Colourful and controversial career of Ireland’s first Garda

Garda Jim Herlihy details the extraordinary life and times of Patrick Joseph ‘PJ’ Kerrigan, an ex-RIC member, soldier in two armies, and bigamist, who became the first Civic Guard of the Irish Free State

IN Sept 1995, I mentioned the matter of researching the early history of the Gardaí to a colleague.

He remembered meeting James Francis Kerrigan, a man who claimed to be related to the first Civic Guard.