'The Troubles':Northern Ireland 1968-1998 - theme 7
Policing Northern Ireland
Documents:
Campaign for Social Justice in Northern Ireland, (1972), Northern Ireland: the Mailed Fist: A Record of Army and Police Brutality from 9 August-Nov 9, 1971. Dungannon. Available on http://cain.ulst.ac.uk.
Hunt Report (1969) Report on Police in Northern Ireland. Cmnd. No. 535, Belfast: HMSO. Extract available on http://cain.ulst.ac.uk.
See also http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/issues/police/source.htm which provides a list of sources for the study of policing in Northern Ireland. This site also has links to the Committee on the Administration of Justice which has published widely on the police in Northern Ireland.
Questions:
Why was the army deployed in Northern Ireland in 1969?
How effectively did the British army deal with its duties in Northern Ireland 1969-1972?
Discuss the difficulties faced by the British army in controlling violence in Northern Ireland.
What roles has the RUC played in Northern Ireland since the 1960s?
What problems faced the RUC in policing Northern Ireland?
Why were there calls to reform the RUC?
Did the RUC need to be reformed?
What have been the reactions to the Patten report?
Reading:
Arthur, Paul, ‘Policing and crisis politics – Northern Ireland as a case study’, in Parliamentary Affairs, 39, 3, (1996), pp. 341-353.
Brewer, J. D., and K. Magee, Inside the R U C: Routine Policing in a Divided Society (Oxford, 1991).
Dewar, Michael, The British Army in Northern Ireland (London, 1997).
Dillon, Martin, The Dirty War (London, 1989).
Kelleher, W. F., ‘Policing under fire: ethnic conflict and police – community relations in Northern Ireland’, Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews, 24, (6), (1995), pp 803-4.
Mapstone, Richard, ‘The attitudes of police in a divided society – the case of Northern Ireland’, British Journal of Criminology, 32 (2), (1992), pp 183-192.
Ryder, C., The R U C (London, 1989).
Taylor, Peter, The Brits (London, 2000).
Walsh, D., ‘The Royal Ulster Constabulary: a Law Unto Themselves?’ in Tomlinson, M. et al (eds.), Whose Law and Order? (Belfast, 1988).
Weitzer, R., ‘Policing a divided society: obstacles to normalisation in Northern Ireland’, Police Studies, 9, 2, (1985), pp. 99-109. Also in Journal of Social Problems, 33, (1985), pp. 41-55.
Policing Under Fire: Ethnic Conflict and Police-Community Relations in Northern Ireland (Albany, 1995). Chapters 5 and 6.
‘Policing and security’ in Mitchell, P. and R. Wilford (eds.), Politics in
Northern Ireland (Oxford, 1999), pp. 170-194.