Irish Police forces
Royal Irish Constabulary. (All Ireland police force 1822—1922)
Dublin Metropolitan Police (1836—1925).
Irish Republican Police (Irish Republic 1920—1922)
An Garda Síochána (Republic of Ireland 1922—present)
Royal Ulster Constabulary (Northern Ireland 1922—2001)
Police Service of Northern Ireland (2001—present)

The Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) was one of Ireland's two police forces in the early twentieth century, alongside the Dublin Metropolitan Police. Londonderry (Derry) and Belfast had had their own forces, but problems, especially their involvement in sectarian violence, saw them both disbanded by 1870, and the RIC assumed their duties. It was disbanded in 1922 and replaced by two new police forces; the Garda Síochána in the Irish Free State (now the Republic of Ireland) and the Royal Ulster Constabulary in Northern Ireland. The force was predominantly Roman Catholic, although there were fewer Catholics in the higher ranks. The RIC's policing system served as a model for the Canadian North West Mounted Police when the Canadian federal government was looking for a plausible way to enforce law in the North-West Territories. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (573x841, 122 KB)Station badge of the Royal Irish Constabulary This image depicts a seal, an emblem, a coat of arms or a crest. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (573x841, 122 KB)Station badge of the Royal Irish Constabulary This image depicts a seal, an emblem, a coat of arms or a crest. ... The Dublin Metropolitan Police was formed in 1836, after twenty years of attempts to create an effective policing force in Ireland Rural policing in Ireland began when Chief Secretary for Ireland, Robert Peel created the Peace Preservation Force in 1816. ... Image File history File links Óglaigh_na_hÉireann. ... Image File history File links Óglaigh_na_hÉireann. ... The Irish Republican Police (IRP) was the police force of the Irish Republic. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (592x624, 356 KB)Garda Siochana badge. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (592x624, 356 KB)Garda Siochana badge. ... Badge of the Garda Síochána. ... Image File history File links This work is copyrighted. ... Image File history File links This work is copyrighted. ... The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) was name of the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2001. ... Image File history File links cropped version of existing PNG on Wikipedia. ... Image File history File links cropped version of existing PNG on Wikipedia. ... The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) is the police service that covers Northern Ireland. ... The Dublin Metropolitan Police was formed in 1836, after twenty years of attempts to create an effective policing force in Ireland Rural policing in Ireland began when Chief Secretary for Ireland, Robert Peel created the Peace Preservation Force in 1816. ... WGS-84 (GPS) Coordinates: 54. ... WGS-84 (GPS) Coordinates: 54. ... Sectarianism refers (usually pejoratively) to a rigid adherence to a particular sect or party or denomination. ... Badge of the Garda Síochána. ... The Irish Free State (Irish: Saorstát Éireann) (1922–1937) was the name of the state comprising the 26 of Irelands 32 counties that were separated from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland under the Irish Free State Agreement (or Anglo-Irish Treaty) signed by British and... The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) was name of the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2001. ... Dieu et mon droit (motto) (French for God and my right)2 Northern Irelands location within the UK Main language English Other recognised languages Irish, Ulster Scots Capital and largest city Belfast First Minister Office suspended Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Peter Hain MP Area  - Total Ranked 4th... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Catholicism. ... Royal Canadian Mounted Police heraldic badge. ... ...

History of policing in Ireland

The first organised police force in Northern Ireland came about through the Peace Preservation Act of 1814 but the Irish Constabulary Act of 1822 is marked as the true beginning of the Irish Constabulary. Among its first duties was the forcible seizure of tithes during the "Tithe War" on behalf of the Anglican clergy from the mainly Catholic population as well as the Presbyterian minority. The act established a force in each barony with chief constables and inspectors general under the control of the civil administration at Dublin Castle, by 1841 this force numbered over 8,600 men. The force had been rationalised and reorganised in a 1836 act and the first constabulary code of regulations was published in 1837. The discipline was tough and the pay poor. The police also faced rural unrest among the Irish rural poor, manifested in organisations like the Ribbonmen, which attacked landlords and their property. A tithe is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a voluntary contribution or as a tax or levy, usually to support a religious organization. ... The Tithe War in Ireland (1831-36) refers to a series of periodic skirmishes and violent incidents connected to resistance to the obligation of Irish Catholics to pay tithes for the upkeep of the Protestant Anglican Clergy. ... The Church of Ireland is an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion, operating seamlessly across the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. ... Presbyterianism is part of the Reformed churches family of denominations of Christian Protestantism based on the teachings of John Calvin which traces its institutional roots to the Scottish Reformation, especially as led by John Knox. ... In Ireland, the term barony refers to a subdivision of a county. ... Dublin Castle. ... Ribbonism, whose adherents were usually called Ribbonmen refers to the secret associations among 19th century lower class rural Irish Catholics, organised in opposition to Orangeism. ...

The police demonstrated their efficiency against Irish separatism with the putting down of the Young Ireland uprising led by William Smith O'Brien in 1848. There then followed a spell of relative calm. However the Irish Republican Brotherhood, founded in 1858, planned an armed uprising against British rule. This rose into direct action in with the Fenian Rising of 1867, marked by attacks on the more isolated police stations. This rebellion was also put down fairly easily, as the police had infiltrated the Fenians with spies and informers. The loyalty of the constabulary during the rising was rewarded by Queen Victoria granting the force the prefix 'royal' and the right to use the insignia of the Most Illustrious Order of St Patrick. The Royal Irish Constabulary presided over a marked decline in crime in the country with the rural unrest of the early nineteenth century and its secret organizations and crimes such as unlawful armed assembly being succeeded by public drunkenness and minor property crimes (excluding the Land War of 1879-82). Belfast, which was outside the control of the RIC, was marked with sectarian tensions as its population grew five-fold in fifty years, there were serious riots in 1857, 1864, 1872 and 1886. As a result the Belfast Town Police were disbanded and the responsibility for the city passed to the RIC. Irish Republicanism is an ideology based on the Irish nationalist belief that all of Ireland should be a united independent republic. ... Young Ireland was a Irish revolutionary movement, active in the mid nineteenth century. ... William Smith OBrien (born Dromoland, Ireland, October 17, 1803; died Bangor, Wales, June 18, 1864) was an Irish Nationalist and MP and leader of the Young Ireland movement. ... 1848 is a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) played an important role in the history of Ireland. ... The Fenian Rising of 1867 was a rebellion against British rule in Ireland, organized by the Irish Republican Brotherhood. ... Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria) (24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was the eminent Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June, 1837, and Empress of India from 1 January, 1877, until her death in 1901. ... The Most Illustrious Order of Saint Patrick is an order of chivalry associated with Ireland. ... The Land War in Irish History was a period of agrarian agitation in rural Ireland in the 1870s, 1880s and 1890s. ... WGS-84 (GPS) Coordinates: 54. ...

Due to their ubiquity from the 1850s the RIC were tasked with a range of civil and local government duties together with their existing ones, closely tying the constables to their local communities. By 1901 there were around 1,600 barracks and some 11,000 constables. The majority of the lower ranks in rural areas were of the same social class, religion and general background as their neighbours. Through their enforcement of tens of thousands of evictions in rural Ireland and their harassment of Land league leaders, the RIC had attracted widespread opprobrium among the Irish Catholic population during the nineteenth century. However during the relative calm of the late Victorian and Edwardian periods the RIC had won general acceptance as an efficient organisation which served as a model for similar forces elsewhere in the British Empire and was no more unpopular at home than effective police forces generally are. The military ethos of the RIC with its "barracks" (usually simply rented houses), carbines and emphasis on army type drill and smartness distinguished the force from civil police in the mainland United Kingdom and Dublin. Throughout its history the RIC wore a distinctive dark green uniform with silver buttons and insignia. The Irish painter Henry Jones Thaddeus enlisted the conscience of the propertied classes with the sentimental realism of La retour du bracconier (The Wounded Poacher), exhibited in the Paris Salon of 1881, at the height of the Irish Land War The Irish Land League was an Irish political organization of...

The comparative ease of the RIC's existence was however increasingly troubled by the rise of the Home Rule campaign in the period prior to World War I. The potential success of the third Home Rule Bill in 1912 introduced great tensions: opponents of the Bill organised the Ulster Volunteer Force in January 1913 while supporters formed the Irish Volunteers in response. These two groups had over 250,000 members, organized as effective private armies, although most effort was directed against the nationalists, leaving the UVF a free hand. Sinn Féin was founded in 1905. Politics became more divisive and there was a rise in political violence, peaking in 1921. For devolution as a term sometimes misapplied to evolution, see devolution (fallacy) Devolution or home rule is the granting of powers from central government to government at regional or local level. ... There were three Home Rule bills introduced in the British Parliament, intended to give Ireland more autonomy; all three were sponsored by William Gladstone of the Liberal Party. ... The Ulster Volunteer Force (more commonly referred to as the UVF) is a loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland. ... Irish Volunteers - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... Irish nationalism refers to political movements that desire greater autonomy or the independence of Ireland from Great Britain. ... Sinn Féin (pronounced in English, in Irish) is a name used by a series of Irish political movements of the 20th century, each of which claimed sole descent from the original party established by Arthur Griffith in 1905. ... 1921 (MCMXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ...

The Anglo-Irish War

The Sinn Féin victory in the general election of 1918 and their creation of an independent parliament (Dáil Éireann) marked the beginning of guerilla war. The Irish Republican Army (IRA) under Michael Collins carried out systematic attacks on Crown forces, and the RIC as the direct instrument of British rule took the heaviest of the assaults. From the autumn of 1919, they were forced to abandon their more isolated barracks. Simultaneously a boycott of the police was enforced by the IRA, with alternative courts and police being set up. RIC members were threatened and assassinated in increasing numbers as part of a deliberate strategy intended to make rural Ireland ungovernable by the Crown. By October 1920, according to a statement made by the Foreign Secretary Lord Curzon, 117 RIC members had been killed and 185 wounded. Over a three month period during the same year 600 resigned from a force that had numbered only 9,500 when the rising began. The Irish general election of 1918 was that part of the 1918 United Kingdom general election that took place in Ireland. ... The Dáil Chamber Dáil Éireann[1] is the lower house of the Oireachtas (parliament) of the Republic of Ireland. ... The West Cork Flying Column during the War of Independence. ... Michael John Collins (Irish name Mícheál Eoin Ó Coileáin; 16 October 1890 – 22 August 1922) was an Irish revolutionary leader, served as Minister for Finance in the Irish Republic, as Director of Intelligence for the IRA, as a member of the Irish delegation during the Anglo-Irish Treaty... The Dáil Courts were established in June 1920 by Dáil Éireann as part of its policy of undermining British authority in Ireland during the Anglo-Irish War. ...

To reinforce the much reduced and demoralised police the British government raised extra forces by recruiting World War I veterans from English and Scottish cities and sent them to Ireland in 1920, to form the notorious "Black and Tans" and Auxiliary Division of the Constabulary. Paddy O'Shea, the son of a regular RIC sergeant, described these reinforcements as "a plague and a Godsend. They brought help but frightened even those they had come to help". Some regular RIC men resigned in protest at the often brutal tactics of the new recruits. Others co-operated with the IRA either out of conviction or out of fear for their lives. A raid on an RIC barracks in Cookstown, County Tyrone, in June of 1920, was carried out with the help of sympathetic RIC men. The barracks in Schull, County Cork, was captured with similar aid. In October of 1920, RIC wages were increased to compensate for their increased cost of living, as most shops refused to serve them under Dáil Éireann's policy of ostracism of Crown forces. The United Kingdom is a unitary state and a democratic constitutional monarchy. ... Combatants Allies: Serbia, Russia, France, Romania, Belgium, British Empire, United States, Italy, and others Central Powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, Ottoman Empire Casualties Military dead: 5 million Civilian deaths: 3 million Total of dead: 8 million Military dead: 4 million Civilian deaths: 3 million Total dead: 7 million Spanish Flu... Royal motto (French): Dieu et mon droit (Translated: God and my right) Englands location (dark green) within the United Kingdom (light green), with the Republic of Ireland (blue) to its west Languages English Capital London Largest city London Area – Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population – Total (mid... Motto: Nemo me impune lacessit (English: No one provokes me with impunity) Scotlands location within Europe Scotlands location within the United Kingdom Languages English, Gaelic, Scots Capital Edinburgh Largest city Glasgow First Minister Jack McConnell Area - Total - % water Ranked 2nd UK 78,782 km² 1. ... Black and Tans For other senses, see Black and tan (disambiguation). ... The Auxiliary Division of the Royal Irish Constabulary, generally known as the Auxiliaries or Auxies, was a paramilitary organization within the RIC during the Anglo-Irish War. ... Cookstown may refer to either of the following: Cookstown, County Tyrone Cookstown, Ontario This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... This article is about County Tyrone. ... Schull or Skull (An Scoil in Irish) is a village in County Cork, Republic of Ireland. ... Statistics Province: Munster County Town: Cork Code: C (CK proposed) Area: 7,457 km² Population (2002) 447,829 Website: www. ... The Dáil Chamber Dáil Éireann[1] is the lower house of the Oireachtas (parliament) of the Republic of Ireland. ...

In December 1920 the Government of Ireland Act partitioned the country and in July 1921 a truce was agreed. 418 RIC personnel had been killed in two years. The Anglo-Irish Treaty was the cause of the Irish Civil War. In January 1922 it was agreed to disband the RIC, replacing it with the Garda Síochána in the Free State and the Royal Ulster Constabulary in Northern Ireland. An Act to Provide for the Better Government of Ireland, more usually the Government of Ireland Act, 1920 (this is its official short title; the formal citation is 10 & 11 Geo. ... Signature page of the Anglo-Irish Treaty The Anglo-Irish Treaty, officially called the Articles of association between Ireland and the British Empire, was a treaty between the Government of the United Kingdom and representatives of the (extra-judicial) Irish Republic which concluded the Anglo-Irish War. ... Combatants Irish Republican Army (1922-1969) Irish Army of the Irish Free State Commanders Liam Lynch Michael Collins Richard Mulcahy Strength c. ... Badge of the Garda Síochána. ... The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) was name of the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2001. ...

Many RIC men went north to join the new RUC. This resulted in a force that was originally 40% Catholic. However, this percentage fell to 8% as these men eventually reached retirement and were not replaced by northern Catholics, who largely rejected the RUC's strongly unionist ethos. Some RIC men joined the Garda Síochána, having assisted the IRA in different ways. Many retired and the Free State agreed to pay their pensions. Others, however, were faced with threatened or actual violent reprisals and fled across the Irish Sea to Britain, where a large number, along with former Black and Tans and Auxiliaries, joined the Palestine Gendarmerie, which was recruiting in Britain at the same time, and later the Palestine Police. In the context of Irish politics, Unionists are people in Northern Ireland, who wish to see the continuation of the Act of Union 1800, as amended by the Government of Ireland Act 1920, under which Northern Ireland, created in that latter Act, remains part of the United Kingdom of Great... Relief map of the Irish Sea. ...

External link

• RIC Roll of Honour