General O’Duffy advises members of Civic Guard to ‘be cool and firm’

Dublin, 21 November 1922 – The new Civic Guard was the ‘people’s police’, General Eoin O’Duffy told an audience at Collinstown Camp yesterday.

The camp was recently evacuated by British forces and General O’Duffy  was speaking at a ceremony where the tricolour was raised above the depot to the sounding of a salute before a large group of civic guards. This brings the number of stations in the possession of the Civic Guard to 160.

Following the flag-raising ceremony, General O’Duffy addressed the assembled men, informing them of the Irish people’s pride in having for the first time in their history a police force they could call their own. He also noted that it is an unarmed and strictly non-political force and its members are clear that it is their duty to act with total impartiality. They will serve whatever government the people elect and will do all they can to protect the lives and property of everyone, irrespective of their own political views.

General Eoin O’Duffy, pictured in military uniform in 1922 (Image: UCD Digital Library)

Despite this, General O’Duffy acknowledged that there had been instances of guards and stations being targeted and robbed by armed men. He gave an example from Mullinahone, Co. Tipperary, where a young guard named Phelan, a former member of a flying column in Mountrath, had been ‘foully murdered in broad daylight’.

Such actions would not be tolerated. ‘Be cool and firm’, he advised them.

‘Stand with the people manfully and courageously; show you will not desert them and they will not desert you… Don’t open your doors, let them be smashed in. Don’t surrender your property or that entrusted to your charge; defend it with your lives.’

He stated that the Civic Guard is now on trial with its very existence at stake but he has confidence that they will come triumphantly through the ordeal.

He also addressed the matter of the use of the Irish language in the force. Two hours each day, he said, were given to Irish at each depot and guards were encouraged and expected to speak Irish as much as possible. Furthermore, in examinations for promotion 200 marks were allotted for Irish and so far during his period of office, more than 50% of candidates who had secured promotion did so owing to their knowledge of the language. A large number of guards had also qualified for the fáinne and had been given permission to wear it on their uniform.

British Pathé footage of the civic guard. Recruits for the new force in training at Ballsbridge, 1922

[Editor's note: This is an article from Century Ireland, a fortnightly online newspaper, written from the perspective of a journalist 100 years ago, based on news reports of the time.]