THE last election count in Dublin South, where Ms Eithne Fitzgerald had won two quotas for Labour, she was approached by a Garda inspector.

"Most guards vote Fianna Fail or Fine Gael," he told her ingratiatingly, "but I've been a Labour Party supporter all my life."

It is an anomaly within the Garda Siochana that all promotions above the rank of inspector must be approved by the Cabinet.

It has led to a politicisation of the force, where individuals are scrutinised as to where their families stood in the Civil War.

It is a remarkable fact that any known political connections Mr Byrne may have lead only to Fianna Fail.

His uncle, a superintendent in Malahide, was friendly with his district's most political citizen, Mr Charles J. Haughey.

But Mr Byrne has overcome any such perceived drawback by a mixture of successful police work and an ability to present any Garda case gently, both to the Government and the officials of the Department.

The Government is keenly aware that the public relations role of the "new Commissioner assumes particular importance in a climate where the voters need to be satisfied that crime is going to be tackled firmly.

Though that is primarily a challenge to the legislators, Mr Byrne will enjoy a period in which his appointment will make it difficult to deny him requests for resources and, if necessary, new police powers.

WHEN before he became Commissioner, Mr Byrne was credited with finally persuading a reluctant Department of Justice - and an even more reluctant Department of Defence - that the Garda needed a dedicated air wing for sophisticated surveillance.

Mr Byrne has actively involved himself in the hunt for the killers of the journalist Veronica Guerin. Colleagues say that he liked and respected Ms Guerin personally, but his concern extends to a need he feels to become actively involved in operational matters.

The other Deputy Commissioner, Mr P.J. Moran, also a contender for the top job, is seen to be a more cerebral character.

The Government clearly decided that the times needed a Commissioner that the public would accept for his relative youth - he is 51 - and his evident will to be a hands-on manager as much as an administrator.

It is true, also, that he is more comfortable with the process of communication than his reserved and even shy predecessor, the outgoing Commissioner, Mr Paddy Culligan.

One of Mr Byrne's best-known successes within the force was Operation Silo, which uncovered a widespread network of underground dumps which the IRA was using to hide weapons.

This was seen as a major setback to the IRA's capacity to launch attacks on British army targets in Northern Ireland and Britain. It demonstrated Mr Byrne's ability to co-ordinate an operation that required an efficient interplay between the Garda, other security services and their informants within the republican movement.

Mr Byrne also directed the operation which led to the seizure last year in Urlingford, Co Kilkenny, of a drugs haul described as the biggest in the history of the State.

This episode, however, remains a matter of some controversy as liaison between the Garda and the Customs authorities was poor. The media knew about the seizure before the Customs did.

It is certain that Mr Byrne's brief as the new Commissioner will contain a firm directive from the Minmister for Justice, Mrs Owen, that the Government will demand to see better co-operation in the fight against drugs between the Garda, the Customs and the Naval Service. Inter-service rivalry will no longer be tolerated.

MR BYRNE'S appointment as Commissioner may have been sealed by his direction last month of an undercover operation uncovered in Clonaslee, in the Slieve Bloom mountains area of Co Laois, what gardai believe was the IRA's primary bomb and mortar-manufacturing facility.

Up to 60 kg of Semtex was found there and gardai speculated that the bomb that failed to go off under Hammersmith Bridge in London earlier in the year may have emanated from there.

However, Mr Byrne had already made a lasting impression on the Cabinet when he made a presentation to them last year on the issues of law and order and how they might be tackled.

His communications skills in full flow, Mr Byrne is said to have put at rest any reservations the three Government parties might have had that he was "not one of us".

The appointment is a particularly sensitive one in that Mr Byrne is Commissioner for seven years, outlasting the present administration and probably its successor, too.