THE NEW Chief Constable of the RUC, Mr Ronnie Flanagan, has pledged to rebuild bridges with all sections of the Northern community following recent damaging events like the Drumcree standoff.
His appointment has been widely welcomed by his colleagues, led by the outgoing Chief Constable, Sir Hugh Annesley, who said Mr Flanagan possessed "the vitality, vision, flexibility and impartiality" to lead the force into the next century.
But the scale of the task facing the new Chief Constable was evidenced by the heavily qualified welcome and cautious reaction to his appointment by both unionist and nationalist spokesmen.
Mr Flanagan (47) said he was absolutely committed to providing for all the people of Northern Ireland a highly professional and absolutely impartial policing service.
He acknowledged that serious damage had been done to the image of the force during the events of this summer, but the work of making good that damage was already well under way.
Around the time of Drumcree, the Northern community had come to the edge of the abyss and had pulled back. "We faced what I think was a quite malevolent campaign to stretch our resources to the limit. The truth is that the rule of law did suffer a temporary setback at that period."
He had every confidence, however, that next year would not bring a repetition of this year's events and he said morale in the force remained high.
Mr Flanagan's appointment was formally announced yesterday after being endorsed by the Northern Secretary, Sir Patrick Mayhew, late on Thursday night. Mr Flanagan, who is at present a Deputy Chief Constable, will succeed Sir Hugh who is to retire on November 3rd after seven years in the post.
The UUP leader, Mr David Trimble, said he hoped Mr Flanagan would be an improvement on the "poor leadership" of the force over the past few years while Councillor Alex Attwood of the SDLP, said the culture, the nature, the policies and practices of the RUC had to be purged.
The DUP leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, said Mr Flanagan was entering the post under the shadow of Drumcree.
The Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, dismissed the appointment as irrelevant to the crisis over policing.
The Alliance Party deputy leader, Mr Seamus Close, said Mr Flanagan was a visionary policeman and the RUC could not be in better hands.