McEntee announces events to mark 100th year of An Garda Síochána

A number of events and initiatives to mark the centenary of the establishment of An Garda Síochána, the occupation of the Four Courts and the enactment of the Irish Free State Constitution have been announced by the Minister for Justice Helen McEntee.

Ms McEntee said 1922 and the years that followed saw “many developments and transitions” and were “tumultuous years as the new State came into being”.

The Minister said she hoped the Decade of Centenaries Justice Sector Programme 2022-24 would help bring “some new insights and understanding to those years”.

“This must be an open and honest discussion, and throughout we will attempt to consider all aspects of our history – those that are well known and those which may not have received enough discussion in the past,” Ms McEntee said.

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Events

An event to mark the formation of An Garda Síochána will take place at the Gresham hotel on May 24th, to mark the historic meeting, chaired by Michael Collins, where the provisional government formed a committee to set up a new police service to replace the Royal Irish Constabulary.

A new online photo archive of policing will also be launched in the coming months. The flagship national centenary commemorative event for An Garda Síochána will be held at Dublin Castle on August 27th, to recreate when Commissioner Michael Staines led 380 civic guards through the castle following its evacuation by the British army.

An online event on April 14th with the Beyond 2022/Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland research project and the National Archives of Ireland in the Court of Appeal will mark the first day of the occupation of the Four Courts.

A number of events in June will also take place to mark the occupation and Battle of the Four Courts, including the launch of a photographic exhibition.

A joint commemorative event with the Courts Service and National Archives of Ireland is planned for October 2022 to mark the work of the Constitution Committee, which culminated in the enactment of the Free State Constitution, and the records which document its work.

A justice sector symposium, titled Justice in Ireland 1822-2022, will take place in the Printworks of Dublin Castle on November 22nd.

Falling on the 200th anniversary of the establishment of the County Constabulary and the 100th anniversary of the establishment of An Garda Síochána, the symposium will provide an opportunity for a consideration by academics and practitioners of the development of both policing and justice institutions.

Meanwhile, a major conference entitled Portrait of a Nation: Art, Politics and the Anglo-Irish Treaty will take place between April 22nd and 23rd at the National Museum of Ireland at Collins Barracks and will also be live-streamed.

Organised jointly by the Hugh Lane Gallery and the museum, the conference will bring together historians, artists, writers and curators to discuss themes from the background to the signing of the Treaty in London in 1921 to its legacy and impact on ordinary Irish people.

‘Particularly significant’

Ms McEntee said 1922 was “a particularly significant year”, with the foundation of An Garda Síochána and the advent of the Civil War.

“Both 1922 and the years that followed saw many developments and transitions, including the end to the revolutionary Dáil Courts regime and the establishment of the Courts system of the new State,” she said.

“These were tumultuous years as the new State came into being. Both the Department of Justice, its forerunner, the Department of Home Affairs, and the various other parts of the justice sector were central to that time and that work.”