Eamonn 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 served as Commissioner of the Gardaí from February 1933 to June 1938. He later served as president of the Olympic Council of Ireland for fifteen years.

Career

RIC / pre-independence

Broy joined the Royal Irish Constabulary on 2 August 1910, and the Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP) on 20 January 1911.

Broy was a double agent within the DMP, with the rank of Detective Sergeant (DS). He worked as a clerk inside G Division, the intelligence branch of the DMP. While there, he copied sensitive files for IRA leader Michael Collins and passed many of these files on to Collins through Thomas Gay, the librarian at Capel Street Library. On 7 April 1919, Broy smuggled Collins into G Division's archives in Great Brunswick Street (now Pearse Street), enabling him to identify "G-Men", six of whom would be killed by the IRA. Broy supported the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 and joined the National Army during the Irish Civil War, reaching the rank of Colonel. In 1925, he left the Army and joined the Garda Síochána.

Post-independence

Broy's elevation to the post of Commissioner came when Fianna Fáil replaced Cumann na nGaedheal as the government. Other more senior officers were passed over as being too sympathetic to the outgoing party.

In 1934 Broy oversaw the creation of "The Auxiliary Special Branch" of the Garda, formed mainly of hastily-trained anti-Treaty IRA veterans, who would have been opponents of Broy in the civil war. It was nicknamed the "Broy Harriers" by Broy's opponents, a pun on the Bray Harriers athletics club or more likely on the Bray Harriers hunt club. It was used first against the quasi-fascist Blueshirts, and later against the diehard holdouts of the IRA, now set against former comrades. The "Broy Harriers" nickname persisted into the 1940s, even though Broy himself was no longer in command, and for the bodies targeted by the unit was a highly-abusive term, still applied by radical Irish republicans to the Garda Special Branch (now renamed the Special Detective Unit). The Broy Harriers engaged in several controversial fatal shootings. They shot dead a protesting farmer called Lynch in Cork, and when the matter was discussed in the Senate in 1934, the members who supported Éamon de Valera's government walked out. They were detested by sections of the farming community. In the light of this latter history, their name is often used in reference to individuals or groups who attempt to disrupt contemporary Dissident Republicans, such as the remnants of the Provisional IRA.

Volunteer role

Broy was President of the Olympic Council of Ireland from 1935 to 1950.

Death and legacy

He died on 22 January 1972 at his residence in the Dublin suburb of Rathgar.

On 17 September 2016, a memorial to Broy was unveiled in Coolegagen Cemetery, County Offaly, close to his childhood home. His daughter Áine was in attendance, as were representatives of the government, the Air Corps, and the Garda Síochana.

In fiction

Neil Jordan's film ''Michael Collins'' (1996) inaccurately depicts Broy (played by actor Stephen Rea) as having been discovered, tortured and killed by the British. In addition, G Division was based not in Dublin Castle, as indicated in the film, but in Great Brunswick Street. Collins had a different agent in the Castle, David Neligan.Neligan, David. ''The Spy in the Castle''. London: MacGibbon & Kee, 1968. Broy is also mentioned and makes an appearance in Michael Russell's detective novel ''The City of Shadows'', set partly in Dublin in the 1930s, published by HarperCollins in 2012.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Broy, Eamon
1887 births
Dublin Metropolitan Police officers
Double agents
Irish Republican Army (1919–1922) members
People of the Irish Civil War (Pro-Treaty side)
National Army (Ireland) officers
Garda Commissioners
Olympic Federation of Ireland officials
1972 deaths