Michael Staines

For the rower, see Mike Staines.

Michael Staines (1885–1955) was an Irish republican and politician. He was born in Newport, County Mayo his mother Margaret's home village, and where his father Edward was serving as an RIC officer.

Staines was a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood from 1902 and on its Supreme Council from 1921 to 1922. Staines took part in the 1916 Easter Rising and served as Quartermaster General in the GPO and was later interned at the Frongoch internment camp. On his release from internment in Frongoch, he collaborated with Éamon de Valera, James Ryan, Eamon Duggan and others in founding the New Ireland Assurance Collecting Society, in furtherance of the Sinn Féin policy of investment of national resources at home in Ireland (1918). He was elected Director for supply for Sinn Féin on 27 October 1917. He was also elected as a Sinn Féin MP for the Dublin St. Michan's constituency in the 1918 general election.^[1] He attended Dáil Éireann, working closely with the legal side of Government, as well as becoming a Dublin alderman. He was re-elected in 1921 and 1922 for the Dublin North West constituency.^[1] He later served in the Free State Seanad.

He was on the Grangegorman Mental Hospital Board. He is best remembered as the first commissioner of the Garda Síochána. The Staines family continue to be a prominent legal family.

Quote: "The Garda Síochána will succeed not by force of arms or numbers, but on their moral authority as servants of the people"

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Walker, Brian M, ed (1992). Parliamentary election results in Ireland, 1918-92. Dublin: Royal Irish Academy. ISBN 0 901714 96 8. ISSN 0332-0286. 

Persondata
Name	Staines, Michael
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Short description
Date of birth	1885
Place of birth
Date of death	1955
Place of death