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Book Details
Abstract
This book is 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.
Examining the reorganisations of the RUC in the 1970s and 1980s, 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.
'An exceptionally well written and broad study of policing and public order, particularly from the 'Troubles' in the late 1960s to the present'
CHOICE
Table of Contents
| Section Title | Page | Action | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contents | iv | ||
| Preface | ix | ||
| Introduction | xiii | ||
| 1. Policing Nineteenth-century Ireland: Setting the Parameters | 1 | ||
| Policing Class Society | 1 | ||
| Was Ireland Different? | 5 | ||
| Order and Control : the Policing Solution | 8 | ||
| Policing and Legitimacy in Nineteenth- century Ireland | 11 | ||
| 2. Policing After Partition: Constructing the Security Apparatus | 18 | ||
| Establishing the RUC | 18 | ||
| Organisation, Recruitment and Composition of the RUC | 21 | ||
| Powers and Responsibilities | 23 | ||
| The Ulster Special Constabulary | 24 | ||
| Institutionalising Division | 30 | ||
| 3. Policing under Stormont | 32 | ||
| Normal Policing? | 32 | ||
| A Decentralised Power Structure | 37 | ||
| 'Community policing' under the Stormont regime? | 41 | ||
| After 1945: Prelude to Crisis | 43 | ||
| 4. The Impact of Civil Rights on Policing: Collapse and Failed Reform | 54 | ||
| The Civil Rights Campaign | 54 | ||
| Reform in a Vacuum: The Hunt Report | 63 | ||
| Hunt: Failed Reform? | 70 | ||
| 5. Criminalisation and Normalisation: The Counter-Insurgency Solution | 72 | ||
| Introduction | 72 | ||
| Suppressing Dissent: the Colonial War Model | 73 | ||
| The Interregnum: 1972-75 | 78 | ||
| The RUC and the Ulster Workers Strike | 87 | ||
| Policing after the UWC Strike | 89 | ||
| 6. Legitimacy, Counter-Insurgency and Policing: The Legacy of the 1970s | 92 | ||
| Criminalisation, Interrogation and the Bennett Repor | 92 | ||
| Policing the Hunger Strikes | 99 | ||
| The Consolidation of Police Primacy | 104 | ||
| Telling Tales: the Supergrass Years | 110 | ||
| 7. Shooting to Kill? | 116 | ||
| Background | 116 | ||
| Undercover Operations and the RUC | 118 | ||
| The Role of RUC Special Branch | 124 | ||
| A Shoot-to-kill Policy? | 129 | ||
| 8. Collusion and Death Squads | 134 | ||
| Death Squads and Counter- insurgency | 135 | ||
| The UDR and Collusion | 138 | ||
| The British Army and the Use of Death Squads | 141 | ||
| The Case of Brian Nelson and the FRU | 143 | ||
| The Role of the RUC | 145 | ||
| 9. Symbolism, Surveys and Police Legitimacy | 150 | ||
| Policing as Cultural Category | 151 | ||
| Public Attitudinal Surveys and the Manufacture of Consent | 158 | ||
| The Under-representation of Certain For ms of Opinion | 160 | ||
| Conducting Opinion Poll Surveys in a Divided Society | 162 | ||
| The Language of Surveys | 163 | ||
| Reading the Survey Results: a Heretical View | 165 | ||
| 'There is no public support for reforming the RUC' | 165 | ||
| 'There is a broad spectrum of approval for the RUC's handling of ordinary crime' | 169 | ||
| 'The RUC has a base of hidden support' | 170 | ||
| 'The cultural symbolism of the RUC is an issue that Catholics do not feel strongly about' | 173 | ||
| Conclusions | 174 | ||
| 10. Epilogue: The Patten Report on the RUC | 177 | ||
| The Public Meetings | 178 | ||
| Accountability | 185 | ||
| Cover Operations and Demilitarisation | 186 | ||
| Composition | 188 | ||
| Conclusions | 189 | ||
| Notes | 190 | ||
| Chapter 1 | 190 | ||
| Chapter 2 | 190 | ||
| Chapter 3 | 191 | ||
| Chapter 4 | 192 | ||
| Chapter 5 | 194 | ||
| Chapter 6 | 194 | ||
| Chapter 7 | 195 | ||
| Chapter 8 | 195 | ||
| Chapter 9 | 195 | ||
| Bibliography | 196 | ||
| Index | 210 | ||
| accountability | xix |