[1] Staines was born in Newport, County Mayo, his mother Margaret's home village, and where his father Edward was serving as a Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) officer.

[2] These men were served with internment orders under the Defence of the Realm Act 1914, which stated that they were "suspected of having honoured, promoted or assisted an armed insurrection against His Majesty".

[7] Staines, whom W. J. Brennan-Whitmore describes as maintaining "a very difficult position with remarkable efficiency and tact" throughout the conscription troubles which took place in Frongoch, took up a very resolute attitude on the question of identification.

Upon his appointment, Staines stated: The Garda Síochána will succeed not by force of arms or numbers, but on their moral authority as servants of the people.

[2] These decisions were not popular and Staines was forced to retreat from the Kildare Depot during the Civic Guard Mutiny by recruits the following month.

[12] Preceding the forthcoming Irish Civil War by a few short months, it was not until mid-July that Staines was able to regain control of the Kildare Deport on condition an inquiry be set up.

Prior to the formation of the Garda, Staines and O'Duffy had acted as liaisons between the RIC and the Irish Republican Police during the Truce which preceded the Anglo-Irish Treaty.

In the late 1930s he attempted to rejoin national politics and contested the 1937, 1938, and 1943 general elections in the Dublin North-West constituency, but was unsuccessful each time.