Guardians of the Peace

By Conor Brady

Guardians of the Peace is a political history of the Irish police force, An Garda Síochana, from its foundation at the birth of the Irish State, through the Irish Civil War, the threat of the fascist ‘Blueshirts’, the continuing campaign of the IRA, de Valera’s entry into the Dáil in 1932 and the creation, effectively of his own police force – ’The Broy Harriers’ – through World War 2.

As the author outlines in his insightful introduction, the story told in this book is part of a longer and wider narrative. But it is a story which still has relevance as Ireland moves, hopefully, to a new era of peace and stability. It is above all a chronicle of the idealism and the imperfections of ordinary men presented by history with the discharging of a rather extraordinary task.

As the force approaches one hundred years since its founding, it is hoped that this history will evoke the ideals and the founding principles adopted in 1922 and perhaps help to re-interpret and re-apply them in a 21st Century context.

• Language: English
• Publisher: New Island
• Release date: Apr 22, 2022
• ISBN: 9781848408425

Conor Brady

Conor Brady has been a journalist, editor and author for more than 40 years and is widely recognised as the most authoritative historian of Irish policing. From Tullamore, he studied history and politics at UCD. On graduation in 1969 he joined The Irish Times where he was editor from 1986 to 2002, the culmination of a long, successful career in print and broadcast journalism. His memoir Up with The Times was published by Gill & Macmillan in 2005. Brady was also editor of the Garda Review for a time and in 1974 published a history of the Garda Síochána from its foundation to 1972, Guardians of the Peace (Gill & Macmillan). Since retiring from The Irish Times he has continued to have a varied and interesting career. Among the roles he has assumed are writer of crime fiction, member of the Remembrance Commission, founding Commissioner of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission and weekly columnist with The Sunday Times.

Reviews for Guardians of the Peace

[thegeneral_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I would highly recommend this book. Brady gives an excellent thesis of not only how the Gardaí were created together with a useful background analysis regarding how the Royal Irish Constabulary were created and came to be disbanded. It is a very good social and historical work of the times through which the Gardaí served and demonstrates how difficult it was, in the context of the Civil War, to win public confidence of all the people. The transition from the Cumann na nGaedheal to Fianna Fáil administrations are also explored together with an analysis of the period of the Blueshirts.