The Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration is seeking a researcher for a €270,000 project to produce a “comprehensive written history” of the Department’s first 50 years.
According to the notice posted on Government procurement platform, eTenders, the written history is to cover the half a century spanning 1918 to 1968, and is to be based on the primary source evidence available in the Department’s files and other sources as identified.
The total budget for this procurement is €270,000 for a maximum of three years, with tenderers required to submit a pricing schedule, including all foreseen costs and expenses, such as travel expenses; room hire; and “refreshments”.
“The Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration wishes to commission a history of the Department’s first 50 years, covering the years 1918-1968,” the project overview in the tender document reads:
“This period of the Department’s history has not been examined in detail and given the vital role played by the Department, such a project has the potential to make a unique contribution to our shared understanding of the new State’s early years, the establishment of the justice system in Independent Ireland and the functioning of the Civil Service in the new State.”
Research Ireland is set to oversee the procurement process, but the project is to be funded by the Department, which will also manage the research’s publication in book form.
Suggested themes or topics for research focus include the challenges faced by the Department of Home Affairs/Justice “in maintaining law and order and establishing key institutions such as An Garda Síochána and a functioning Courts system in the new Irish Free State”.
Additional areas of examination could include policy priorities and achievements of the Department in the early years of the Free State, and how those policies evolved; how the Department dealt with security challenges during the years after the Civil War and during the Emergency; and the nature of the relationship between Ministers and senior Civil Servants in the Department.
The successful researcher will be provided with access to a “substantial collection” of official Department records from the period.
The Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration can trace its origins back to pre-independence and the first meeting of the First Dáil in January 1919.
In 1924, the Department was renamed as the Department of Justice, with the-then Minister for Home Affairs, Kevin O’Higgins, becoming the first Minister for Justice.