of An Garda Siochana who played for Athy Gaelic football club surely fulfilled Eoin O’Duffy’s desire for Gaelic sport to create comradeship within the ranks of the Garda Siochana. Their participation in the sport also helped create a bond between the members of the Gardai and the people they served as Commissioner O’Duffy had intended. The involvement of young gardai in Gaelic games up and down the country is in sharp contrast to the events of the 4th of August 1918 when the then young GAA took on the British empire and the Garda Siochana’s predecessors, the Royal Irish Constabulary who had sought to ban the playing of GAA games.
Tuesday, June 30, 2020
An Garda Siochana
The shocking murder of Garda Horkan while he was on patrol in the County Roscommon town of Castlerea is a grim reminder of the dangers that face all members of the Garda Siochana as they go about their duty as ‘guardians of the peace’. In two years’ time the Irish nation will celebrate the centenary of the establishment of the Garda Siochana. The Treaty which marked the end of the War of Independence provided for the disbandment of the R.I.C. on 20th February 1922. However, it was not until the 9th of February that Michael Collins arranged for a police organisation committee to meet under the chairmanship of I.R.A. veteran Michael Staines. Even before the committee reported on 27th February recruits were received into the new Irish police force to be known as Civil Guards at their temporary base in the R.D.S. Dublin.
The R.I.C. originally intended to be disbanded on 20th February were still in charge of Dublin Castle until the 17th of August when the new Irish police force, the majority of whom were without uniforms, took control of what had been the centre of English policing administration in Ireland. The Black and Tans and the Auxiliaries had earlier been disbanded and returned to England on 18th February.
The Minister for Home Affairs was reported in the Irish Independent of 8th March 1922 as saying of the Civic Guards: ‘it will be the duty of the new force to protect the lives and the property of all Irish citizens irrespective of their political views.’ The anti-treaty followers led by De Valera through their spokesman Austin Stack, claimed ‘the setting up of this new force is not calculated to promote order, but rather suspicion, discontent and disorder.’ Stack’s intervention did not auger well for the acceptance of the new policing force by the substantial minority on the losing side of the Civil War.
The Civic Guards to be renamed ‘Garda Siochana’ following a Temporary Provisions Act of 1923 were an armed force replicating in many ways the R.I.C. which they replaced. The strength of the R.I.C. prior to disbandment was approximately 14,000 men, while the new policing force comprised approximately 4,000 men including some former R.I.C. officers whose presence led to the infamous Kildare barracks mutiny of May 1922. It was following that mutiny led by former I.R.A. men who objected to former R.I.C. officers being promoted within the ranks of the Civic Guards that a Kevin Sheils chaired enquiry recommended that the Civil Guards be unarmed and that a politician should not head up the force. The resulting resignation of the first Commissioner Michael Staines led to the appointment of Eoin O’Duffy who would serve as Garda Commissioner for the next 11 years.
The Kildare mutiny of May 1922 was followed a month later by the start of the Civil War. In the meantime armed Civic Guards have been dispatched to towns and villages throughout the 26 counties occupying where possible former R.I.C. barracks. However, up to 75% of the country’s R.I.C. barracks had been destroyed during the War of Independence so that in many towns, private houses were occupied by the Civic Guards. The new police force had no duties relating to the Civil War which were the responsibility of the 50,000 strong Irish army. Despite this the first fatal casualty of the new police force was a young County Laois man, Henry Phelan who was shot and killed in Mullinahone on 14th November 1922. He was the first of nine policemen killed in the first four years of the new force. The lawlessness which marked the Civil War years was again evident when two Gardai were killed on the night of 14th November 1926 by the I.R.A. That night the I.R.A. attacked 12 Garda barracks throughout the country. Attacks on members of the Garda Siochana continued throughout the 1930s and 1940s, resulting in the death of 21 Garda members between 1922 and 1949. Garda Horkan is the 89th member of the force to die in the line of duty since its foundation in 1922.
As the son of a Garda sergeant whose first station was Cloonfad, Co. Roscommon, where the alleged killer of Garda Horkan last resided, I was particularly moved by the brutal killing of a lone Garda going about his duty. The Garda Siochana police by consent and have done so for almost 100 years, having replaced the R.I.C. whose members during the War of Independence were at first ostracised and later subjected to constant attack. It took a number of years for the Gardai to overcome the colonial legacy of the R.I.C. years and to gain acceptance within the communities they served. The 1950s and the 1960s were in terms of community integration the decades which confirmed that the Garda Siochana were respected and committed to serving the public.
The members of today’s Garda Siochana have a very difficult crime detection and prevention role to play amongst the communities they serve. Garda Horkan’s death highlights the dangerous job every Garda undertakes every day. They are brave men and women and they deserve our gratitude, our respect and our cooperation.
Monday, March 26, 2012
First Gardai in Athy
The Morris Tribunal now at hearing in Co. Donegal into allegations concerning members of the Garda Siochana in that division is so far as I can recall the first such enquiry since the Force was founded 80 years ago. The Garda Siochana was founded following a meeting in the Gresham Hotel in Dublin on 8th February 1922. Recruiting for the new police force started 13 days later and the RDS in the capital city was used for that purpose. The Garda Siochana paraded for the first time at the funeral of Frank Lawless T.D. on Tuesday, 18th April 1922. Without uniforms the Gardai paraded in civilian clothes and were described in a newspaper report of the day as “men of fine bearing and physique”. The next public display of the new force was recorded in the newspapers reports of the takeover of Dublin Castle from the British Authorities on 17th August 1922. A photograph of that occasion shows Michael Staines, the first Commissioner of the Garda Siochana marching at the head of 380 Gardai into the lower Castle Yard. Only some of the Gardai were kitted out in uniforms that day. The end of August also marked the official disbandment of the Royal Irish Constabulary, even though the process had begun as early as the previous March.
The cap badge of the Garda Siochana first appeared in the Irish Independent of 18th August 1922 with an acknowledgment to its designer John Francis Maxwell, an art teacher in the Blackrock & Dunlaoghaire Technical School. The new badge was worn for the first time by the new Gardai at the funeral of President Arthur Griffith on 12th August 1922. Athy has secured its place in the history of the Garda Siochana by virtue of the fact that the Garda Station plaques which were placed above the entrance door of each new Garda Station were made in cast iron by local firm Duthie Larges. Herbert Painting, Assistant Principal of Athy’s Technical School and a teacher of art made the mould from which these castings were made. The local Technical School was then located in Stanhope Place while Painting lived at St. Michael’s Terrace.
Athy, which once had a County Inspector based in its RIC Station, received its first intake of the newly recruited Gardai in 1922. I have a copy of a letter written by Sgt. William Duggan in 1950 from his home in Charleville, Co. Cork in which he claims that the Gardai first took up duty in the town on 15th August 1922. Prior to that the party consisting of 16 members were, according to Duggan, stationed at the protection post in Bert. This was an outpost which during the RIC days was serviced from the Athy RIC Barracks. Sgt. Duggan whom I hasten to add was not the Sergeant of the same surname who served in Athy from 1944 also claimed in his letter that he was the first Garda Sergeant stationed in the town. A photograph exists of which I have a poor copy, which shows Athy’s first station party of one Sergeant and fifteen Gardai. With them is the Assistant Commissioner, Paddy Brennan and the photograph taken outside the protection post at Bert shows all but two of the Gardai holding rifles. None of the Gardai wore a uniform. Paddy Brennan was one of three brothers from Co. Clare and was regarded as Michael Collins’s most trusted military adviser during the War of Independence.
We cannot be certain about the early years of the Garda Siochana in Athy but Sergeant Duggan’s letter written 52 years ago is an important document, particularly as it records the name of the sixteen men who formed the first station party in the town. Their names were Gardai Michael O’Connor, Peter Curley, Thomas Concannon, Joseph Walton, John Kelly, Joseph McNamara, John Ryan, Michael Somers, Patrick Fitzgerald, John O’Neill, James Dwyer, John Hanly, Peter Tracey, Thomas Irwin, Michael Hassett and Sgt. William Duggan.
The records retained by the Garda Siochana, particularly of the early years of the force may not be as complete as historians would like. For instances those retained at Divisional level for the Athy station shows the first Sergeant in charge as Cornelius Lillis. He was replaced by Sgt. Ed O’Loughlin on 1st May 1924 who in turn gave way to the earlier mentioned William Duggan on 1st August 1924. The records from which this information was gleaned shows that the first fourteen entries were made by the same hand and by all accounts on the same day in 1930. You can picture the scene that year as a member in Divisional headquarters set about to record the names of the sergeants who had served in Athy over the previous eight years. Duggan’s letter, even though written 28 years after the events they record, is more authoritative than the Divisional records written up in 1930, given as it does very clear and comprehensive details known only to someone who had participated in the events of the time.
When the Gardai first moved into Athy town in August 1922 they were accommodated in the Town Hall in Emily Square. The same Town Hall had accommodated the British Army during the Luggacurran Evictions of the 1880’s and would provide similar shelter for the Free State Army during the Civil War. Having spent some time in the Town Hall the local Gardai transferred to the RIC Barracks at Barrack Lane after it was vacated by the Free State Army. The Barracks, originally built in the 1730’s as a Military Barracks, was subsequently burned down during the Civil War, following which the Gardai moved into a hotel in Leinster Street. I was told many years ago that the Garda Barracks for Athy was one time located in the Hibernian Hotel which is now Bradbury’s. Sgt. Duggan however claims that it was the Leinster Arms Hotel that the local Gardai occupied following the burning of the old RIC Barracks. I don’t know for how long Leinster Street was the location of the local Garda Barracks or when the Garda Siochana moved to the Duke Street premises where the Barracks was located for many years prior to the opening of the new station.
Sgt. William Duggan left for Kilcock in April 1923 and was replaced by Sgt. Patrick Hackett whose name does not appear in the Divisional records. Indeed those records show that the first Garda Sergeant in Athy was Cornelius Lillis whom I am now satisfied was the third Sergeant to hold that position after William Duggan and Patrick Hackett. Ed O’Loughlin replaced Sgt. Lillis on 1st May 1924 following the latters transfer to Ballytore Garda Station. Sgt. William Duggan returned as Sergeant to Athy on 1st August 1924 replacing Sgt. Ed O’Loughlin who went to Rathangan. Sgt. O’Loughlin, a Kilkenny man, died the following year. He had opened the Ballytore Station in April 1923. There were three Gardai with him in that rural station, James Kealy, Kieran Keys and John Reville. Castledermot Garda Station opened in September 1922 with Sgt. Thomas Concannon in charge assisted by Gardai Patrick Cosgrave, Tim Hanrahan and Thomas J. Brennan.
Strange to relate that almost 80 years later with a bigger population to police and crime on the increase, Garda stations around the country have fewer Gardai while Athy, a relatively large provincial town no longer has a 24 hour police presence.
The cap badge of the Garda Siochana first appeared in the Irish Independent of 18th August 1922 with an acknowledgment to its designer John Francis Maxwell, an art teacher in the Blackrock & Dunlaoghaire Technical School. The new badge was worn for the first time by the new Gardai at the funeral of President Arthur Griffith on 12th August 1922. Athy has secured its place in the history of the Garda Siochana by virtue of the fact that the Garda Station plaques which were placed above the entrance door of each new Garda Station were made in cast iron by local firm Duthie Larges. Herbert Painting, Assistant Principal of Athy’s Technical School and a teacher of art made the mould from which these castings were made. The local Technical School was then located in Stanhope Place while Painting lived at St. Michael’s Terrace.
Athy, which once had a County Inspector based in its RIC Station, received its first intake of the newly recruited Gardai in 1922. I have a copy of a letter written by Sgt. William Duggan in 1950 from his home in Charleville, Co. Cork in which he claims that the Gardai first took up duty in the town on 15th August 1922. Prior to that the party consisting of 16 members were, according to Duggan, stationed at the protection post in Bert. This was an outpost which during the RIC days was serviced from the Athy RIC Barracks. Sgt. Duggan whom I hasten to add was not the Sergeant of the same surname who served in Athy from 1944 also claimed in his letter that he was the first Garda Sergeant stationed in the town. A photograph exists of which I have a poor copy, which shows Athy’s first station party of one Sergeant and fifteen Gardai. With them is the Assistant Commissioner, Paddy Brennan and the photograph taken outside the protection post at Bert shows all but two of the Gardai holding rifles. None of the Gardai wore a uniform. Paddy Brennan was one of three brothers from Co. Clare and was regarded as Michael Collins’s most trusted military adviser during the War of Independence.
We cannot be certain about the early years of the Garda Siochana in Athy but Sergeant Duggan’s letter written 52 years ago is an important document, particularly as it records the name of the sixteen men who formed the first station party in the town. Their names were Gardai Michael O’Connor, Peter Curley, Thomas Concannon, Joseph Walton, John Kelly, Joseph McNamara, John Ryan, Michael Somers, Patrick Fitzgerald, John O’Neill, James Dwyer, John Hanly, Peter Tracey, Thomas Irwin, Michael Hassett and Sgt. William Duggan.
The records retained by the Garda Siochana, particularly of the early years of the force may not be as complete as historians would like. For instances those retained at Divisional level for the Athy station shows the first Sergeant in charge as Cornelius Lillis. He was replaced by Sgt. Ed O’Loughlin on 1st May 1924 who in turn gave way to the earlier mentioned William Duggan on 1st August 1924. The records from which this information was gleaned shows that the first fourteen entries were made by the same hand and by all accounts on the same day in 1930. You can picture the scene that year as a member in Divisional headquarters set about to record the names of the sergeants who had served in Athy over the previous eight years. Duggan’s letter, even though written 28 years after the events they record, is more authoritative than the Divisional records written up in 1930, given as it does very clear and comprehensive details known only to someone who had participated in the events of the time.
When the Gardai first moved into Athy town in August 1922 they were accommodated in the Town Hall in Emily Square. The same Town Hall had accommodated the British Army during the Luggacurran Evictions of the 1880’s and would provide similar shelter for the Free State Army during the Civil War. Having spent some time in the Town Hall the local Gardai transferred to the RIC Barracks at Barrack Lane after it was vacated by the Free State Army. The Barracks, originally built in the 1730’s as a Military Barracks, was subsequently burned down during the Civil War, following which the Gardai moved into a hotel in Leinster Street. I was told many years ago that the Garda Barracks for Athy was one time located in the Hibernian Hotel which is now Bradbury’s. Sgt. Duggan however claims that it was the Leinster Arms Hotel that the local Gardai occupied following the burning of the old RIC Barracks. I don’t know for how long Leinster Street was the location of the local Garda Barracks or when the Garda Siochana moved to the Duke Street premises where the Barracks was located for many years prior to the opening of the new station.
Sgt. William Duggan left for Kilcock in April 1923 and was replaced by Sgt. Patrick Hackett whose name does not appear in the Divisional records. Indeed those records show that the first Garda Sergeant in Athy was Cornelius Lillis whom I am now satisfied was the third Sergeant to hold that position after William Duggan and Patrick Hackett. Ed O’Loughlin replaced Sgt. Lillis on 1st May 1924 following the latters transfer to Ballytore Garda Station. Sgt. William Duggan returned as Sergeant to Athy on 1st August 1924 replacing Sgt. Ed O’Loughlin who went to Rathangan. Sgt. O’Loughlin, a Kilkenny man, died the following year. He had opened the Ballytore Station in April 1923. There were three Gardai with him in that rural station, James Kealy, Kieran Keys and John Reville. Castledermot Garda Station opened in September 1922 with Sgt. Thomas Concannon in charge assisted by Gardai Patrick Cosgrave, Tim Hanrahan and Thomas J. Brennan.
Strange to relate that almost 80 years later with a bigger population to police and crime on the increase, Garda stations around the country have fewer Gardai while Athy, a relatively large provincial town no longer has a 24 hour police presence.
Thursday, October 14, 1999
An Garda Siochana and some Gardai based in Athy
Gregory Allen a former member of the Garda Siochana and curator of the Garda Museum had written an accomplished and a very readable account of the first sixty years of the Garda Siochana. There has been a number of books produced on the same subject since my good friend the criminologist Seamus Breathnach published his book the “ The Irish police from the earliest times to the present day” in 1974.
The story of the Garda Siochana is an interesting one. Following the Anglo Irish Treaty the members of the Provisional Government were concerned to ensure that a properly trained police force would be in position to take the place of the soon to be disbanded R.I.C. The R.I.C. Barracks in Athy had been located in Whites Castle up to 1889 when due to the unsatisfactory accommodation in that building arrangements were put in place to relocate to the vacant Military Barracks in Barrack Lane. The move did not find agreement with local Town Commissioners who petitioned Dublin Castle on several occasions to have the police Barracks relocated to the centre of the town. In 1895 the Members of Parliament for Co. Kildare were asked to put a question in the English House of Commons “Relative to the removal of the Constabulary to their present out of the way location and to have the authorities change them to a more central position”. All to no vail, as the authorities had spend the not in considerable sum of £500 in renovating the former Military Barracks and the police inspector asked to review the Commissioner’s request was able to report that “The peace of the town is well maintained”. The R.I.C. were still in the former Military Barracks when the Irish Independent newspaper carried a report of the intended formation of the Garda Siochana or the Civic Guards who would replace them.
Recruiting for the new police force started on the 21st February 1922 and the first member was Patrick Joseph Kerrigan from Co. Mayo. On the 13th April Civil War erupted with the seizure of the Four Courts in Dublin by Rory O’Connor and the Anti Treaty Forces better known as “The Irregulars”. Twelve days later Michael Staines newly appointed Commissioner of the Gardai took over the army Barracks in Kildare as a recruiting depot for the Garda Siochana. This was soon to be the centre of attention when on the 15th May what became known as the Kildare mutiny took place. Several Ex R.I.C. men had been brought into the Civic Guards as officers and objections were taken to their presence by many former IRA men who had themselves enlisted in the new police force. The mutiny further heightened existing tensions in the country and led to formation of Civic Guard Active Service Units. These were police men armed with rifles who were deployed to protect the railways in Co. Kildare by day and night. On Sunday the 16th July 1992 the first Civic Guards were sent into South Kildare as part of the active service units even before the first Garda recruits had finished their training. Posts were established in Kildare and Monasterevin and later at Cloney, Doneaney and Athy staffed by armed units of the Civic Guards.
There was unease at Government level at the arming of the Guards particularly as they lacked uniforms and so far as the locals were concerned they had all the appearances of “Irregulars”. Their rifles were later taken up and replaced with revolvers. Towards the end of August an active service unit on night patrol armed with revolvers was caught in cross fire during an attack on the local Garda Barracks in Athy. The attack was initiated by members of the Carlow Kildare Brigade IRA who had taken the Anti Treaty side. There were no casualties.
Early in September 1922 General Eoin O’ Duffy by now Chief of Police accelerated the plans to deploy uniformed members of an unarmed Garda Siochana throughout the country. A sergeant and four Garda were sent to Athy and took up residence in the former Military Barracks at Barrack Lane which had been built in or about 1730 to house a cavalry troop.
The first sergeant in charge of the local Garda station was Cornelius Lillis who arrived from the depot with four young Gardai, John Hanley, John Kelly, Patrick Fitzgerald and Joseph MacNamara. Sergeant Lillis transferred in May 1924 to Ballytore to be replaced by Sergeant E.O ‘Loughlin. Thereafter Garda sergeants arrived and departed with regular frequency and when my father arrived in Athy on the 26th February 1945 he was the twenty second Garda sergeant to serve in the town of Athy. By an extraordinary coincidence his period of service in Athy was to equal the aggregate total of all his twenty one predecessors as sergeant in the town.
The names of the former sergeants may be of interest to my older readers. Following Lillis and O’ Loughlin came William Duggan in 1924, James Power, Patrick Kelleher and Patrick Murphy 1925, William Thorne in 1926, William Sheehan, John Noonan and Thomas Vaughan in 1927, Philip Griffin and John Mc Carthy in 1928, James Tierney in 1929, James Darmody in 1930, Francis Corr in 1931, Bernard Dugan Patrick Mac Nulty and Daniel Taylor in 1933, Robert Hayes in 1935, Hugh Ruddy in 1936 and Daniel Duggan in 1937. Sergeant John Mc Carthy who arrived from Emily, Co. Offaly in 1928 died while stationed in Athy on the 3rd September 1931. I wonder how many of these men are remembered in Athy today?
Some of the older Gardai I remember in Athy during the 1950’s, all of whom are now dead, were part of the thirty six Gardai who were transferred to the town between 1922 and 1948. The Garda with the longest service in Athy was James Kelly who transferred from Tarbert, Co. Kerry on the 22nd August 1928. Three years later he was joined by John Mac Mahon and in 1933 and 1934 arrived Michael Tuohy and John O’ Connell. Garda Tuohy had the Garda number 854, confirmation that he was one of the earliest recruits into the newly established Garda Siochana. My father the farmers son from the Northern end of Co. Longford was one of five sons two of whom emigrated to America. His other two brothers stayed on the land one inheriting his fathers farm while the other “Fell in” for a elderly neighbours holding. My father as the youngest of the family with every one else cared for was given an “Education” to free him from dependency on the land. He trained as a National teacher but for what ever reason applied to join the Garda Siochana and presented himself at the Phoenix Park Depot on the 4th November 1925 to be medically examined by Surgeon Ellis. Passed physically and mentally fit to perform the duties of a member of the Garda Siochana on the following day he signed a Declaration before a Peace Commissioner that he would be faithful to the utmost of his ability in his employment by the Ard Chomhairle of Saorstat Eireann in the office of the Garda and would render good and true service ……. without favour or affection, fear, malice or ill will. He further undertook as a Garda not to join, belong or subscribe to any political society whatsoever or to any secret society.
TO BE CONTINUED
The story of the Garda Siochana is an interesting one. Following the Anglo Irish Treaty the members of the Provisional Government were concerned to ensure that a properly trained police force would be in position to take the place of the soon to be disbanded R.I.C. The R.I.C. Barracks in Athy had been located in Whites Castle up to 1889 when due to the unsatisfactory accommodation in that building arrangements were put in place to relocate to the vacant Military Barracks in Barrack Lane. The move did not find agreement with local Town Commissioners who petitioned Dublin Castle on several occasions to have the police Barracks relocated to the centre of the town. In 1895 the Members of Parliament for Co. Kildare were asked to put a question in the English House of Commons “Relative to the removal of the Constabulary to their present out of the way location and to have the authorities change them to a more central position”. All to no vail, as the authorities had spend the not in considerable sum of £500 in renovating the former Military Barracks and the police inspector asked to review the Commissioner’s request was able to report that “The peace of the town is well maintained”. The R.I.C. were still in the former Military Barracks when the Irish Independent newspaper carried a report of the intended formation of the Garda Siochana or the Civic Guards who would replace them.
Recruiting for the new police force started on the 21st February 1922 and the first member was Patrick Joseph Kerrigan from Co. Mayo. On the 13th April Civil War erupted with the seizure of the Four Courts in Dublin by Rory O’Connor and the Anti Treaty Forces better known as “The Irregulars”. Twelve days later Michael Staines newly appointed Commissioner of the Gardai took over the army Barracks in Kildare as a recruiting depot for the Garda Siochana. This was soon to be the centre of attention when on the 15th May what became known as the Kildare mutiny took place. Several Ex R.I.C. men had been brought into the Civic Guards as officers and objections were taken to their presence by many former IRA men who had themselves enlisted in the new police force. The mutiny further heightened existing tensions in the country and led to formation of Civic Guard Active Service Units. These were police men armed with rifles who were deployed to protect the railways in Co. Kildare by day and night. On Sunday the 16th July 1992 the first Civic Guards were sent into South Kildare as part of the active service units even before the first Garda recruits had finished their training. Posts were established in Kildare and Monasterevin and later at Cloney, Doneaney and Athy staffed by armed units of the Civic Guards.
There was unease at Government level at the arming of the Guards particularly as they lacked uniforms and so far as the locals were concerned they had all the appearances of “Irregulars”. Their rifles were later taken up and replaced with revolvers. Towards the end of August an active service unit on night patrol armed with revolvers was caught in cross fire during an attack on the local Garda Barracks in Athy. The attack was initiated by members of the Carlow Kildare Brigade IRA who had taken the Anti Treaty side. There were no casualties.
Early in September 1922 General Eoin O’ Duffy by now Chief of Police accelerated the plans to deploy uniformed members of an unarmed Garda Siochana throughout the country. A sergeant and four Garda were sent to Athy and took up residence in the former Military Barracks at Barrack Lane which had been built in or about 1730 to house a cavalry troop.
The first sergeant in charge of the local Garda station was Cornelius Lillis who arrived from the depot with four young Gardai, John Hanley, John Kelly, Patrick Fitzgerald and Joseph MacNamara. Sergeant Lillis transferred in May 1924 to Ballytore to be replaced by Sergeant E.O ‘Loughlin. Thereafter Garda sergeants arrived and departed with regular frequency and when my father arrived in Athy on the 26th February 1945 he was the twenty second Garda sergeant to serve in the town of Athy. By an extraordinary coincidence his period of service in Athy was to equal the aggregate total of all his twenty one predecessors as sergeant in the town.
The names of the former sergeants may be of interest to my older readers. Following Lillis and O’ Loughlin came William Duggan in 1924, James Power, Patrick Kelleher and Patrick Murphy 1925, William Thorne in 1926, William Sheehan, John Noonan and Thomas Vaughan in 1927, Philip Griffin and John Mc Carthy in 1928, James Tierney in 1929, James Darmody in 1930, Francis Corr in 1931, Bernard Dugan Patrick Mac Nulty and Daniel Taylor in 1933, Robert Hayes in 1935, Hugh Ruddy in 1936 and Daniel Duggan in 1937. Sergeant John Mc Carthy who arrived from Emily, Co. Offaly in 1928 died while stationed in Athy on the 3rd September 1931. I wonder how many of these men are remembered in Athy today?
Some of the older Gardai I remember in Athy during the 1950’s, all of whom are now dead, were part of the thirty six Gardai who were transferred to the town between 1922 and 1948. The Garda with the longest service in Athy was James Kelly who transferred from Tarbert, Co. Kerry on the 22nd August 1928. Three years later he was joined by John Mac Mahon and in 1933 and 1934 arrived Michael Tuohy and John O’ Connell. Garda Tuohy had the Garda number 854, confirmation that he was one of the earliest recruits into the newly established Garda Siochana. My father the farmers son from the Northern end of Co. Longford was one of five sons two of whom emigrated to America. His other two brothers stayed on the land one inheriting his fathers farm while the other “Fell in” for a elderly neighbours holding. My father as the youngest of the family with every one else cared for was given an “Education” to free him from dependency on the land. He trained as a National teacher but for what ever reason applied to join the Garda Siochana and presented himself at the Phoenix Park Depot on the 4th November 1925 to be medically examined by Surgeon Ellis. Passed physically and mentally fit to perform the duties of a member of the Garda Siochana on the following day he signed a Declaration before a Peace Commissioner that he would be faithful to the utmost of his ability in his employment by the Ard Chomhairle of Saorstat Eireann in the office of the Garda and would render good and true service ……. without favour or affection, fear, malice or ill will. He further undertook as a Garda not to join, belong or subscribe to any political society whatsoever or to any secret society.
TO BE CONTINUED
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