DOI: 10.7925/drs1.ucdlib_53465
title: Dublin Metropolitan Police and Civic Guard (Garda Síochána) Personnel Registers

description: The two volumes in this collection contain hand written entries recording the details of recruits and applicants to the Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP) and An Garda Síochána. The Civic Guard (Garda Síochána) Temporary Register covers the period from February 1922 to September 1924. The Dublin Metropolitan Police General Register covers the period from 1837 to 1975, although only the entries up to 1925 have been digitised and made available online for data protection reasons. The large double ledger volumes record details such as: age or date of birth; height; trade or occupation; home town; previous public service details; and pay. Details of the religion of a recruit were added to the DMP General Register from October 1858 while the Civic Guard Temporary Register recorded chest measurements as well as height and also includes reasons for the rejection of an applicant. The volumes will be of interest to those interested in genealogy and social history, as well as the history of policing in Ireland.
description: Scope and content: The Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP) General Register covers recruitment and transfers within the Dublin Metropolitan Police. The first 252 pages of this volume are available through the UCD Digital Library. There are 12,567 entries on these pages, covering the period 1837-1925. Following this period the General Register was taken into use by An Garda Síochána and the remaining pages involve the movement of Gardaí to the Dublin Metropolitan Area. Use of the General Register was discontinued in 1975. This latter part of the General Register falls under the Data Protection Act 1988 and Data Protection (Amendment) Act 2003 and as a consequence only the entries relating to the Dublin Metropolitan Police from 1837-1925 have been digitised. The remaining pages remained sealed throughout the digitisation process. The Civic Guard (Garda Síochána) Temporary Register is the earliest register of recruitment of rank and file members into An Garda Síochána. The volume starts in February 1922 and was taken out of general usage in September 1924 after the recruitment of the first 6,042 members. Not all those entered into the register are successful applicants and unsuccessful applicants are not given a registered number. The volume also records separately the members who joined from Oriel House (the Criminal Intelligence Department) and the latest entry for this section is 16/5/1929.
description: Biographical/historical information: The Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP) was established in 1836, along with the Irish Constabulary (later to be known as the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC)). The DMP and the RIC replaced the County Constabulary, a uniformed police force formed on a regional basis. Following the War of Independence and the truce of July 1921, the RIC disbanded and a new police force, “The Civic Guard” (renamed the Garda Síochána na hÉireann on 8 August 1923) was formed. The DMP merged with An Garda Síochána in 1925.
description: Location of original: Both volumes are held by the Garda Museum and Archives.
description: Numbering/sequence: The entries are in numerical order by registration number or warrant number. The Civic Guard Register assigns registration numbers to each person and the numbers in this volume range from 1 to 6,042. The DMP General Register assigns warrant numbers to each recruit. In this volume the numbers initially range from 1 to 12,567 until late 1924 when the Civic numbers was taken out of use and from the numbers in the DMP volume start from 6,336 from this point. Note that the numbering system used in these volumes does not correspond to the number listed for arresting officer in the related Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP) Prisoners Books.