History Of Garda Force Commissioners
Garda Commissioners The first Commissioner, Michael Staines, who was a Pro-Treaty member of Dáil Éireann, held office for only eight months. It was his successors, Eoin O'Duffy and Éamon Broy, who played a central role in the development of the force. O’Duffy was Commissioner in the early years of the force when to many people’s surprise the viability of an unarmed police force was established. O'Duffy later became a short-lived political leader of the quasi-fascistBlueshirts before heading to Spain to fight alongside Francisco Franco's Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War. Broy had greatly assisted the Irish Republican Army (IRA) during the Anglo-Irish War, while serving with the Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP). Broy's fame grew in the 1990s when he featured in the film Michael Collins, in which it was misleadingly suggested that he had been murdered by the British during the War of Independence, when in reality he lived for decades and headed the Garda Síochána from 1933 to 1938. Broy was followed by civilian Commissioners Michael Kinnane (1938-52) and Daniel Costigan (1952-65). The first Commissioner to rise from the rank of ordinary Garda was William P. Quinn, who was appointed in February 1965.
One later Commissioner, Edmund Garvey, was sacked by the Fianna Fáil government of Jack Lynch in 1978 after it had lost confidence in him. Garvey won 'unfair dismissal' legal proceedings against the government, which was upheld in the Irish Supreme Court[13] This outcome required the passing of the Garda Síochána Act 1979 to retrospectively validate the actions of Garvey's successor since he had become Commissioner. [14] Garvey's successor, Patrick McLaughlin, was forced to resign along with his deputy in 1983 over his peripheral involvement in a political scandal. The current Commissioner, since November 2007, is Fachtna Murphy.
One later Commissioner, Edmund Garvey, was sacked by the Fianna Fáil government of Jack Lynch in 1978 after it had lost confidence in him. Garvey won 'unfair dismissal' legal proceedings against the government, which was upheld in the Irish Supreme Court[13] This outcome required the passing of the Garda Síochána Act 1979 to retrospectively validate the actions of Garvey's successor since he had become Commissioner. [14] Garvey's successor, Patrick McLaughlin, was forced to resign along with his deputy in 1983 over his peripheral involvement in a political scandal. The current Commissioner, since November 2007, is Fachtna Murphy.
