Partie 19 - Royal Irish Constabulary Officers

Black and white print

A photographic print of Royal Irish Constabulary officers at their depot in the Phoenix Park in Dublin. The image was probably taken shortly before the disbandment of the force in 1922.

Further research suggests that the photograph was taken by Lafayette Studios in Dublin. It was later published (possibly in the ‘Irish Life’ magazine) under the title ‘The Last Officers of the Royal Irish Constabulary at the Phoenix Park Depot’. The published image identified the individuals as ‘Front row (seated) – T.F. Lowndes, E.G. Preston, G. O’Hara, Dr. P. Peacocke, Commandant G.B. Heard, Gregory, H. Nelligan, J. Gorman, and R. Long. Second row – M.S. O’Rorke, Attfield, W. Gregory, J. Byrne, R. Williamson, G. Moran (adjutant), Bandmaster W. Rafter, H. Baynham, R. Tottenham, and H. Booth. At back – T.P. Ryan, E. Lawless, and MacMahon’.

The individual (front row, seated, second on the right) is Major John Kearney (Jack) Gorman (1891-1980). From a Catholic and unionist background, in 1908 Jack Gorman left his family’s farm at Gurtishall, near Ballyporeen in County Tipperary, for Argentina, where he worked for the national railway company. He returned to the United Kingdom on the outbreak of war in 1914. Commissioned in the Royal Horse Artillery, he won the Military Cross (MC) at the battle of Jerusalem in 1917 and was promoted to major. The image shows him wearing this military decoration. After the war he joined the Royal Irish Constabulary and commanded its Phoenix Park depot, which he handed over to Michael Collins in 1922. Soon afterwards, he moved north and joined the Royal Ulster Constabulary, becoming a district inspector and later county inspector. His son was Sir John Reginald Gorman (1923-2014), a soldier and later a senior Ulster Unionist politician. See Sir John Reginald Gorman’s biography at https://www.dib.ie/biography/gorman-sir-john-reginald-a10170