The Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP) was the police force of

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

, Ireland, from 1836 to 1925, when it was amalgamated into the new

Garda Síochána (; meaning "the Guardian(s) of the Peace"), more commonly referred to as the Gardaí (; "Guardians") or "the Guards", is the national police service of Ireland. The service is headed by the Garda Commissioner who is appointed by the Irish Gove ...

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 British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

, 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 served twice as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1834–1835 and 1841–1846) simultaneously serving as Chancellor of the Excheque ...

, then

Chief Secretary for Ireland The Chief Secretary for Ireland was a key political office in the British administration in Ireland. Nominally subordinate to the Lord Lieutenant, and officially the "Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant", from the early 19th century u ...

, 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 have been four Provinces of Ireland: Connacht (Connaught), Leinster, Munster, and Ulster. The Irish word for this territorial division, , meaning "fifth part", suggests that there were once five, and at times Meath has been considered ...

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:

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...

, and

Derry Derry, officially Londonderry (), is the second-largest city in Northern Ireland and the fifth-largest city on the island of Ireland. The name ''Derry'' is an anglicisation of the Old Irish name (modern Irish: ) meaning 'oak grove'. The ...

. 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 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 criminal law enforcement. The office of constable can vary significantly in different jurisdictions. A constable is commonly the rank of an officer within the police. Other peop ...

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 The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and ...

. 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 in ...

, 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 judic ...

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 Richard More O'Ferrall (10 April 1797 – 27 October 1880) was an Irish politician, a high level British government official and a Governor of Malta. Born to a noble Irish Catholic family at Balyna, he was the eldest son and heir of Ambrose M ...

. This was descended from the 18th century system of controlling parish

s, and was a sop to the public's fears about the danger of a standing police force under government control. In the eyes of the law

1880s: Land War

The force came under considerable pressure in the 1880s during the

Land War The Land War ( ga, Cogadh na Talún) was a period of agrarian agitation in rural Ireland (then wholly part of the United Kingdom) that began in 1879. It may refer specifically to the first and most intense period of agitation between 1879 and 18 ...

, 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 Ireland's capital and largest city, Dublin. The dispute, lasting from 26 August 1913 to 18 January 1914, is often vi ...

, 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 or military in response to public disorder. In South Asia, a long bamboo stick, called ''lathi'' in Hindi, is used for crowd control, and the expres ...

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

War of Independence This is a list of wars of independence (also called liberation wars). These wars may or may not have been successful in achieving a goal of independence. List See also * Lists of active separatist movements * List of civil wars * List of ...

as did the RIC, and as such did not suffer the casualty rate of that force, although three men were killed and seven injured. One of their number

David Neligan David Neligan (14 October 1899 – 1983), known by his soubriquet "The Spy in the Castle", was a crucial figure involved in the Irish War of Independence (1919–21) and subsequently became Director of Intelligence for the Irish Army after the ...

(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 G (detective) Division was a plainclothes divisional office of the Dublin Metropolitan Police concerned with detective police work.Patrick Maume, ‘Mallon, John (1839–1915)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2 ...

did not come off so lightly, and selected "

G men ''G Men'' is a 1935 Warner Bros. crime film starring James Cagney, Ann Dvorak, Margaret Lindsay and Lloyd Nolan in his film debut. According to '' Variety,'' the movie was one of the top-grossing films of 1935. The supporting cast features ...

" were first given warnings by the

Irish Republican Army The Irish Republican Army (IRA) is a name used by various paramilitary organisations in Ireland throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Organisations by this name have been dedicated to irredentism through Irish republicanism, the belief th ...

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 Eamon Broy (also called ''Edward Broy''; 22 December 1887 – 22 January 1972) was successively a member of the Dublin Metropolitan Police, the Irish Republican Army, the National Army, and the Garda Síochána of the Irish Free State. He ser ...

, who passed valuable intelligence to

Michael Collins Michael Collins or Mike Collins most commonly refers to: * Michael Collins (Irish leader) (1890–1922), Irish revolutionary leader, soldier, and politician * Michael Collins (astronaut) (1930–2021), American astronaut, member of Apollo 11 and ...

throughout the conflict. In the 1996 film ''

'', 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 Richard "Dick" McKee (Irish name Risteárd Mac Aoidh; 4 April 1893 – 21 November 1920) was a prominent member of the Irish Republican Army (IRA). He was also friend to some senior members in the republican movement, including Éamon de Valera, ...

, 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 ( ga, Saorstát Éireann, , ; 6 December 192229 December 1937) was a state established in December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. The treaty ended the three-year Irish War of Independence between ...

, the DMP became known as (''Police of Dublin'') from 1922–1925, 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 William Richard English-Murphy, Distinguished Service Order, DSO Military Cross, MC known as W.R.E. Murphy (1890–1975) was an Irish soldier and policeman. He served as an officer with the British Army in the First World War and later in the Na ...

. " 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 this, it provided the inspiration for the first Commissioner of the Garda Síochána, who declared that the new force should also be unarmed.

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