Sir, – Both Andrew McGowan’s and Nicholas Coules’s rather over-the-top replies (August 27th) to Stephen Collins’s article (Opinion, August 24th) call for a more balanced and measured response. Any unbiased reading of the history of the RIC and DMP presents two incontrovertible facts: 1. Those who served in the ranks were largely representative of virtually every town and village in Ireland. 2. The organisation contained the same mix of characters and types that has been in police forces all over the world since their inception. The officer class of the RIC and the DMP was quite separate from other ranks, deliberately so, and sectarianism at the top level played a major role in the mistrust and divisions that followed.
It is clear the RIC was armed, unlike in the rest of the United Kingdom, following the rise of the Fenian Brotherhood after 1858. Of course one should condemn utterly the RIC for supporting the land owners in the terrible evictions of the 19th century and for the DMP being responsible for the deaths of two union protesters in the 1913 Lockout in Dublin, but the sweeping statements in the letters suggesting that all members of the two forces were bad is sheer nonsense. Evidence is abundantly available that there was grudging respect for the RIC and the DMP in largely maintaining law and order throughout the country.
With the rise of nationalism in the early 1900s, the RIC became more marginalised, especially in rural communities. Between 1901 and 1920 the number of constables in the RIC had fallen from 11,000 to 9,500, this before 600 resigned due to intimidation and the fall-out from the War of Independence. This drop in numbers led directly to the establishment of the Black and Tans and the Auxiliaries by the British government and to the reign of terror that followed. To attempt to link the bulk of the RIC and DMP directly to the actions of those mercenaries by a selective and emotive juggling of history is a bit rich.
Stephen Collins’s mild proposal deserves serious consideration, not least because the alternative would be the perpetuation of a dialogue of the deaf. – Yours etc.
PATRICK JUDGE,
Rochestown Avenue,
Dún Laoghaire,
Co Dublin.