| Order: | 1st |
| Office: | Garda Commissioner |
| Term Start: | April 1922 |
| Term End: | September 1922 |
| Successor: | Eoin O'Duffy |
| Deputy: | Patrick Walsh |
| Office1: | Teachta Dála |
| Term Start1: | May 1921 |
| Term End1: | August 1923 |
| Constituency1: | Dublin North-West |
| Term Start3: | December 1918 |
| Term End3: | May 1921 |
| Constituency3: | Dublin St Michan's |
| Office4: | Senator |
| Term Start4: | 12 December 1928 |
| Term End4: | 29 May 1936 |
| Birth Date: | 1 April 1885 |
| Birth Place: | Newport, County Mayo, Ireland |
| Death Place: | Clontarf, Dublin, Ireland |
| Children: | 9 |
Michael Joseph Staines (1 May 1885 – 26 October 1955) was an Irish republican, politician and police commissioner.[1]
Staines was born in Newport, County Mayo, his mother Margaret's home village, and where his father Edward was serving as a Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) officer.
Staines was a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) and on its Supreme Council from 1921 to 1922. He served as Quartermaster General in the GPO during the 1916 Easter Rising and was later interned with his fellow insurgents at Frongoch internment camp.[2] These men were served with internment orders under the Defence of the Realm Act 1914, which stated that they were "suspected of having honoured, promoted or assisted an armed insurrection against His Majesty".[3] This meant that there were no charges, no court appearances and no pleas.[4] Staines was elected Commandant of the prisoners after the former Commandant J. J. O'Connell was sent to Reading Gaol on 30 June. W.J. Brennan-Whitmore described Staines as: "a highly efficient officer who earned the love and respect of every individual prisoner."[5] The attempts to conscript men in Frongoch to the British Army proved to be a serious source of disagreement between the prisoners and the camp authorities. The prisoners felt that it was ludicrous to expect Irish rebels to fight for Britain and the Crown. In addition, they were concerned that acceptance of conscription in Frongoch might be a prelude to the introduction of conscription in Ireland. Roughly sixty men in Frongoch had lived in Great Britain before the Rising and they were accordingly deemed liable for conscription. Staines, whom W. J. Brennan-Whitmore describes as maintaining "a very difficult position with remarkable efficiency and tact" throughout the conscription troubles which took place in Frongoch, took up a very resolute attitude on the question of identification. He asked Colonel F.A. Heygate-Lambert, Camp Commandant if he expected the prisoner leaders to identify comrades of theirs for military service in the British Army. To this Heygate-Lambert replied that it was the leaders' duty to identify men for all purposes. Staines retorted that by identifying the men for military service they would be lowering themselves to the level of spies and informers.
On his release from internment in Frongoch, he collaborated with Éamon de Valera, James Ryan, Eamonn Duggan and others in founding the New Ireland Assurance Collecting Society, in furtherance of the Sinn Féin policy of investment in Ireland. 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 at the 1918 general election.[6] He attended Dáil Éireann, working closely with the legal side of government. At the 1920 Dublin Corporation election, he was elected as an alderman. He was re-elected in 1921 and 1922 for the Dublin North-West constituency.[7]
He was on the Grangegorman Psychiatric Hospital Board.
Staines was the first-ever commissioner of the Garda Síochána. Upon his appointment, Staines stated:
Appointed in April 1922, it was Staines who became the first active recruitment of Gardai in Ireland, and it was Staines who chose the badge and name for the new force.[2] Under pressure to bring law and order to the newly created Irish state, Staines recruited former members of the Royal Irish Constabulary to senior positions, including appointed former RIC man Patrick Walsh as the first Deputy Commissioner.[2] These decisions were not popular and Staines was forced to retreat from the Kildare Depot during the Civic Guard Mutiny by recruits the following month.[8] Preceding the forthcoming Irish Civil War by a few short months, it was not until mid-July that Staines was able to regain control of the Kildare Deport on condition an inquiry be set up. Staines' authority over the Gardai was never fully restored and Staines was replaced as commissioner by Eoin O'Duffy in September 1922. Prior to the formation of the Garda, Staines and O'Duffy had acted as liaisons between the RIC and the Irish Republican Police during the Truce which preceded the Anglo-Irish Treaty.[9] Staines was able to try and save face over this replacement by stating the inquiry had recommended the Gardai be divorced from politics, and that Staines recent election to the Dáil thus precluded him from being their main authority.[2]
Staines did not contest the 1923 Irish general election but remained in politics, serving as a member of Dublin Corporation. In December 1928 Staines joined the Free State Seanad. In the late 1930s he attempted to rejoin national politics and contested the 1937, 1938, and 1943 general elections in the Dublin North-West constituency, but was unsuccessful each time.[2]
Although involved in an insurance company and for a time the operator of a warehouse, in his later life Staines struggled to hold down employment. In 1939 members of Fine Gael had to fundraise for him. In 1941 he found some work as a "temporary clerk" in the Great Southern Railways company.[2]
Staines died in his Dublin home on 27 October 1955, leaving a wife and 9 children behind.[2]