John Sweeney, At Scotland Yard: Being the Experiences during Twenty-Seven Years’ Service of John Sweeney

Abstract

John Sweeney was born in 1857 to a farming family in Staigue, County Kerry. He reveals little about his early life in his autobiography, except that his family suffered eviction when he was two years old and emigrated to London in 1875. In that year he joined the London Metropolitan Police and was posted to Hammersmith. In 1884 he moved to the Criminal Investigation Department at Scotland Yard and was assigned to the Irish (later Special) Branch division, which had recently been established to counteract the growing threat of Fenian violence in the capital. In May of that year Sweeney had personal, ‘nerve-shaking experience’ of such violence when a bomb destroyed the Branch’s offices at Scotland Yard. As a sergeant, Sweeney was also involved in curbing the frequently disruptive public clashes between Irish nationalists and unionists over Home Rule, as described in the extract below. He eventually rose to the rank of detective inspector and often acted as a bodyguard to members of the royal family and visiting foreign dignitaries. One of his ‘most honourable calls of duty’ came in 1900 when he was selected for the special police protection unit that accompanied Queen Victoria on her visit to Ireland. Sweeney retired from the police force in 1903 and immediately set about writing his memoirs, which comprise a detailed record of his professional activities during his long years of service.

Edited by Francis Richards (London: Grant Richards, 1904). ix, 358pp.; pp. 34–6; 45–50.