Tomorrow morning, in re-enactment of the takeover in August 1922, a detachment of gardai will march into the Lower Yard of Dublin Castle, led by the Commissioner, Mr Patrick Byrne. The march-in will be one of a number of symbolic ceremonies with which the force is marking the 75th anniversary of its foundation. It will be an occasion which the gardai and the general public alike will celebrate and enjoy.
Seventy five years ago young men in blue uniforms replaced the Royal Irish Constabulary in 26 of Ireland's 32 counties. In the six counties of Northern Ireland, the bottle-green uniform endured with the newly-formed Royal Ulster Constabulary. That force is also marking its 75th anniversary this year. But the celebrations have been more muted. The story of the Garda over the past three-quarters of a century and that of the RUC, stand in telling contrast.
For police forces are a good mirror-image of the societies they serve. The Garda has operated for all but the first few months of its existence as a largely unarmed force. The RUC has been armed for all but a brief period after the Hunt Report in the mid-1970s. The Garda reflected a relatively homogenous State. "Gaelic in thought and action" was how it was proudly described by Commissioner Eoin O'Duffy. In the 1950s the RUC was dubbed "a Protestant force for a Protestant people". But the Northern State was not homogenous. In spite of a promising start, with a good leavening of membership from both traditions, the proportion of Catholics fell dramatically, especially in the senior ranks. By the 1970s, when the IRA particularly targeted Catholic policemen, Catholic membership had fallen to tiny proportions.
Today, both forces reflect the strengths and the weaknesses of the societies which shaped them. The RUC is superbly professional and disciplined but is grievously disabled in community terms by virtue of its overwhelmingly Protestant composition. The Garda, by contrast, probably has as good a relationship with the community as any police service in the world. But while it has progressed dramatically in recent years, it is still hampered by old inefficiencies. Many of these derive from its centralised and cumbersome structure and the strong political control which is still exercised over it by Government.
The two forces look back on their decades of service with pride. Neither can claim a wholly unblemished record - which organisation or institution can? - and the RUC's dark years have left a problematic legacy to today's members. But many an Irish person who has had the ill-luck to fall foul of police forces in other countries has come to a ready appreciation of the probity, quiet effectiveness and broad humanity which have generally characterised the Irish tradition of policing.
These are the qualities which both forces will require to face the future. The Garda is going through a process of modernisation which will be far-reaching. The one thing it must not lose in that is its instinct of public service, its understanding, inculcated since foundation, that it exists to keep the people's peace and to serve the people's needs. The RUC - perhaps with modifications to its structure and its constitution - will remain at the core of civil policing in Northern Ireland, hopefully in lasting peace. It is not unreasonable to hope that one day, when the politicians create the circumstances, its members too may shed the guns and the body-armour, allowing them to be in the fullest sense, a police force for all of the people.