A RARE COLLECTION of records from the Limerick Police Force of 1922 has been made available online this week.
The collection gives an insight into the number of men drafted into the new civil force to keep the peace in that interim period between the departure of the RIC and the establishment of the Garda Siochana.
Among the collection is a number of logs which document day-to-day work of the police officers, offering a chance to see what life was like for people in Limerick at the time, and what kind of crime was most prevalent.
In a record on 26 May 1922, six men were charged with “stealing O’Mealy’s motor car”. The log notes the men were all found guilty: “Three released under first offenders act. Three others ordered to find bails to be of good behaviour for 12 months.”
On 30 May, police questioned a number of children while on patrol and “warned parents that they would be prosecuted if the children were not sent to school”. The next day a woman was “charged with keeping an improper house and found to be in possession of stolen property. She was “ordered to leave the city before Saturday”.
Another work log notes several ‘destitute’ people either sent to a county asylum or county home.
One was an old man who had been knocked down in the street. “Sent to Croom County Home,” the log notes.
A youth who was “destitute and found loitering” was examined by a doctor and then taken to the county home hospital. And on 15 June a woman “found destitute and demented” was sent to the county home.
Jacqui Hayes, Limerick Archivist with Limerick City and County Council said this collection is part of a major expansion by Limerick Archives in digitisation and online access.
“As part of the new Limerick.ie site and enhanced access to services online, Limerick Archives has carried out a major digital preservation access to provide streamlined access to original archival material.
“Many of the archives were previously available under earlier digitisation projects but access has now been streamlined. The public can now open archival documents easily without having to download a plug in. This removes barriers to access.”
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