By GREGORY ALLEN

IN a brief ceremony in Dublin Castle on January 16th, 1922, Lord FitzAlan, last of the English viceroys, formally transferred power to Michael Collins as chairman of the provisional government. A meeting of the Irish ministers in the Mansion House the following day was attended by Alderman Michael J. Staines, TD, director of, the Belfast Boycott, who was soon, to be assigned to a new political role in the formation of a police force to replace the Royal Irish Constabulary.

The law and order crisis was on a long agenda. Anticipating disbandment of the RIC, the Minister for Home Affairs, Eamonn Duggan, had already met the Minister for Defence in the Dail Cabinet, Richard Mulcahy. They had agreed that pending the planned reorganisation, members of the Irish Republican Police should rejoin their Volunteer units. They had also agreed that a trained police or military officer should be employed to assist the government.

Duggan's proposals approved by the provisional government were resisted by the Republican Police. However, on January 26th, in an apparent contradiction, Duggan was directed to submit plans for a Volunteer Police Force.

In the Dail on February 28th, when the Civic Guard was already a week in existence, Duggan told Austin Stack that the estimates for Home Affairs provided for payments to the Republican Police which would continue to serve the people "as in the past". Stack was not satisfied. Was there any truth in the rumour that the government was raising a police force other than the Republican Police? Duggan replied that the Army had taken responsibility for police duties, as a temporary arrangement.

Collins was bitterly opposed to the ad hoc organisation. "We do not want a casual police force without proper training," he wrote to W. T. Cosgrave. "It is not necessary for me to illustrate this by pointing to the wretched Irish Republican Police system and to the awful personnel that was attracted to its ranks. The lack of construction and control in this force have been responsible for many of the outrageous things which have occurred throughout Ireland."

In the search for "a trained police officer", Kevin O'Higgins met the Sinn Fein leader in Co Donegal, Dr J.P. McGinley, who recommended District Inspector Patrick Walsh of Letterkenny who had succeeded in maintaining a delicate balance between his oath of office and his vocation as a pragmatic guardian of the peace.

As the crowds were gathering in Dublin on January 16th for the inauguration of Irish self-government, Walsh set off for Fort Dunree with an armed police detachment to escort explosives destined for the county council. He was back at his desk early the following morning. When the Dublin newspapers arrived he must have turned the pages of The Irish Times with quickening interest, reading of the "tremendous event in Irish history" that had taken, place in the capital the day before.

As a professional policeman he would have endorsed the agenda for the new administration urged in the editorial. The provisional government had assumed great powers and great responsibilities ... Its first and most urgent duty is the restoration and maintenance of public order."

Acting on a personal invitation from Collins, Walsh set out ford Dublin on February 8th. The following day, he reported at RIC headquarters in Dublin Castle to confirm the sanction for absence from his district, arranged by Duggan.

WHEN the police organising committee assembled in the Gresham Hotel on the evening of February 9th, Walsh found himself among a number of serving and former police colleagues, including representatives of the Dublin Metropolitan Police. The attendance included the ubiquitous Collins, accompanied by Duggan and Staines. Also present was the Army chief of staff, General Eoin O'Duffy, who was to succeed Staines as police commissioner in September.

They were joined by Volunteers - officers, Brig. M. J. Ring, West Mayo Active Service Unit; Col Patrick Brennan TD, East Clare ASU, and Jeremiah Maher, a former sergeant in the RIC, lately intelligence officer in the 1st Eastern Division. Comdt Martin Lynch, Brigade Police Officer, Co Laois, joined the committee later.

General Richard Mulcahy also attended the meeting. Fully stretched as he was in the organisation of the National Army, to find him among the policemen is perhaps surprising, but there was political sense in his presence. On the nomination of Collins, the Minister of Defence and not Duggan took the chair.

There appears to be no record of what Mulcahy said in setting guidelines for the committee but his intentions may be gleaned from the organisation of the Civic Guard as it emerged initially a lightly armed force go from the RIC by new insignia, the colour of the uniform and rank titles borrowed from the DMR.

Having declared his preoccupation with Army business, Mulcahy named Staines as acting chairman. The policemen present had all been recommended as sympathetic to the new regime. This did not mean that the officers in all cases had been part of Collins's espionage network.

Leading a mixed raiding party in a search of Dr McGinley's home, Walsh, with considerable moral courage, covered up evidence of political activity to protect the doctor from the attentions of the Black and Tans.

Staines presented his report on February 17th: a blueprint for a "People's Guard" - 4,300 all ranks in 21 divisions compared with 7,000 RIC who patrolled 29 divisions in the 26 counties, based on deployments in 1914. It was an optimistic estimate based on the prospect of peace, falling short by 1,000 men of actual needs in the aftermath of the civil war.

The committee proposed an armed police force, a revolver for each constable to be carried on a waistbelt in the manner of the RIC. The reform of the police service in the most fundamental sense of its philosophy was to hinge on this recommendation.

The name, People's Guard, as recommended was rejected in favour of Civic Guard, the name given to the unarmed Dublin, police raised by an act of the College Green parliament in 1795. This was agreed apparently in deference to Arthur Griffith who was, recorded in the minutes as present at the meeting on February 27th, when the decision was taken. Among the ministers and their distinguished visitor at the Cabinet table Griffith was uniquely informed to suggest a name redolent of history.

The inspired title in Irish meaning Guardians of the Peace appeared for the first time in a newspaper report on March 7th. Clearly someone was determined to get his own way. It may have been Staines himself, who personally commissioned the artist John F. Maxwell to design the new police badge incorporating the legend Garda Siochana na hEireann. Both were active members of the Gaelic League.

THE need for a training depot with accommodation for 4,000 men was obviously a matter of great urgency. The Constabulary Depot in Phoenix Park was occupied by British army units preparing for evacuation. Accompanied by Paddy Brennan and Joe Ring, Staines inspected the RDS premises in Ballsbridge and was promised "every possible facility" by the director, Edward Bohane.

On Monday, February 21st, against a background of intense political activity to avert civil war, recruiting began informally at the RDS. On the first day, four young men presented themselves for enlistment in the as yet unnamed police force. Two were Volunteers, and one claimed previous service in the DMP; they were afterwards dismissed for indiscipline, one for assaulting a prisoner in military custody following a sworn inquiry ordered by Staines.

The fourth candidate was an ex-RIC constable, Patrick McAvinia. Joining the Republican Police, his work in the Dail courts came under the notice of Michael Staines who invited him to join the new police. As Sgt McAvinia, he retired in 1947 with a certificate of exemplary service.

On March 10th, Staines was appointed Commissioner of Police. He named Patrick Walsh as his, deputy, and promoted the other ex-RIC men to high rank, providing the supporters of Rory O'Connor, who had infiltrated the Civic Guard, with their pretext for mutiny. In the aftermath of the revolt, the provisional government took no decision on the recommendation of the O'Sheil/, McAuliffe inquiry that the force should be unarmed. It had been "tacitly accepted as the proper thing", the secretary in Justice, Henry O'Friel, informed Finance in 1925. It was left to the Civic Guard, by its own spontaneous rejection of a para-military posture, to disarm itself.

Leaving office in September, Commissioner Staines circulated to the men preparing to go on, duty a ringing valedictory message defining the new philosophy: "The Garda Siochana will succeed not by force of arms or numbers but on their moral authority as servants of the people."