# Eamon Broy > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Eamon_Broy > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Eamon_Broy.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eamon_Broy > Source revision: 1345520000 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|Irish police commissioner, military officer and sports administrator}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2021}} {{Use Hiberno-English|date=December 2021}} {{Infobox office holder |name = Eamon "Ned" Broy |birth_date = {{birth date|1887|12|22|df=y}} |death_date = {{death date and age|1972|1|22|1887|12|22|df=y}} |birth_place = [Rathangan](/source/Rathangan%2C_County_Kildare), [County Kildare](/source/County_Kildare), Ireland |death_place = [Dublin](/source/Dublin), Ireland |image = Ned Broy, circa 1930s.jpg |caption = Broy appearing in a Garda uniform |nickname = Ned |order = 3rd |office = Garda Commissioner |term_start = February 1933 |term_end = June 1938 |predecessor = [Eoin O'Duffy](/source/Eoin_O'Duffy) |successor = [Michael Kinnane](/source/Michael_Kinnane) |allegiance = {{Ubl|[Dublin Metropolitan Police](/source/Dublin_Metropolitan_Police)|[Irish Republican Army](/source/Irish_Republican_Army)|[National Army](/source/National_Army_(Ireland))|[Garda Síochána](/source/Garda_S%C3%ADoch%C3%A1na)}} |service_years = |rank = {{Ubl|[Detective Sergeant](/source/Detective_Sergeant) (DMP)|[Colonel](/source/Colonel) (Army)|[Commissioner](/source/Commissioner) (Garda) }} |battles = {{Ubl|[Irish War of Independence](/source/Anglo-Irish_War)|[Irish Civil War](/source/Irish_Civil_War)}} |awards = }} '''Eamon "Ned" Broy'''Spelt ''Eamon'', not ''Eamonn'': see for example {{cite web |url=http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/ZZSI192Y1937.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20071123002547/http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/ZZSI192Y1937.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=2007-11-23 |title=STATUTORY RULES AND ORDERS. 1937. No. 192. DUBLIN TAXIMETER AREA FARE BYE-LAWS |year=1937 |quote=I, Eamon Broy, Commissioner of the Gárda Síochána |accessdate=2007-01-04 |publisher=[Government of Ireland](/source/Government_of_Ireland) }} (also called ''Edward Broy''; 22 December 1887 – 22 January 1972){{cite book |title=The Letters of Brendan Behan |editor=Edward Halim |isbn=0-7735-0888-0 |publisher=[McGill-Queen's University Press](/source/McGill-Queen's_University_Press) |year=1992 |chapter=1942–1948: In and Out of Prison |page=[https://archive.org/details/lettersofbrendan0000beha/page/14 14] |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/lettersofbrendan0000beha/page/14 }} was successively a member of the [Dublin Metropolitan Police](/source/Dublin_Metropolitan_Police), the [Irish Republican Army](/source/Irish_Republican_Army), the [National Army](/source/National_Army_(Ireland)), and the [Garda Síochána](/source/Garda_S%C3%ADoch%C3%A1na) of the [Irish Free State](/source/Irish_Free_State). He served as Commissioner of the Gardaí from February 1933 to June 1938.{{cite web |url=http://www.garda.ie/Controller.aspx?Page=20&Lang=1 |accessdate=2010-06-07 |title=List of Garda Commissioners since 1922 |publisher=[Garda Síochána](/source/Garda_S%C3%ADoch%C3%A1na) |archive-date=23 August 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100823032343/http://www.garda.ie/Controller.aspx?Page=20&Lang=1 |url-status=live }} He later served as president of the [Olympic Council of Ireland](/source/Olympic_Council_of_Ireland) for fifteen years. ==Career== ===RIC / pre-independence=== Broy joined the [Royal Irish Constabulary](/source/Royal_Irish_Constabulary) on 2 August 1910, and the [Dublin Metropolitan Police](/source/Dublin_Metropolitan_Police) (DMP) on 20 January 1911.{{Cite web|url=https://www.dib.ie/biography/broy-eamon-ned-a1067|title = Broy, Eamon ('Ned') | Dictionary of Irish Biography}} Broy was a [double agent](/source/double_agent) within the DMP, with the rank of [Detective Sergeant](/source/Detective_Sergeant) (DS).{{cite book |title=The Anglo-Irish War: The Troubles of 1913-1922 |url=https://archive.org/details/angloirishwartro00cott |url-access=limited |first=Peter |last=Cottrell |publisher=Osprey Publishing |year=2006 |isbn=1-84603-023-4 |page=[https://archive.org/details/angloirishwartro00cott/page/n64 66] }}''The Irish War: The Hidden Conflict between the IRA and British Intelligence'' by Tony Geraghty ({{ISBN|978-0801871177}}), page 336 He worked as a [clerk](/source/clerk_(position)) inside [G Division](/source/G_Division), the [intelligence](/source/intelligence_(information_gathering)) branch of the DMP. While there, he copied sensitive files for IRA leader [Michael Collins](/source/Michael_Collins_(Irish_leader)) and passed many of these files on to Collins through [Thomas Gay](/source/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.Cottrell, op. cit., pg 53. Broy supported the [Anglo-Irish Treaty](/source/Anglo-Irish_Treaty) of 1921 and joined the [National Army](/source/National_Army_(Ireland)) during the [Irish Civil War](/source/Irish_Civil_War), reaching the rank of [colonel](/source/colonel). In 1925, he left the Army and joined the [Garda Síochána](/source/Garda_S%C3%ADoch%C3%A1na).{{cite book |title=Defending Ireland: The Irish State and Its Enemies Since 1922 |isbn=0-19-924269-0 |first=Eunan |last=O'Halpin |year=2000 |publisher=[Oxford University Press](/source/Oxford_University_Press) |page=114 }} ===Post-independence=== Broy's elevation to the post of Commissioner came when [Fianna Fáil](/source/Fianna_F%C3%A1il) replaced [Cumann na nGaedheal](/source/Cumann_na_nGaedheal) as the [government](/source/Executive_Council_of_the_Irish_Free_State). 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](/source/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,{{cite book |title=[Eoin O'Duffy](/source/Eoin_O'Duffy): A Self-Made Hero|first=Fearghal |last=McGarry |isbn=0-19-927655-2 |publisher=[Oxford University Press](/source/Oxford_University_Press) |pages=261–2 |year=2005 }} a pun on the [Bray](/source/Bray%2C_County_Wicklow) Harriers [athletics](/source/sport_of_athletics) club or more likely on the Bray Harriers hunt club.{{Cite web |url=http://www.brayhunt.ie/ |title=Bray Harriers website in 2016 |access-date=5 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121203015704/http://www.brayhunt.ie/ |archive-date=3 December 2012 |url-status=dead}} It was used first against the quasi-[fascist](/source/fascist) [Blueshirts](/source/Blueshirts), and later against the diehard holdouts of the IRA, now set against former comrades.{{cite book |title=The secret army: the IRA By J. Bowyer Bell |first=J. Bowyer |last=Bell |author-link=J. Bowyer Bell |year=1997 |publisher=Transaction |isbn=1-56000-901-2 |edition=3 |page=[https://archive.org/details/secretarmyira00bell/page/139 139] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/secretarmyira00bell/page/139 }} 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 republican](/source/Irish_republican)s to the Garda Special Branch{{Citation needed|date=March 2011}} (now renamed the [Special Detective Unit](/source/Special_Detective_Unit)). The Broy Harriers engaged in several controversial fatal shootings. They shot dead a protesting farmer called [Lynch in Cork](/source/Copley_Street_riot), and when the matter was discussed in the Senate in 1934, the members who supported [Éamon de Valera](/source/%C3%89amon_de_Valera)'s government walked out.{{Cite web |url=http://oireachtasdebates.oireachtas.ie/debates%20authoring/debateswebpack.nsf/takes/seanad1934090600007 |title="Cork Shootings"; Senate Debate, 6 September 1934 |access-date=5 December 2016 |archive-date=29 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170129080730/http://oireachtasdebates.oireachtas.ie/debates%20authoring/debateswebpack.nsf/takes/seanad1934090600007 |url-status=live }} 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](/source/Dissident_Republicans), such as the remnants of the [Provisional IRA](/source/Provisional_IRA).[https://archive.today/20130217214046/http://www.irsp.ie/news/?p=960] ==Volunteer role== Broy was President of the [Olympic Council of Ireland](/source/Olympic_Council_of_Ireland) from 1935 to 1950.{{cite journal |title=Ireland and Olympism |journal=Olympic Review |issn=0251-3498 |url=http://www.la84foundation.org/OlympicInformationCenter/OlympicReview/1973/ore70/ore70m.pdf |author=International Olympic Committee |author-link=International Olympic Committee |issue=70–71 |date=September–October 1973 |accessdate=2007-01-04 |pages=443 |archive-date=9 August 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100809033516/http://www.la84foundation.org/OlympicInformationCenter/OlympicReview/1973/ore70/ore70m.pdf |url-status=live }} He was also a member of the [Standing Committee](/source/Standing_Committee) of the Irish Amateur [Handball](/source/Gaelic_handball) Association.{{cite book |last1=Osborne |first1=Chrissy |title=Michael Collins: A Life in Pictures |date=2010 |publisher=Mercier Press |page=80}} ==Death and legacy== He died on 22 January 1972 at his residence in the Dublin suburb of [Rathgar](/source/Rathgar).{{Cite web|url=https://www.dib.ie/biography/broy-eamon-ned-a1067|title = Broy, Eamon ('Ned') | Dictionary of Irish Biography}} 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.{{Cite web|url=https://clonbulloguens.weebly.com/eamon-broy.html|title = Eamon Broy}} ==In fiction== [Neil Jordan](/source/Neil_Jordan)'s film ''[Michael Collins](/source/Michael_Collins_(film))'' ([1996](/source/1996_in_film)) inaccurately depicts Broy (played by actor [Stephen Rea](/source/Stephen_Rea)) as having been arrested, tortured and killed by [SIS](/source/MI6) agents. In addition, G Division was based not in [Dublin Castle](/source/Dublin_Castle), as indicated in the film, but in [Great Brunswick Street](/source/Pearse_Street). Collins had a different agent in the Castle, [David Neligan](/source/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](/source/HarperCollins) in 2012. ==References== {{Reflist}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Broy, Eamon}} Category:1887 births Category:Dublin Metropolitan Police officers Category:Double agents Category:Irish Republican Army (1919–1922) members Category:People of the Irish Civil War (Pro-Treaty side) Category:National Army (Ireland) officers Category:Garda commissioners Category:Olympic Federation of Ireland officials Category:1972 deaths Category:People from Rathangan, County Kildare Category:Police officers from County Kildare --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Eamon Broy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eamon_Broy) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eamon_Broy?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.