Policing Genealogy Ireland and History Useful Links .

Formation of the New Irish Police Force

A secret meeting was held on 9 February 1922 at the Gresham Hotel In Dublin. It was presided over by Michael Collins and with the invite of members of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC), IRA and other individuals. The gathering had one aim: to establish a new police in the Irish Free State to replace the disbanded RIC. They were known as the Civic Guard. The first Garda recruits arrived at the RDS on 21 February 1922 from all across the county. These men, which consisted of an overwhelming majority of IRA Veterans had to begin implementing policing in Irish communities that had become divided and hostile during the emergence of the Irish Civil War 1922-1923. Despite the challenges during this period the decision was made to make the Civic Guards an unarmed police force which is still in practice overall in the present day. On 8 August 1923 the Civic Guard was renamed An Garda Síochána, meaning ‘Guardians of the Peace’. The Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP) was amalgamated with the Gardaí in 1925, who police the 26 counties in the Republic of Ireland.

Purpose and Mission.

A hundred years after its establishment, a tradition of family service going back as far as four generations still continues. Reforms in the Irish policing system introduced the first women ‘bean’ Gardaí in 1959, although they did have to give up their careers when they got married, a law which was not removed until 1973 in Ireland . This means many people across Ireland and even the world have some family member who served in Ireland’s police force. This can be father, grandfather, great grandfather, mother, grandmother, great grandmother, uncle, granduncle, aunt, grand aunt , among many others. Currently there is no Garda Genealogy service for the public which has sparked significant interest and demand since the Centenary was marked throughout 2022. Have you any ancestors who served in An Garda Síochána? Want to find out more about their lives but unsure how to start? Our aim is to advise you on how to do this and what resources are available. The Civic Guard Register 1922-1925 along with other sources have been transcribed into a search mode. If you have just a reg number or even a name only, it will show you the results for both and the details of the Garda recruit. Some of the external links on this website are a good starting point. This website will primarily focus on the first 50 years of Garda History 1922-1972. It will respect the confidentiality of the individuals who served by providing limited information extracted from newspaper articles, online civil records and other platforms that are already available to the public. This will also explore the family history of the early Garda recruits and ow life was for their wives and children .

Characteristics of a Garda Recruit.

When Eoin O’Duffy replaced Michael Staines as Garda Commissioner, he emphasised that the recruits should have an exceptionally high standard of physical fitness. They needed to be between 19 and 27 years of age and unmarried.

Garda Uniform Origin.

As the Civic Guard filled its rank and file with new recruits, it needed a unform that made them distinct to the former Royal Irish Constabulary and proved that they were the new police force of Ireland. Currently it is unknown who designed the first uniforms for the Civic Guard, except it possible were the same tailors who supplied clothing to the RIC. It was first seen on recruits at Kildare Barracks in the Summer of 1922. The first Garda recruits marched under Commissioner Michael Staines into Dublin Castle during the evacuation of the British on 17 August 1922 wearing their new uniforms. An onlooker during the state funeral of Arthur Griffith in August 1922 described how he could see the Civic Guard in their ‘Field Blue Uniform’ keep crowd control.