Sir, - In the debate in the Northern Ireland Assembly on the Patten Commission (The Irish Times, January 25th), the origins of the Garda Siochana were recalled by Alban Maginness (SDLP).
Quoting the first Commissioner, Michael Staines, Mr Maginness said he hoped that the new Northern Ireland police force would one day also be able to serve the people "not by force of arms, or numbers, but on their moral authority as servants of the people".
This definition of a new philosophy for the Irish police service might have been lost but for the diligence of the district clerk at Wicklow, James Brennan. In 1975, in response to an appeal for exhibits for the new Garda Museum, he discovered what proved to be the only surviving copy of the first instructions on the duties of the new police.
When so many of the early records of the Civic Guard were no longer available, this fragile document (M.J. Staines, circular, three foolscap pages, September 9th, 1922) had survived under a film of dust on top of a press in a store-room.
History is indebted to Garda Jim Brennan. His providential find unquestionably remains as the most important development in the museum and archives project launched by Commissioner Patrick Malone 25 years ago. - Yours, etc.,
Gregory Allen, Upper Kilmacud Road, Blackrock, Co Dublin.