The Irish Constabularies 1822-1922 by Donal J. O'Sullivan. Brandon Books, 412pp, £30
The Royal Irish Constabulary - A Complete Alphabetical List of Officers and Men, 1816-1922 by Jim Herlihy. Four Courts Press, 520pp, £45
Between March and August 1922, the long-familiar bottle-green uniform of the Royal Irish Constabulary disappeared from 26 of Ireland's 32 counties. In the Free State the RIC was replaced by the Civic Guard, quickly re-titled as An Garda Siochana. Within Northern Ireland, another new police force with uniforms, badges, ranks and structures virtually identical to the RIC, emerged as the Royal Ulster Constabulary. Were a time-travelling RIC man to step into a Belfast police station today he would find sufficient continuity of symbols to enable him to feel on familiar ground. Were he to visit a Garda station he would find the opposite - at least initially. And yet, if he were to scratch below the surface, he would also find evidence of the Garda's linear descent from Robert Peel's 19th century creation.
It is somewhat ironic, as the tide of events carries the RUC towards transformation into a new Northern Ireland police service, that police historians should begin to focus anew on the origins and development of Ireland's constabularies. Donal J O'Sullivan's The Irish Constabularies 1822-1922 is the latest addition to a growing body of work in an area of Irish history which has been inadequately chronicled and in which misconception abounds. Jim Herlihy's The RIC List follows upon his 1997 publication The Royal Irish Constabulary - A Short History and Genealogical Guide.
Donal O'Sullivan, a former chief superintendent in the Garda, charts the history of the Irish constabularies from the earliest days of the county police forces. He writes with the career policeman's understanding of the sinews of a law enforcement organisation, describing command structures, procedures, equipment, pay, allowances and so on. But this is no dry manual. For he also shows himself to be a deeply aware social historian. His focus throughout is on the place of the policeman in the community and he dwells at length on the difficult complexities of this relationship in the particular circumstances of 19th and 20th century rural Ireland.
O'Sullivan is instinctively sympathetic to the lot of the Irish police officer in the British administration. The RIC were among the finest young men that rural Ireland produced at a time of few career opportunities. Because of the two-tier system of entry, the vast majority of the rank-and-file could not hope for promotion to commissioned rank. The ranks were broadly divided along religious lines as well. The great majority of constables, sergeants and head constables were Catholic while most of the commissioned officers were Protestant. But few of the young country lads who joined had much concept of representing an alien power. When the War of Independence took place they were easy targets for violence and intimidation.
They are now a lost generation of Irish manhood, in the author's description. In the aftermath of independence many emigrated, some to other police forces, others to employment in Britain or the United States. Those who remained in Ireland were obliged - with their families - to deny who and what they were. They have no memorial. There is no public record or testimonial of their service. The author presents his book, in some measure, as a substitute for such a memorial. And a creditable one it is. He writes in a strong, narrative style with an eye for detail. He eschews the technique of using footnotes but skilfully interpolates his sources into the narrative, making for a book which is as enjoyable to read as it is informative.
O'Sullivan knowingly traces the linkages between the RIC and the Garda Siochana. Many of the families which gave the Garda its young men in the 1920s and 1930s were the same as those which populated the non-commissioned ranks of the RIC before independence. The continuity of service the police tradition are strong. When the organising committee established by Michael Collins the creation of a new, armed police force in 1922 it took the RIC as its model. The Garda's firearms were taken away after a mutiny at its Kildare training depot but the structures, the procedures, the jargon, the furniture, stationery - even the mattresses of the old force, in some instances, passed to the new.
The structure of accountability of the new Garda Siochana also mirrored exactly the British system which it replaced. The RIC was directed by an Inspector-General, appointed by the government which also appointed commissioned officers. In the Garda Siochana the Inspector General was replaced by a Commissioner. But unlike Britain, where local authorities have a say in police matters, Ireland's tradition has always been to run the police as an agency of central government. When the Patten reforms are implemented, the RUC will be accountable in considerable measure to local police boards. The Garda Siochana will be the only police force in these islands under the direct and undiluted control of central government. In this most fundamental way it will carry on the tradition of the RIC.
Donal O'Sullivan's book is an excellent overview of the roots of Irish policing. It might be usefully read by political and administrative figures with responsibility for shaping policy. Jim Herlihy is a serving member of the Garda. His RIC List is a mammoth achievement which will be a valuable aid to research for anyone who wishes to trace the careers of individual RIC members. Every member's name and registered number is provided, enabling individual service records to be accessed. There are very few families on this island which do not have a connection, in some generation, with the RIC. Mr Herlihy remarks in his introductory notes "I have found the bureaucracy of the British Empire to be meticulous in its record-keeping". This publication will be the starting point for many a genealogical research project.
Conor Brady is Editor of The Irish Times
