Problems in removing head of Special Branch

A sensitive file, withheld for 74 years, details how the Fianna Fáil government moved to purge the head of the Garda Special Branch within months of taking power for the first time in 1932.

Chief Supt David Neligan, who had been the famous "spy in the Castle" for Michael Collins during the War of Independence, fought tooth and nail against his dismissal and forced the de Valera government to find another State job for him.

As head of the Special Branch who had been engaged in an unremitting struggle with the IRA during the 1920s, and who had taken a prominent part in the Civil War in Kerry, he was a hated figure in Fianna Fáil.

Born in Templeglantine, Co Limerick, in 1899, by the time he was in his early 20s, Neligan was a detective in G Division, the political police in Dublin Castle. In that position he fed a stream of crucial information for Collins's intelligence battle against the British during the War of Independence.

When the War of Independence ended and the Civil War began, Neligan transferred to the new national Army with the rank of colonel. He was assigned to Co Kerry where there was a bitter and dirty war between the pro and anti-Treaty forces.

After the Civil War, Neligan transferred to the new Garda force and became its top intelligence officer. He was a marked man as soon as Fianna Fáil had the reins of power.

Just months after the change of government a confidential memo to Neligan said that the executive council (government) had decided to remove him and he was to immediately take three months compulsory leave.

"To the best of my belief I am the first officer of the Garda to have incurred the displeasure of the Executive Council to such a degree as to merit, and demand, in its view, a wide and unprecedented departure from the normal and defined disciplinary procedure," the then 33-year-old Neligan replied.

"I am truly unconscious of any transgression, neglect or default on my part which would or could be construed as a just basis for such a departure."

Neligan said no charges had been brought against him, and he was at a complete loss to understand why he had been singled out to "suffer a grave penalty and humiliation and a grave injustice".

"I have devoted 14 years to the service of my country. In that service I have suffered as much as any man in this generation.

"I have been exposed during the greater part of that time to risks which would appal the average man."

Neligan said his security duties had exposed him to the "hostility of a section of the community" and his duties "were not pleasant to me".

"I claim to have performed these duties without fear, favour or affection, malice or ill-will."

Garda commissioner Eoin Ua Dubhthaigh (Eoin O'Duffy) said he was unaware of the charges against him and he forwarded Neligan's plea for a reason for his dismissal to minister for justice PJ Ruttledge.

Three months later Neligan sought reinstatement in the force and the commissioner suggested to the minister he might be given the job of chief superintendent in charge of the Garda depot.

Ruttledge conferred with the minister for finance about a pension or gratuity for Neligan, saying that normally he should get nothing as he had been fired by the government and in those circumstances there was a "natural presumption of misconduct".

"The circumstances are not normal," Ruttledge wrote, Neligan's removal was not due to any definite or proved misconduct but a decision of the government that it was "not in the public interest" that he should continue in his post.

Faced with the prospect of having to pass special legislation, make a special pensions order or have a vote of the Dáil and, as a result, a public debate about the purging of Neligan, an eight-point deal was reached.

On the day before St Patrick's Day 1933 it was put to Neligan that he resign straight away and be appointed to the Land Commission.

Neligan accepted the deal and resigned from the Garda, taking up his civil service post two days later.