Courtney McGrailThe Royal Irish Constabulary: A Short History & Genealogical Guide
by Jim Herlihy
(Four Courts Press, €24.95)
Prime minister Sir Robert Peel (1788-1850) is regarded as the founder of policing as we know it today. Thus traditionally the police in Ireland were known as ‘Peelers’ and in England as ‘Bobbies’.
As Chief Secretary for Ireland (1812-18) Peel was responsible for a major modernisation of the police system when he ensured in 1814 the passing of an Act, under which he formed the Peace Protection Force. Under a subsequent Act in 1822 these became the Irish Constabulary.
The Irish Constabulary were to the fore in suppressing the Fenian Rising in 1867. As a reward Queen Victoria honoured them with the title ‘Royal Irish Constabulary’. Throughout the rest of the century the RIC became a gendarmerie with a semi-military role in ensuring peace and stability.
Their involvement in the Land War and in particular their supervision of evictions caused them to be unpopular with most of the people. By 1900 there was considerable discontent in the lower ranks about pay and conditions of service.
The Irish Revolutionary period (1916-22) saw the RIC in the front line during the Easter Rising and the War of Independence. Arthur Griffith and Eamon de Valera, the leaders of Sinn Féin, urged their supporters to boycott the RIC and their families.
In addition members of the force, on or off duty, were regarded as ‘legitimate targets’ by the IRA. At that time also an attempt was made to persuade members to resign or at least to refuse to engage in the struggle between the Crown forces and the IRA.
Neutral stance
A substantial number of members attempted to adopt a neutral stance by organising and becoming members of a Police Union. This, however, was suppressed.
The discontent continued and in what became known as the ‘Listowel Police Mutiny’ in June 1920 15 constables refused to be transferred and to hand their barracks to the military. As news of this spread throughout the RIC and appeared in the press, the pace of members of the force taking early retirement or being dismissed quickened. Eventually, by 1 March 1921, 2,570 members had left the force.
Their places were taken by the hastily-recruited Black and Tans, ex-soldiers who received little serious police training. Their indiscipline and the outrages for which they were responsible alienated the Irish people.
The result was that the crown forces found themselves operating in an increasingly hostile environment, and this prompted the British government to send out the ‘feelers’ which led to the Anglo-Irish truce.
The resigned and dismissed RIC were never properly rewarded for their courage and patriotism. In terms of pensions and other payments they were treated far less generously by the Irish Free State than their comrades who saw out their service.
Regrettably the tendency of historians to ignore the crucial role of those men in the War of Independence is repeated in this otherwise comprehensive book.
This is a revised and greatly enhanced edition of a title first published in 1997.
Between 1816 and 1922 some 85,000 Irishmen were members of the RIC. Herlihy provides a chapter showing how one can trace an ancestor who was in the force.
A special list of members in one of the appendices includes my grandfather. Sergeant Anthony Gaughan, native of Co Mayo, served in a number of barracks in Co Sligo and was awarded the King George V Coronation Medal in 1911. He was fortunate, retiring just two months before the Easter Rising and setting up a public-house business in Ballaghadereen, Co Mayo.
Sadly very many other members of the force ended their lives either in conflicts at home or in the Crimean War, Boer War, or Great War.