FORMER GARDA CHIEF DIES AT 85

The Irish Press 24 January 1972

Former Garda chief dies at 85
Col. Eamon Broy, who died on Saturday at his home, Oaklands Drive, Rathgar, Dublin, aged 85, was a former Commissioner of the Garda Siochana. During the War of Independence he was one of Michael Collins’s three “contacts” among the detective force in Dublin Castle and played a leading part in breaking the secret information system there.
A native of Rathangan, Co. Kildare, he joined the old D.M.P. in his youth and was attached to G Division – the secret service arm of the British administration in Ireland. During this period he and his police colleague, David Neligan, formed the heart of Collins’s intelligence service. Between 1917 and 1921 they fed him with vast amounts of highly classified information and warnings.
Col. Broy was arrested by the British in February, 1921, and imprisoned in Arbour Hill until the Truce. He was subsequently secretary of the then Department of Civil Aviation and later adjutant of the first Irish Air Corps, with the rank of commandant. On his promotion to colonel he was made OC of the ground organization of the corps.
In 1922 he became secretary to the D.M.P. and on the formation of the Dublin Metropolitan Garda in 1925 he was appointed chief superintendent. In 1929 he was transferred to the Depot, Phoenix Park, as commandant.
In February, 1933, he became chief of the Detective Division in succession to Col. David Neligan and inside a month was appointed Commissioner of the Garda Siochana to replace General Eoin O’Duffy who had been dismissed by the Government.
In the same year Col. Broy established a new force attached to the Special Branch, to deal with the situation arising from the refusal of some farmers to pay rates during the period of the Blueshirt movement.
The members were drafted to parts of the country where the no-rates campaign was in progress. They escorted bailiffs on cattle seizures and were involved in many violent incidents.
In his early days, Col. Broy took part in athletics and later was, for some time, president of the Irish Olympic Council He spoke Irish, French and German fluently and represented the Garda at international police conferences. He retired in1938.
Col. Broy is survived by two sons, Patrick and Eamon, and two daughters, Mrs. Eilish Taaffe and Miss Aine Broy. His wife, Elizabeth, died in 1958.

An obituary for former Garda chief, Eamon Broy, who died on 22 January 1972, aged 85