Dublin Metropolitan Police
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The Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP) was the police force of
Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...
in British-controlled Ireland from 1836 to 1922 and then the Irish Free State until 1925, when it was absorbed into the new state's
Garda Síochána (; meaning "the Guardian(s) of the Peace") is the national police and security service of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is more commonly referred to as the Gardaí (; "Guardians") or "the Guards". The service is headed by the Garda Commissio ...
.


History


19th century

The Dublin city police had been subject to major reforms in 1786 and 1808.Stanley H. Palmer, ' Drummond, Thomas (1797–1840)',
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from History of the British Isles, British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') ...
, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008
Organised rural policing in Ireland began when
Robert Peel Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet (5 February 1788 – 2 July 1850), was a British Conservative statesman who twice was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1834–1835, 1841–1846), and simultaneously was Chancellor of the Exchequer (1834–183 ...
, then
Chief Secretary for Ireland The Chief Secretary for Ireland was a key political office in the British Dublin Castle administration, administration in Ireland. Nominally subordinate to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Lord Lieutenant, and officially the "Chief Secretar ...
, created the Peace Preservation Force in 1814. This rudimentary paramilitary police force was designed to provide policing in rural Ireland, replacing the 18th century system of watchmen, baronial constables, revenue officers and British military forces. Peel went on to found the London Metropolitan Police. In 1822, a new act created four improved "county" constabularies, whose organisation was based around the traditional
provinces of Ireland There are four provinces of Ireland: Connacht, Leinster, Munster and Ulster. The Irish language, Irish word for this territorial division, , meaning "fifth part", suggests that there were once five, and at times Kingdom of Meath, Meath has be ...
.


1836: reform

In 1836, the county constabularies were merged into a new centralised Constabulary of Ireland, and the Peace Preservation Force ceased to exist. At the same time separate non-paramilitary forces were set up in the largest cities:
Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...
,
Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...
, and
Derry Derry, officially Londonderry, is the second-largest City status in the United Kingdom, city in Northern Ireland, and the fifth-largest on the island of Ireland. Located in County Londonderry, the city now covers both banks of the River Fo ...
. A perceived lack of impartiality following rioting in the municipal police forces of Belfast and Derry saw both forces absorbed by the national force in 1865 and 1870 respectively, and only Dublin maintained its separate force. The DMP was established under the Dublin Police Act 1836 ( 6 & 7 Will. 4. c. 29) as an unarmed, uniformed force of one thousand day and night constables. The Castle-controlled organisation was more accountable than the untrained
constable A constable is a person holding a particular office, most commonly in law enforcement. The office of constable can vary significantly in different jurisdictions. ''Constable'' is commonly the rank of an officer within a police service. Other peo ...
s and night watchmen it replaced. The 1836 Act authorised the "chief governor of Ireland" to establish a police office in Dublin, supported by two salaried justices, to administer the police force which would be under the direction of the Chief Secretary for Ireland. It also provided for the recruitment and appointment of policemen and the regulation of their conduct. It also created powers of arrest and made arrangements for the financial affairs of the new force, including new taxation. The DMP was modelled closely on London's Metropolitan Police. Not only were the uniforms of the two forces almost indistinguishable, especially after the helmet and Bath Star were adopted, but the two forces also had a similar organisational structure; rather than a Chief Constable, they were commanded by a
Commissioner A commissioner (commonly abbreviated as Comm'r) is, in principle, a member of a commission or an individual who has been given a commission (official charge or authority to do something). In practice, the title of commissioner has evolved to incl ...
, who was not a police officer, but a
magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judi ...
holding a Commission of the Peace. The first Commissioner of the Dublin Metropolitan Police was John Lewis More O'Ferrall, brother of Richard More O'Ferrall. This was descended from the 18th century system of controlling parish
constable A constable is a person holding a particular office, most commonly in law enforcement. The office of constable can vary significantly in different jurisdictions. ''Constable'' is commonly the rank of an officer within a police service. Other peo ...
s, and was a sop to the public's fears about the danger of a standing police force under government control.


1880s: Land War

The force came under considerable pressure in the 1880s during the
Land War The Land War () was a period of agrarian agitation in rural History of Ireland (1801–1923), Ireland (then wholly part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom) that began in 1879. It may refer specifically to the firs ...
, in which 500 policemen were injured. A series of protest meetings were held and strikes were threatened in 1882.


20th century


1913–14: Dublin Lock-out

Two men died and several hundred people were injured over the course of the five-month
Dublin Lock-out The Dublin lock-out was a major industrial dispute between approximately 20,000 workers and 300 employers that took place in Dublin, Ireland. The dispute, lasting from 26 August 1913 to 18 January 1914, is often viewed as the most severe and s ...
, including two hundred policemen. Although the police were involved in "frequent collisions" with union members and used tactics such as
baton charge A baton charge is a coordinated tactic for dispersing crowds of people, usually used by police, paramilitary or military in response to public disorder. In the Indian subcontinent, a long bamboo stick, called a '' lathi'' in Bengali, Hindi, ...
s against them, a vice-regal commission cleared them of wrongdoing after the events – though their reputation had suffered considerably.


1916 onwards

As an unarmed urban force, the Dublin Metropolitan Police did not participate as actively in the
Easter Rising The Easter Rising (), also known as the Easter Rebellion, was an armed insurrection in Ireland during Easter Week in April 1916. The Rising was launched by Irish republicans against British rule in Ireland with the aim of establishing an ind ...
of 1916 and
War of Independence Wars of national liberation, also called wars of independence or wars of liberation, are conflicts fought by nations to gain independence. The term is used in conjunction with wars against foreign powers (or at least those perceived as foreign) ...
as did the RIC, and as such did not suffer the casualty rate of that force. Three men were killed and seven injured in the Rising. One of their number David Neligan (who was an IRA agent) records in his book ''The Spy in the Castle'' that the majority of the DMP uniformed personnel observed a neutral role, restricted to traditional policing functions. The political "G" Division did not come off so lightly, and selected " G men" were first given warnings by the
Irish Republican Army The Irish Republican Army (IRA) is a name used by various Resistance movement, resistance organisations in Ireland throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Organisations by this name have been dominantly Catholic and dedicated to anti-imperiali ...
in April 1919. Five members of "G" Division were subsequently killed by the IRA, the first in July 1919. Several DMP officers actively assisted the IRA, most notably Edward Broy, who passed valuable intelligence to Michael Collins throughout the conflict. In the 1996 film '' Michael Collins'', Broy is discovered and subsequently tortured and killed by the British. In reality, he was not caught and went on to become the Commissioner of the in the 1930s. His fate in the film is based on that of Dick McKee, who, with Peadar Clancy and the civilian Conor Clune, was murdered after torture in Dublin Castle on "Bloody Sunday", 21 November 1920. After the creation of the
Irish Free State The Irish Free State (6 December 192229 December 1937), also known by its Irish-language, Irish name ( , ), was a State (polity), state established in December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. The treaty ended the three-ye ...
, the DMP became known as (''Police of Dublin'') from 1922 to 1925, after which the force ceased to exist as a separate entity, being absorbed into the (''Guardians of the Peace''). Its last Commissioner was W.R.E. Murphy. " Dublin Metropolitan" is today a geographic region of the 's command structure. Unlike the RIC, but in common with police forces in Great Britain, the DMP was an unarmed force. In contrast to the green uniformed RIC, the DMP wore dark blue with silver insignia.


Ranks


References


External links


DMP Roll of Honour in the British National Police Officers Roll of Honour
(since this only covers UK forces, the DMP pages only cover up to 1922)
Article about DMP on occasion of centenary of 1913 Lockout

A History of the Dublin Metropolitan Police and Its Colonial Legacy

Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP) Prisoners Books 1905-1918.
A UCD Digital Library Collection.
DMP Annual Reports 1875 to 1912
Garda Síochána website {{Authority control 1836 establishments in Ireland Defunct law enforcement agencies of Ireland Defunct police forces of the United Kingdom History of Dublin (city) Garda Síochána units