The Royal Ulster Constabulary GC (RUC) (Irish: Constáblacht Ríoga Ulaidh) was the police force in
Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2001. It was founded on 1
June 1922 out of the Royal Irish
Constabulary (RIC). At its peak the force had around 8500 officers with a further 4500 reservists, officially members of
the RUC Reserve, but in practice members of the RUC (unlike the earlier Ulster
Special Constabulary, which was a force in its own right, with its own rank structure). It became the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) in 2001. Strictly speaking the RUC was not
disbanded, but renamed, as is provided for by the final version of the Police (Northern Ireland) Act 2000[1]. The RUC were widely accused by the Nationalist community of one-sided policing and discrimination
and there have been long standing allegations of collusion made against the force. Conversely, the RUC was praised by security
forces as one of the most professional policing operations in the world.[2] The allegations regarding collusion have prompted several inquiries, the most recent of which was
published by Police Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan.
Early history
Under Section 60 of the Government of Ireland Act 1920, the
Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) in the six counties making up Northern Ireland were placed under its authority. On the 31 January
Dawson Bates, the first Minister of Home Affairs, appointed a committee of inquiry on police organization in Northern Ireland.
They were asked to advise on any alterations in the existing police necessary for the formation of a new force (i.e., recruitment
and conditions of service, its composition, strength and cost).
An interim report was published on the 28 March 1922, the
first official report of the new Parliament, and it was subsequently accepted by the Northern Ireland Government. On the
29 April 1922 King George V granted that the force could be
called the Royal Ulster Constabulary. In May the Parliament of Northern Ireland passed the 1922 Constabulary Act and the RUC.
officially came into existence on 1 June. The Headquarters of the force was established at
Atlantic Buildings, Waring Street, in Belfast, and Charles Wickham became the first
Inspector General. The uniform and insignia of the RUC remained essentially the same
as the RIC: a dark green uniform as opposed to the dark blue worn by the British police and the Garda Síochána.
From the beginning it had a dual role, unique among United Kingdom police forces, of
providing a normal law enforcement police service while protecting Northern Ireland
from the activities of proscribed groups. For personal protection its members were armed as the RIC had been.
The RUC was to be a 3000 strong force. It had the support of the Ulster Special
Constabulary, a volunteer body of part-time auxiliary police who were given
uniforms and training. The RUC's senior officer, the Inspector General, was appointed by the Governor of Northern Ireland and was
responsible to the Minister of Home Affairs in the Northern Ireland Government for the maintenance of law and order.
Neither the newly established Irish Free State nor Northern Ireland had an auspicious beginning. The polarized political climate in Northern Ireland
resulted in violence from both sides of the political and religious divide. The lawlessness that affected Northern Ireland in the
period of the early twenties, and the problems it caused for the police, are indicated in a police report drawn up by District
Inspector R.R. Spears in February 1923. Referring to the situation in Belfast after July 1921 he states:
"For twelve months after that, the city was in a state of turmoil. The IRA (Irish
Republican Army) was responsible for an enormous number of murders, bombings, shootings and incendiary fires. The work of
the police against them was, however, greatly hampered by the fact that the rough element on the Protestant side entered
thoroughly into the disturbances, met murder with murder and adopted in many respects the tactics of the rebel gunmen. In the
endeavour to cope simultaneously with the warring factions the police efforts were practically nullified. They were quite unable
to rely on the restraint of one party while they dealt with the other".
By the mid-twenties the situation had calmed down. The 1920s and 1930s were years of economic austerity. Many of Northern
Ireland's traditional industries, notably linen and shipbuilding, were in recession. This contributed to the already high level
of unemployment. Serious rioting broke out in 1932 in Belfast in protest at the inadequate nature of Poor Law relief and the
threat of rioting was ever present.
In response to the growth of motorized transport the RUC Traffic Branch was formed on the 1
January 1930. In 1936 the police Depot at Enniskillen
was formally opened and an £800,000 scheme to create a network of 196 police barracks throughout Northern Ireland by
rationalizing or repairing the 224 premises inherited from the RIC was under way. In May 1937 a new white glass lamp with the RUC
crest went up for the first time to replace the RIC crest still on many stations. About the same time the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in Belfast was significantly expanded, with a
Detective Head Constable being appointed to head the CID force in each of the five Belfast police districts.
Sporadic IRA activity in the 1930s also required that the RUC be vigilant. In 1937, on the occasion of the visit of the King
and Queen to the Province, the IRA blew up a number of Customs Posts. In 1939 an IRA bombing campaign was launched in
England. This campaign effectively ended on the 25 August, a
few days before the outbreak of the Second World War.
The war, brought additional responsibilities for the police. The security of the land border with neutral Eire was one important consideration. Allied to this was a greatly increased incidence of smuggling due to
rationing, to the point where police virtually became Revenue Officers. There were also many war-time regulations to be enforced,
including 'black-out' requirements on house and vehicle lights, the protection of Post Office and Bank monies, and restrictions
on the movement of vehicles and use of petrol. The RUC was a 'reserved occupation', i.e. the police force was deemed essential to
the war effort on the Home Front and its members were forbidden to leave to join the other services. .
The wartime situation gave a new urgency to the discussions regarding the appointment of women police. The Ministry of Home
Affairs finally gave approval to the enrolment of women as members of the RUC on 16 April
1943. with the first six recruits starting on 15 November.
Post-war policies brought about the gradual improvement in the lot of the RUC, interrupted only by a return to hostilities by
the IRA. The IRA's 'border
campaign' of 1957-1962 killed seven RUC officers. The force was streamlined in the 1960s, a new headquarters was opened at
Knock in Belfast and a number of rural barracks were closed. In 1967, the forty-two hour
working week was introduced.
Policing in a divided society
An RUC police tunic
From 1970 onwards.
Policing Northern Ireland's divided society proved difficult, as each community
(nationalist and unionist) had different attitudes towards the institutions of the state (Weitzer 1985, 1995). To
unionists, the state had full legitimacy, as did its institutions, its parliament,
the Crown and its police force. Many nationalists, however, viewed the government of Northern Ireland as sectarian,
anti-Catholic, anti-nationalist, and as a gerrymander that had partitioned
Ireland against the will of its people to create a pro-union electoral majority in the
northeast.
This mindset was expressed by David Trimble in the following terms:
"Ulster Unionists, fearful of being isolated on the island, built a solid house,
but it was a cold house for Catholics. And northern nationalists, although they had a roof over their heads, seemed to us as if
they meant to burn the house down" [3].
As policing is by definition the upholding of the law and order of the existing institutional structures, it is not surprising
then that the RUC became closely identified with the state, through its largely Protestant and unionist membership, its use of
the word 'Royal' in the title and its use of flags and emblems of the northern state and the United Kingdom of which Northern Ireland is a part.
Throughout its existence, republican political leaders urged members of the nationalist community not to join the RUC.
Social Democratic and Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP) and critic of the force Seamus
Mallon, who later served as Deputy First Minister
of Northern Ireland, claimed the RUC was "97% Protestant and 100% unionist."
The RUC did attract Roman Catholic members. These men were for the most part
former members of the RIC, who came north from the Irish Republic after the partition of
the island. The bitterness of the fighting in the Anglo-Irish War precluded
them from remaining in territory now controlled by their former enemies. The percentage of Catholics in the RUC dropped as these
men retired over time [citation needed].
However, IRA attacks on Catholics who joined the RUC, and the perception that the police force was "a Protestant force for a
Protestant people" meant that Catholic participation in the Royal Ulster Constabulary always remained disproproportionally small
in terms of the Catholic percentage of the overall Northern Irish population. Notable exceptions include RUC Chief Constable
Sir James Flanagan KBE, a catholic from Derry, Deputy Chief Constable Michael McAtamney, Assistant Chief Constable Cathal Ramsey and Chief Superintendent
Frank Lagan [4].
In December 1997, London's The
Independent newspaper published a leaked internal RUC document which reported that a third of all Catholic RUC
officers had suffered religious discrimination and/or harassment from Protestant fellow officers [5].
The Troubles
Picture showing the fortifications of the RUC station in
Dungiven.
The rise of Catholic civil rights protests at the end of the decade marked the beginning
of the Troubles. The RUC continued its traditional pro-unionist role when it found itself
confronting marchers protesting at the gerrymandering of local governmental electoral
wards and the discrimination in local housing allocation. Many of these Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association protests were banned by the
government of Northern Ireland, but often the marches went ahead
regardless. The events at Duke Street in Derry and Burntollet Bridge, in east County Londonderry, were particularly notable for the brutality used.
The B Specials, proved highly controversial to some, with the latter unit
seen by some nationalists as much more anti-Catholic and anti-nationalist than the RUC, which unlike the B Specials attracted
some Catholic recruits. The severe pressure on the RUC and B-Specials led, during the Northern Ireland riots of August 1969, to the British
Army being called in to support the civil administration under Operation Banner.
Initially the army was welcomed by Catholic nationalists in preference to the RUC and in particular the B Specials (who were
stood down on 30 April 1970). However heavy handed army
behaviour, most notably on Bloody Sunday (when thirteen people were shot dead in
the aftermath of a civil rights march), soon saw the minority Catholic population turn against the Army.
The high level of civil disturbance led to an exhaustive inquiry into the disturbances in Northern Ireland carried out by the
distinguished English judge Lord Scarman, the then Home Secretary, James Callaghan, called on Lord Hunt to assess and advise on the policing situation. He was assisted in this task by Sir
Robert Mark, who later became Commissioner of the Metropolitan
Police, and Sir James Robertson, the then Chief
Constable of Glasgow.
The report was published on 3 October 1969 and most of the
recommendations subsequently accepted and implemented. The aim being a complete reorganisation of the RUC, with the aim of both
modernizing the force and bringing it into line with the other police forces in the UK. This meant the introduction of the
British rank and promotion structure, the creation of 12 Police Divisions and 39 Sub-Divisions, the disbandment of the
Ulster Special Constabulary [6], and the creation of a Police Authority representative of the whole
community.
Callaghan asked Sir Arthur Young, Commissioner of the City of London Police, to be seconded for a year. Young's appointment began the long process of
turning the RUC into a British police service. The RUC Reserve was formed as an auxiliary
police force, and all military-style duties were handed over to the newly formed Ulster Defence Regiment, which was under military command. All military-style duties were handed
over to the new Ulster Defence Regiment, which replaced the B Specials, and
which in turn would eventually be replaced, amidst allegations that it too was sectarian, by the Royal Irish Regiment.
Callaghan picked Young, a career policeman, because no other British policeman could match his direct experience of policing
acutely unstable societies and of reforming gendarmeries. From 1943 to 1945, he was Director
of Public Safety and Director of Security in the military government of Allied-occupied Italy.
Later, he had been seconded to the Federation of Malaya at the height of the
'Emergency' (1952-1953) and to the crown colony of Kenya during Mau Mau (1954) [7].
The first deaths of the Troubles occurred in July 1969. 67-year old Francis McCloskey, a
Catholic civilian, died on 14 July[8], a day after being beaten around the head with batons by RUC officers in
Dungiven. The police had baton-charged a crowd leaving a dance hall after disturbances relating
to an Orange Order parade in the town the day before. Samuel Devenny, another
civilian, died on 17 July, as a result of a beating he had sustained in his home from the RUC in
Derry in April. His teenage daughters were also beaten during the incident. In August 1969, the
RUC killed the third and the first child victim of the troubles, in Belfast. Nine-year old Patrick Rooney was shot as he lay in
bed by policemen firing from a moving truck
On 11 October 1969, Constable Victor Arbuckle was shot by
loyalists on Belfast's Shankill Road during serious rioting in protest at the
recommendations of the Hunt Report. He became the first police fatality of The Troubles. In August 1970, two young constables,
Donaldson and Millar, died when an abandoned car they were examining near Crossmaglen
exploded. They became the first victims of the re-organized Provisional Irish
Republican Army (PIRA) campaign.
In March 1972, the Government of Northern Ireland resigned and the
parliament was prorogued. Northern Ireland subsequently came under direct rule
from Westminster with its own Secretary of State, who had
overall responsibility for security policy.
Starting in late 1982, a number of PIRA and Irish National Liberation
Army (INLA) men who were enroute to commit terrorist acts were shot dead by the RUC, usually at checkpoints. The constant
and prolonged nature of these incidents led to accusations of a shoot-to-kill policy by the RUC. The British government set up the Stalker Inquiry to investigate. In September 1983, four officers were charged
with murder as a result of the inquiry, although all were subsequently found not guilty.
In May 1986 John Hermon, then Chief Constable,
publicly accused Unionist politicians of "consorting with paramilitary elements." Anger at
the Anglo-Irish Agreement led to unionists attacking over 500 homes, of Catholics and RUC officers. 150 RUC families were forced to
move as a result of the intimidation.
In February 1994, Amnesty International published a report which stated there
was "mounting evidence" of collusion between the security forces and loyalist paramilitaries
[citation needed].
In 1998 Chief Constable Ronnie Flanagan said in a television interview that he was unhappy with any RUC officers belonging to
the Orange Order or any of the other loyal orders. While the RUC refused to give any details on how many officers were members of
the Order, 39 RUC officers are listed on the Order's Roll of Honour (of Orangemen killed in the conflict). If this is was a
representative cross-section, it would mean 13% of the force were members of the Orange Order. Many officers were suspended for
taking part in protests of banned or rerouted marches.
The size of the RUC increased on several occasions. At its height, there were 8,500 regular police officers supported by about
5,000 full-time and part-time reserve officers, making it the second largest force in the United Kingdom after the Metropolitan
Police in London. The direction and control of the RUC was in the hands in the Chief
Constable, who was assisted by two Deputy Chief Constables and nine Assistant Chief Constables. For operational purposes,
Northern Ireland was divided into twelve Divisions and 39 Sub-Divisions. RUC ranks,
duties, conditions of service and pay were generally in line with those of police forces in Great
Britain.
Awards
Awards for gallantry for individual officers since 1969 included 16 George Medals, 103
Queen's Gallantry Medals, 111 Queen's Commendations for Bravery and 69 Queen's
Police Medals.
Two years before its reorganisation, the RUC was awarded the George Cross for bravery in
dealing with terrorist threat, a rarely awarded honour which had only been awarded
collectively once before, to the island nation of Malta.
Casualties
Officially, 303 officers were killed and over 9000 were injured during the Troubles
(mid-1960s to late 1990s), of whom 277 were killed in attacks by the Provisional Irish Republican Army.
However, according to the CAIN project at the University of Ulster [9], 301 active RUC
officers were killed and 18 "ex-RUC officers", which would total 319 fatalities.
Patten Report
The Belfast Agreement produced a wholescale reorganisation of inter-community,
governmental and policing systems, including a power-sharing executive with David Trimble and the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party's (SDLP) Seamus
Mallon (later replaced by new party leader Mark Durkan) as co-chairmen. The perceived
bias, and the clear under-representation of Catholics and nationalists, in the RUC meant that as part of the Good Friday Agreement (1998) there was a fundamental policing review.
The review was headed by Chris Patten, a former Hong
Kong Governor and British Conservative Minister under Margaret Thatcher, and published in September 1999. It recommended a wholesale reorganisation of
policing, with the Royal Ulster Constabulary being renamed the Police
Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), and a greater drive to recruit Catholic recruits and should adopt a new crest and cap
badge.
The PSNI was introduced in November 2001 (full title: The Police Service of Northern Ireland (incorporating the Royal Ulster
Constabulary GC). As part of the change, the police service dropped the word 'Royal' from everyday usage and adopted a new badge
that included the crown, harp, and shamrock - the symbols used by the RUC and RIC - each with an identification with one or other
community.
The Stevens Inquiry
On 18 April 2003 as part of the third report into collusion between Loyalist paramilitaries, RUC, and British
Army, Sir John Stevens published an Overview and
Recommendations document (Stevens 3).[3] Stevens intention
was to make recommendations which arose from serious shortcomings he had sofar identified in all three Enquiries.[4]
The third Stevens Inquiry began in 1999, and referred to his previous reports when making his recommendations. Stevens began
his report by saying:
"My Enquiries have highlighted collusion, the wilful failure to keep records, the absence of accountability, the withholding
of intelligence and evidence, and the extreme of agents being involved in murder. These serious acts and omissions have meant
that people have been killed or seriously injured."[5]
Stevens third inquiry focused in detail on only two of the murders in which collusion is alleged; the murder of Brian Adam
Lambert in 1987 & the murder of Pat Finucane in 1989. Stevens 3 also
included investigation into a small number of related agent case histories, agents known as Covert Human Intelligence Sources
(CHIS). This included looking into allegations made by members of the Force Research
Unit (FRU), and some of the activities of Ulster Defence Association
(UDA) assets William Alfred Stobie and Brian
Nelson.
Stevens used the following criteria as a definition of collusion while conducting his investigation:
- The failure to keep records or the existence of contradictory accounts which could limit the opportunity to rebut serious
allegations.
- The absence of accountability which could allow acts or omissions by individuals to go undetected.
- The withholding of information which could impede the prevention of crime and the arrest of suspects.
- The unlawful involvement of agents in murder which could imply that the security forces sanction killings.[6]
Stephens also pointed out that his investigation had been obstructed:
"Throughout my three Enquiries I recognised that I was being obstructed. This obstruction was cultural in its nature and
widespread within parts of the Army and the RUC. I am confident that through the investigative efforts of my Enquiry team, I have
managed to overcome it and achieve the overall objectives of my Enquiry."[7]
Stevens, in the Conclusion's section of the document stated:
"I have uncovered enough evidence to lead me to believe that the murders of Patrick Finucane and Brian Adam Lambert could have
been prevented. I also believe that the RUC investigation of Patrick Finucane’s murder should have resulted in the early arrest
and detection of his killers.
I conclude there was collusion in both murders [Brian Adam Lambert's & Finucane's] and the circumstances surrounding them.
Collusion is evidenced in many ways. This ranges from the wilful failure to keep records, the absence of accountability, the
withholding of intelligence and evidence, through to the extreme of agents being involved in murder.
My three Enquiries have found all these elements of collusion [above] to be present. The co-ordination, dissemination and
sharing of intelligence were poor. Informants and agents were allowed to operate without effective control and to participate in
terrorist crimes. Nationalists were known to be targeted but were not properly warned or protected. Crucial information was
withheld from Senior Investigating Officers. Important evidence was neither exploited nor preserved."[8]
Noted in the report was that as a result of the Stevens 3 inquiries and up to the date of publication there had been 144
arrests with 94 people convicted, along with 57 separate reports submitted to the Northern Ireland Director of Public
Prosecutions.
Reaction to Stevens 3
The SDLP leader Mark Durkan responded to the report by saying he was "shocked but not surprised". He also said:
- Nationalists have an equal right to life. None of the security forces vindicated it... This represents a betrayal of the
nationalist community.[citation needed]
The SDLP demanded to know how much former chief constables of the RUC knew about the collusion. During the time period under
investigation Sir Hugh Annesley and Sir Ronnie Flanagan
both filled senior management positions in the RUC including the office of chief constable. The SDLP also demanded to know how
much then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Tom King and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher knew of the activities.
Sinn Féin have said that the full publication of the Stevens Reports has been suppressed and Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams
said that the "... limited publication of this Stevens Report is only the tip of the iceberg".[9] In December 2006 Sinn Féin's Philip McGuigan said that all three Stevens reports
should be published in full.[10]
Nationalists continue to demand a full public sworn inquiry into the events with proven collusion like the Finucane murder,
and all cases where collusion has been alleged. David Trimble, the leader
of the Ulster Unionist Party, called for a parliamentary inquiry into the
collusion.
It is notable that the new first Chief Constable of the PSNI, Hugh Orde, before his
appointment, served at a senior level within the Stevens Inquiry team. He has insisted that the errors and the collusion within
the RUC documented in the Stevens Report (the third issued by Sir John Stevens) will not be allowed to happen under the new
police service.
Loyalist collusion
Elements of the RUC are alleged to have colluded extensively with loyalist paramilitaries throughout the 30 year conflict in
Northern Ireland. Particularly prominent in this regard were the actions of the specialist anti-terrorist unit, the
Special Patrol Group. This unit was formed in the early 1970s and was
disbanded in 1980 after two of its members were convicted of terrorist offences including kidnap and murder. The two, John Weir
and Billy McCaughey implicated their colleagues in a range of crimes including giving
weapons, information and transport to loyalist paramilitaries as well as carrying out shooting and bombing attacks of their
own.[11] In a report released on the 22 January 2007, the Police Ombudsman Nuala
O'Loan stated Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) informers committed serious
crimes, including murder, with the full knowledge of their handlers.[12] The report alleged Special Branch officers created false
statements, blocked evidence searches and "baby-sat" suspects during interviews. Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) councillor and former Police Federation chairman Jimmy Spratt
said if the report "had had one shred of credible evidence then we could have expected charges against former Police Officers.
There are no charges, so the public should draw their own conclusion, the report is clearly based on little fact".[13] However, Northern Ireland Secretary of State Peter Hain said that he
was "convinced that at least one prosecution will arise out of today's report".[14]
Chief Officers
The chief officer of the Royal Irish Constabulary was its Inspector-General (the
last of whom, Sir Thomas J. Smith served from 11 March
1920 until partition in 1922). Between 1922 and 1969 the position of Inspector-General of the RUC
was held by five officers, the last being Sir Arthur Young, who was seconded for a year from the City of London Police to implement the Hunt Report and disarm the police and disband the Ulster
Special Constabulary ('B' Specials). Under Young, who eschewed the RUC's military mindset in favour of a civilian approach
similar to that held in the rest of the UK, the title was changed to Chief Constable.
Young and six others held the job until the RUC was incorporated to the new Police Service. The final incumbent, Sir Ronnie
Flanagan, became the first Chief Constable of the PSNI.
- Lt. Col. Sir Charles Wickham, from June 1922.
- Sir Richard Pim, from August 1945.
- Sir Albert Kennedy, from January 1961.
- J.A. Peacock, from February 1969.
- Sir Arthur Young, from November 1969.
- Sir Graham Shillington, from November 1970.
- Sir James Flanagan, from November 1973.
- Sir Kenneth Newman, from May 1976.
- Sir John Hermon, from January 1980.
- Sir Hugh Annesley, from June 1989.
- Sir Ronnie Flanagan, from October 1996-November 2001, continuing as Chief Constable
of the PSNI until April 2002
Ranks
- Chief Constable
- Deputy Chief Constable
- Assistant Chief Constable
- Chief Superintendent
- Superintendent
- Chief Inspector
- Inspector
- Sergeant
- Constable
- Reserve Constable
References
Further reading
Weitzer, Ronald, 1985. "Policing a Divided Society: Obstacles to Normalization in Northern Ireland," Social Problems,
v.33 (October), pages 41-55.
Weitzer, Ronald, 1995. Policing Under Fire: Ethnic Conflict and Police-Community Relations in Northern Ireland (Albany,
NY: State University of New York Press).
See also
External links
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