‘Step up’ NI politicians and promote Catholics joining police says Supt

‘Step up’ NI politicians and promote Catholics joining police says Supt Michelle O’Neill

Politicians in the North of Ireland must work against people stuck in the “dark ages” who want to stop Catholics joining the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), a superintendent has insisted.

The recent restoration of the North’s Assembly is “reassuring” for communities, the Chair of the Catholic Police Guild of Northern Ireland, Superintendent Gerry Murray told The Irish Catholic, who added there are “mammoth tasks to be taken on” including recruitment issues.

“What the Catholic Guild is looking for is for all our politicians to step up to the mark with regards to police recruitment and specifically coming from the Catholic, nationalist, Republican backgrounds – but we have a long way to go,” Supt Murray said.

Currently less than a third of PSNI officers are Catholic, with just over a quarter (26.4%) being born in Northern Ireland. Supt Murray warned that since a PSNI data leak last summer, which saw private details of more than 10,000 staff made public, the recruitment situation has got worse.

He said that “one of the reasons the Catholic Police Guild was formed was to support the senior executive team within the PSNI with regards to recruitment”.

“At the moment with regards to young Catholics coming forward, nationalist politicians need to support not only the young nationalists, Catholics coming forward but the families who are left behind because there are some people who are still in the dark ages with regards to violence,” he said.

“There are people within communities that wish to do violence against the PSNI and to stop normalisation, ie. the recruiting of young Catholics, nationalists, republicans into the police service.”

This comes following First Minister Michelle O’Neill’s decision to attend a PSNI graduation last week. It was the first time a Sinn Féin politician has attended such an event.

Supt Murray described it as “a significant step for a First Minister that is coming from a republican background”.

He added: “It will give us a platform to encourage young Catholics into the Police Service of Northern Ireland.”