[23] working across a range of areas such as human resources, occupational health services, finance and procurement, internal audit, IT and telecommunications, accommodation and fleet management, as well as aspects of scene-of-crime support, research and analysis, training and general administration.

[40] In the words of first Commissioner, Michael Staines, TD, "the Garda Síochána will succeed not by force of arms or numbers, but on their moral authority as servants of the people."

According to Tom Garvin such a decision gave the new force a cultural ace: "the taboo on killing unarmed men and women who could not reasonably be seen as spies and informers".

A website managed by the Institute for International and Comparative Law in Africa notes that there are "no specific legal provisions on use of firearms by the Gardaí, which is predominantly an unarmed police service.

He did not support the GRA demands on a country-wide basis: "I think there is merit in ensuring that at a regional level, there can be an armed response should the circumstances warrant.

[55] The Garda Special Detective Unit (SDU) are primarily responsible for providing armed close protection to senior officials in Ireland.

[56] They provide full-time armed protection and transport for the President, Taoiseach, Tánaiste, Minister for Justice, Attorney General, Chief Justice, Director of Public Prosecutions, ambassadors and diplomats deemed 'at risk', as well as foreign dignitaries visiting Ireland and citizens deemed to require armed protection as designated so by the Garda Commissioner.

All cabinet ministers are afforded armed protection at heightened levels of risk when deemed necessary by Garda Intelligence,[58] and their places of work and residences are monitored.

The early years of the new state saw a gradual process of incorporating these various pre-existing forces into a single centralised, nationwide and civilian organisation.

During the Civil War of 1922–23, the new Free State set up the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) as an armed, plain-clothed counter-insurgency unit.

O'Duffy later became a short-lived political leader of the quasi-fascist Blueshirts before heading to Spain to fight alongside Francisco Franco's Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War.

Broy was depicted in the film Michael Collins as having been arrested and killed by SIS agents during the Irish War of Independence, when in reality he lived till 1972 and headed the Garda Síochána from 1933 to 1938.

[76] The first female to hold the top rank, Commissioner O'Sullivan joined the force in 1981 and was among the first members of a plainclothes unit set up to tackle drug dealing in Dublin.

[82] The Patten Report recommended that a programme of long-term personnel exchanges should be established between the Garda Síochána and the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).

Under an agreement with the British Government and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the Garda Síochána and the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland are allowed to inspect the Sellafield nuclear facility in Cumbria, England.

[54] Some such incidents have attracted broad attention and resulted in a number of reform initiatives—such as those relating to Garda whistleblowers or which led to the Morris and Barr Tribunals.

[93] On 26 November 2009, then Commissioner Fachtna Murphy apologised for the failure of the Garda Síochána to protect victims of child abuse,[94] saying that inappropriate contact between gardaí and the Dublin Archdiocese had taken place at the time,[94] and later announced an examination into the report's findings.

The Morris Tribunal found that some gardaí based in County Donegal had invented a Provisional IRA informer, made bombs and claimed credit for locating them, and attempted to frame Raphoe publican Frank McBrearty Junior for murder – the latter case involving a €1.5m settlement with the State.

[99][100][101] On 20 April 2000, members of the ERU shot dead 27-year-old John Carthy at the end of a 25-hour siege as he left his home in Abbeylara, County Longford with a loaded shotgun in his hands.

The official findings of the tribunal of inquiry, under Justice Robert Barr, were that the responsible sergeant had made 14 mistakes in his role as the negotiator during the siege, and failed to make real efforts to achieve resolution during the armed stand-off.

It further stated however that the sergeant was limited by lack of experience and resources, and recommended a review of Garda command structures, and that the ERU be equipped with stun guns and other non-lethal options.

In 2014, a debate arose relating to alleged abuse of process in cancelling penalty points (for traffic offences), and a subsequent controversy resulted in a number of resignations.

A Garda member went to the police station CCTV control room and recorded the incident on a phone, then shared it to a WhatsApp group including other Gardaí.

The tribunal's report was published in December 2013,[107][108] and noted that, although there was no "smoking gun", Judge Smithwick was "satisfied there was collusion in the murders" and that "evidence points to the fact that there was someone within the Garda station assisting the IRA".

[109][110] The family of Eddie Fullerton, a Buncrana Sinn Féin councillor killed in 1991 by members of the Ulster Defence Association, criticised the subsequent Garda investigation,[111][112] and in 2006, the Minister for Justice considered a public inquiry into the case.

[113] Protests at the proposed Royal Dutch Shell Corrib gas refinery near Erris, County Mayo saw large Garda operations with up to 200 Gardaí involved.

There is a small, but disproportionately influential, core of mischief-making members who will not obey orders, who will not follow procedures, who will not tell the truth and who have no respect for their officersIt was also stated by the tribunal chairman, Justice Morris, that the code of discipline was extremely complex and, at times, "cynically manipulated" to promote indiscipline across the force.

[123] With support from opposition parties, and reflecting broad political consensus, the Minister for Justice responded to many of these issues by announcing a new draft code of discipline on 17 August 2006.

The new streamlined code[124] introduced new procedures to enable the Commissioner to summarily dismiss a Garda alleged to have brought the force into disrepute, abandoned duties, compromised the security of the State or unjustifiably infringed the rights of other persons.

[128] The 2017 survey (taken before revelations of false breath tests, wrongful convictions and the departure of the then commissioner)[129] also found that less than half of respondents believed that the Gardaí was a well managed or world-class police service.