The crowned harp : policing Northern Ireland / Graham Ellison and Jim Smyth.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ellison, Graham.

Contributor:

Smyth, Jim.

Series:

Contemporary Irish studies.

Contemporary Irish studies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Police--Northern Ireland.

Police.

Royal Ulster Constabulary.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (224 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

London Sterling, Va. : Pluto Press, 2000.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The Crowned Harp provides a detailed analysis of policing in Northern Ireland. Tracing its history from 1922, Ellison and Smyth portray the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) as an organisation burdened by its past as a colonial police force. They analyse its perceived close relationship with unionism and why, for many nationalists, the RUC embodied the problem of the legitimacy of Northern Ireland, arguing that decisions made on the organisation, composition and ideology of policing in the early years of the state had consequences which went beyond the everyday practice of policing. The authors provide an extended discussion of policing after the outbreak of civil unrest in 1969, ask why policing was cast in a paramilitary mould, and look at the use of special constabularies and the way in which the police dealt with social unrest which threatened to break down sectarian divisions. Examining the reorganisations of the RUC in the 1970's and 1980's, Ellison and Smyth focus on the various structural, legal and ideological components, the professionalisation of the force and the development of a coherent, if contradictory, ideology. The analysis of the RUC during this period sheds light on the problematic nature of using the police as a counter insurgency force in a divided society. Perceptions of the police, and the opinions of rank and file members are examined and an assessment is made of the various alternative models of policing, such as community policing and local control. This book offers important lessons about the nature of policing in divided societies.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

Preface

Introduction

1. Policing Nineteenth-century Ireland: Setting the Parameters

Policing Class Society

Was Ireland Different?

Order and Control : the Policing Solution

Policing and Legitimacy in Nineteenth- century Ireland

2. Policing After Partition: Constructing the Security Apparatus

Establishing the RUC

Organisation, Recruitment and Composition of the RUC

Powers and Responsibilities

The Ulster Special Constabulary

Institutionalising Division

3. Policing under Stormont

Normal Policing?

A Decentralised Power Structure

'Community policing' under the Stormont regime?

After 1945: Prelude to Crisis

4. The Impact of Civil Rights on Policing: Collapse and Failed Reform

The Civil Rights Campaign

Reform in a Vacuum: The Hunt Report

Hunt: Failed Reform?

5. Criminalisation and Normalisation: The Counter-Insurgency Solution

Suppressing Dissent: the Colonial War Model

The Interregnum: 1972-75

The RUC and the Ulster Workers Strike

Policing after the UWC Strike

6. Legitimacy, Counter-Insurgency and Policing: The Legacy of the 1970s

Criminalisation, Interrogation and the Bennett Repor

Policing the Hunger Strikes

The Consolidation of Police Primacy

Telling Tales: the Supergrass Years

7. Shooting to Kill?

Background

Undercover Operations and the RUC

The Role of RUC Special Branch

A Shoot-to-kill Policy?

8. Collusion and Death Squads

Death Squads and Counter- insurgency

The UDR and Collusion

The British Army and the Use of Death Squads

The Case of Brian Nelson and the FRU

The Role of the RUC

9. Symbolism, Surveys and Police Legitimacy

Policing as Cultural Category

Public Attitudinal Surveys and the Manufacture of Consent

The Under-representation of Certain For ms of Opinion.

Conducting Opinion Poll Surveys in a Divided Society

The Language of Surveys

Reading the Survey Results: a Heretical View

'There is no public support for reforming the RUC'

'There is a broad spectrum of approval for the RUC's handling of ordinary crime'

'The RUC has a base of hidden support'

'The cultural symbolism of the RUC is an issue that Catholics do not feel strongly about'

Conclusions

10. Epilogue: The Patten Report on the RUC

The Public Meetings

Accountability

Cover Operations and Demilitarisation

Composition

Notes

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Bibliography

Index

accountability

xix

70-1

184

185-6

189

Act of Union [1801] 8

Adams, Gerry 102

agrarian unrest

18th-19th centuries 5-6

18th-19th centuries 9

18th-19th centuries 12

repression by Irish Constabulary, 14-15

agricultural reform 5-6

alienation 152

Alliance Party

87

160

ambushes

121-2

SAS, 117-18

Special Branch, 127

American War of Independence 6

Amnesty International

135

and collusion inquiry, 143

investigation [ 1975] 80

Report [ 1978] 95-7

Anglicisation

15

16

Anglo-Irish Treaty [1922] 18

Anti-Partition League 43-4

Atkins, Humphrey, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland 102

B Specials

11

20

21

25-6

56

and UDR, 138

in reserve, 29

in reserve, 30

barracks 21-2

Bates, Dawson

19

22

Belfast

discrimination in, 47

RUC and USC organisation, 27

Belfast News Letter, anti-nationalist campaign 43

Bennett Report [1979]

96-7

111

127

133

Bessbrook Support Unit [1977] 90

Birmingham, bombings [1974] 110

Black, Christopher, supergrass 111

bombing campaigns, England.

94

110

Bourn, John, Committee proposals 82-4

Boyle, John 107

Bradley, Francis 125

British Army

xiv

187

and policy of police primacy, 95

and policy of police primacy, 104-10

and use of death-squads, 141-3

andUDR, 140

colonial war model for, 65

colonial war model for, 73-8

counter-insurgency experience, 136-7

deployment [ 62-3

direct confrontation policy, 74-5

FRU [Force Research Unit], 124

FRU [Force Research Unit], 143-4

FRU [Force Research Unit], 145

FRU [Force Research Unit], 146

in Ulster [from 20

in Ulster [from 34

interrogation, 70

Kitson's strategy, 75-8

operational autonomy, 149

opposition to policing role, 10

relations with nationalist community, 63

relations with RUC Special Branch, 105

relations with RUC Special Branch, 145-6

relegation to role of 'military aid to civil power' [ 84

under control of Stormont government, 63

under control of Stormont government, 74-5

undercover units, 106

undercover units, 124

undercover units, 187

use of Psychological Operations [Psyops], 77

British government

and Stormont parliament, 55

and cost of policing Ireland, 29

decision to deploy Army, 62-3

Direct Rule, 70

Direct Rule, 76

Direct Rule, 78-84

failure to reform Northern Ireland, 72-3

reports on policing [ 63-70

British government in Ireland [Dublin Castle]

attitude to Yeomanry, 10

perception of unrest [ 9-10

British Irish Rights Watch, on collusion 135

Brookeborough, Sir Basil Brooke, Viscount

35

43

militia, 25

militia, 34

Burns, Sean

118

119

Burntollet Bridge ambush [1969]

44

58

Callaghan, James, Prime Minister 136

Cameron Commission, Report [1969]

61

63

capital punishment, 'Bloody Code' 1-2

Carroll, Roddy 121.

Carver, Field Marshal Lord 105

Castlereagh, interrogation centre 80

Castlereagh, Lord 12-13

casualties

civilian, 76

from plastic bullets, 116

IRA volunteers, 117

security forces, 76

security forces, 117

security forces, 178

Catholic Church

and hunger strikes, 102

in 19th-century Ireland 3

Catholic emancipation 12

Catholic population

alienation of, xvii

alienation of, 9

alienation of, 153-4

and Patten Report public meetings, 183-4

and support for RUC [disputed], xviii, 150-1

and support for RUC [disputed], xviii, 160-3

and support for RUC [disputed], xviii, 170-4

and support for RUC [disputed], xviii, 181-2

and public attitudes surveys, 160-2

development of identity, xvi, 54

discrimination against, 47-50

dissent suppressed, 24

dissent suppressed, 30

dissent suppressed, 31

dissent suppressed, 33

dissent suppressed, 41-3

middle class withdrawal from public office, 76

middle class, 6

middle class, 9

middle class, 14

need for reform ofRUC, 165-6

need for reform ofRUC, 165

perception of RUC, 168-9

perception of RUC, 168

RUC stereotyping, 42

support for IRA, 103-4

view of RUC's ordinary policing, 169-70

view of RUC's ordinary policing, 170

view of Yeomanry, 11

Catholics

as members of Irish Constabulary, 13

as members of Irish Constabulary, 15

in RUCR [support for law], 174-5

in UDR, 73

in UDR, 138

in USC, 28

quota in RUC, 19-21

quota in RUC, 22-3

quota in RUC, 172-3

Chichester-Clark, J., Prime Minister 72

Churchill, Winston 29

CID

and criminal investigations, 125-8

computer systems, 84

computer systems, 187

relations with Special Branch, 124

relations with Special Branch, 125-7

restructured, 84.

Citizen's Defence Force [Fermanagh] 25

Civil Authorities [Special Powers] Bill [

Civil Authorities [Special Powers] Bill [ 23-4

Civil Authorities [Special Powers] Bill [ 31

76

Civil Rights Movement

xvi-xvii

53

57

equated with IRA, 59-60

radicalisation of, 58-9

RUC and, 50

class

xvi

37

161-2

Collins, Michael 19

collusion

formal and informal, 134

reports on, 135

reports on, 143

reports on, 144

RUC and, 146-8

Stevens Inquiry, 134

Stevens Inquiry, 142-3

UDR and, 138-41

with UWC strikers, 88

colonial government

and nature of policing, 36-7

and nature of policing, 38-9

and nature of policing, 86

counter-insurgency role of Army, 65

counter-insurgency role of Army, 73-8

Committee for the Administration of Justice 135

Community Relations Branch [RUC]

86-7

167

Community Relations Commission 72-3

community relations, with Catholics/nationalists

33

41

172-3

Compton, Sir Edmund, Report [1971] 70

confessions

92

99

consent, policing by

64

86

185

Constabulary Act [1922] 20

counter-insurgency

and death-squads, 135-8

colonial war model for Army, 65

effect of measures on IRA, 92-3

RUC's role in, xv

RUC's role in 85

RUC's role in, 91

RUC's role in, 177

tactics, 148

Craig, Sir James, NI Prime Minister

24

29

and USC, 25

and quotas for Catholic membership of RUC, 20-1

Crawford, Lt. Colonel, command of USC 26

Creasey, General Timothy

104

105

109

116

crime, low levels of normal [19th cent]

5

9

Criminal Bar Association of Northern Ireland 114

criminalisation

and political status of prisoners, 99-100

80

81-2

85-6.

cultural awareness programmes 175-6.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. [196]-209) and index.

ISBN:

9781849640329

1849640327

9780585425825

0585425825

OCLC:

923330596