RIC / pre-independence Broy joined the
Royal Irish Constabulary on 2 August 1910, and the
Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP) on 20 January 1911. Broy was a
double agent within the DMP, with the rank of
Detective Sergeant (DS). He worked as a
clerk inside
G Division, the
intelligence branch of the DMP. While there, he copied sensitive files for IRA leader
Michael Collins and passed many of these files on to Collins through
Thomas Gay, the librarian at Capel Street Library. On 7 April 1919, Broy smuggled Collins into G Division's archives in Great Brunswick Street (now Pearse Street), enabling him to identify "G-Men", six of whom would be killed by the IRA. Broy supported the
Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 and joined the
National Army during the
Irish Civil War, reaching the rank of
colonel. In 1925, he left the Army and joined the
Garda Síochána.
Post-independence Broy's elevation to the post of Commissioner came when
Fianna Fáil replaced
Cumann na nGaedheal as the
government. Other, more senior officers were passed over as being too sympathetic to the outgoing party. a pun on the
Bray Harriers
athletics club or more likely on the Bray Harriers hunt club. It was used first against the quasi-
fascist Blueshirts, and later against the diehard holdouts of the IRA, now set against former comrades. The "Broy Harriers" nickname persisted into the 1940s, even though Broy himself was no longer in command, and for the bodies targeted by the unit was a highly-abusive term, still applied by radical
Irish republicans to the Garda Special Branch (now renamed the
Special Detective Unit). The Broy Harriers engaged in several controversial fatal shootings. They shot dead a protesting farmer called
Lynch in Cork, and when the matter was discussed in the Senate in 1934, the members who supported
Éamon de Valera's government walked out. They were detested by sections of the farming community. In the light of this latter history, their name is often used in reference to individuals or groups who attempt to disrupt contemporary
Dissident Republicans, such as the remnants of the
Provisional IRA. ==Volunteer role==