Michael Staines
Teachta Dála
In office
May 1921 – August 1923
ConstituencyDublin North-West
In office
December 1918 – May 1921
ConstituencyDublin St Michan's
Senator
In office
December 1928 – May 1936
Personal details
Born(1885-04-01)1 April 1885
Newport, County Mayo, Ireland
Died26 October 1955(1955-10-26) (aged 70)
Clontarf, Dublin, Ireland
Spouse
Sheila Cullen
​
(m. 1922)​
Children9
Military service
AllegianceIrish Republic
Branch/service
Battles/wars

Michael Joseph Staines (1 May 1885 – 26 October 1955) was an Irish republican, politician and police commissioner.[1] He was born in Newport, County Mayo, his mother Margaret's home village, and where his father Edward was serving as a Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) officer.

Staines was a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) and on its Supreme Council from 1921 to 1922. He served as Quartermaster General in the GPO during the 1916 Easter Rising and was later interned with his fellow insurgents at Frongoch internment camp.[2] These men were served with internment orders under the Defence of the Realm Act 1914, which stated that they were "suspected of having honoured, promoted or assisted an armed insurrection against His Majesty".[3] This meant that there were no charges, no court appearances and no pleas.[4] Staines was elected Commandant of the prisoners after the former Commandant J. J. O'Connell was sent to Reading Gaol on 30 June.[5] W.J. Brennan-Whitmore described Staines as: "a highly efficient officer who earned the love and respect of every individual prisoner."[6] The attempts to conscript men in Frongoch to the British Army proved to be a serious source of disagreement between the prisoners and the camp authorities. The prisoners felt that it was ludicrous to expect Irish rebels to fight for Britain and the Crown. In addition, they were concerned that acceptance of conscription in Frongoch might be a prelude to the introduction of conscription in Ireland. Roughly sixty men in Frongoch had lived in Great Britain before the Rising and they were accordingly deemed liable for conscription.[7] Staines, whom W. J. Brennan-Whitmore describes as maintaining "a very difficult position with remarkable efficiency and tact" throughout the conscription troubles which took place in Frongoch, took up a very resolute attitude on the question of identification. He asked Colonel F.A. Heygate-Lambert, Camp Commandant if he expected the prisoner leaders to identify comrades of theirs for military service in the British Army. To this Heygate-Lambert replied that it was the leaders' duty to identify men for all purposes. Staines retorted that by identifying the men for military service they would be lowering themselves to the level of spies and informers.[8]

On his release from internment in Frongoch, he collaborated with Éamon de Valera, James Ryan, Eamonn Duggan and others in founding the New Ireland Assurance Collecting Society, in furtherance of the Sinn Féin policy of investment in Ireland. He was elected Director for Supply for Sinn Féin on 27 October 1917. He was also elected as a Sinn Féin MP for the Dublin St Michan's constituency at the 1918 general election.[9] He attended Dáil Éireann, working closely with the legal side of government. At the 1920 Dublin Corporation election, he was elected as an alderman. He was re-elected in 1921 and 1922 for the Dublin North-West constituency.[10] He later served in the Free State Seanad.

He was on the Grangegorman Psychiatric Hospital Board. He was the first commissioner of the Garda Síochána, of which he said,

The Garda Síochána will succeed not by force of arms or numbers, but on their moral authority as servants of the people.

— Michael Staines[11]

Appointed in April 1922, he was forced to retreat from the Kildare Depot during the Civic Guard Mutiny by recruits the following month.[12] Staines was replaced as commissioner by Eoin O'Duffy in September 1922. Prior to the formation of the Garda, Staines and O'Duffy had acted as liaisons between the RIC and the Irish Republican Police during the Truce which preceded the Anglo-Irish Treaty.[13]

References

  1. ↑ "Michael Staines". Oireachtas Members Database. Archived from the original on 8 November 2018. Retrieved 9 March 2012.
  2. ↑ Murphy, William; Feeney, Tom. "Staines, Michael Joseph". Dictionary of Irish Biography. Retrieved 8 January 2022.
  3. ↑ O Mahony, Sean (1987). Frongoch, University of Revolution. Dublin. pp. 19–23.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  4. ↑ Ebenezer, Lyn (2006). Fron-goch, and the birth of the IRA. Llanrwst. p. 16.
  5. ↑ Ebenezer 2006, p. 63.
  6. ↑ Brennan-Whitmore, W. J. (1917). With the Irish in Frongoch. Dublin. p. 62.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  7. ↑ O Mahony 1987, p. 122.
  8. ↑ Brennan-Whitmore 1917, pp. 138–139.
  9. ↑ Walker, Brian M, ed. (1992). Parliamentary election results in Ireland, 1918–92. Dublin: Royal Irish Academy. ISBN 0-901714-96-8. ISSN 0332-0286.
  10. ↑ "Michael Staines". ElectionsIreland.org. Archived from the original on 22 July 2012. Retrieved 9 March 2012.
  11. ↑ O'Mahony, Paul (2002). Criminal Justice in Ireland. Institute of Public Administration. p. 493. ISBN 1902448715. Retrieved 26 March 2015.
  12. ↑ McCarthy, Brian (2012). The Civic Guard Mutiny. Mercier Press. ISBN 9781781170458. Archived from the original on 28 January 2013.
  13. ↑ "Book Review – the Civic Guard Mutiny – the Irish Story". Archived from the original on 19 September 2015. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
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