Royal Ulster Constabulary

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Royal Ulster Constabulary
Police force
Jurisdictional structure
National agencyNorthern Ireland
Operations jurisdictionNorthern Ireland
Map of Royal Ulster Constabulary's jurisdiction
Size14,130 km2 (5,460 sq mi)[1]
General nature

The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC)[n 1] was the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2001. It was founded on 1 June 1922 as a successor to the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC)[2] following the partition of Ireland. At its peak the force had around 8,500 officers, with a further 4,500 who were members of the RUC Reserve.

The RUC policed Northern Ireland from the aftermath of the Irish War of Independence until after the turn of the 21st century and played a major role in the Troubles between the 1960s and the 1990s. Due to the threat from the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), who saw the RUC as enforcing British rule, the force was heavily armed and militarised. Officers routinely carried submachine guns and assault rifles, travelled in armoured vehicles, and were based in heavily fortified police stations.[3] It was the first police force to use rubber and plastic bullets for riot control.

The RUC's membership was overwhelmingly

Irish nationalist minority of one-sided policing and sectarianism. Officers were also accused of police brutality as well as collusion with loyalist paramilitaries.[4][5] Conversely, it was praised as one of the most professional police forces in the world by British security forces.[6] During the Troubles, 319 RUC officers were killed and almost 9,000 injured in paramilitary assassinations or attacks, mostly by the IRA, which made the RUC the most dangerous police force in the world in which to serve by 1983.[7][8][9] In the same period, the RUC killed 55 people, 28 of whom were civilians.[10] In 2000, the RUC was awarded the George Cross
for bravery.

The RUC was superseded by the

CID and Special Branch collusion with loyalist terrorists, but no member of the RUC has been charged or convicted of any criminal acts as a result of these inquiries. O'Loan stated in her conclusions that there was no reason to believe the findings of the investigation were isolated incidents.[12]

History

Establishment

Under section 60 of the

Minister of Home Affairs for Northern Ireland, appointed a committee of inquiry on police organisation in the region. It was asked to advise on any alterations to the existing police necessary for the formation of a new force (i.e. recruitment and conditions of service, composition, strength and cost).[13]

An interim report was published on 28 March 1922, the first official report of the new

St George's Cross surrounded by a chain was designed but proved unpopular and was never uniformly adopted. Eventually the harp and crown insignia of the Order of St Patrick, as worn by the RIC, was adopted.[2]

From the beginning the RUC had a dual role, unique among British police forces, of providing a normal

Catholics, a reflection of the denominational proportions of the population of Northern Ireland at that time. The first two thousand places were filled quickly and those reserved for Catholics were filled mainly by ex-RIC members fleeing north. Due to reluctance by the political establishment to employ too many Catholics (who were seen as potentially disloyal to the Protestant and unionist ethos of the new government) the force abandoned this policy. As a result, representation of Catholics in the RUC never exceeded 20%. In addition, many Catholics who joined the force, particularly during the Troubles, were targeted for murder or ostracised by their own community. By the 1960s, representation of Catholics in the RUC had fallen to 12%.[14]

The RUC were supported by the Ulster Special Constabulary, a volunteer body of part-time auxiliary police established before the Northern Ireland government was set up, who had already been given uniforms and training. The RUC's senior officer, the Inspector General, was appointed by the Governor of Northern Ireland and was responsible to the Minister of Home Affairs in the Northern Ireland government for the maintenance of law and order.[13]: 20 

Early years

The polarised political climate in Northern Ireland resulted in violence from both sides of the political and sectarian divide. The lawlessness that affected the region during the early 1920s, and the problems it caused for the RUC, are indicated in a police report drawn up by District Inspector R.R. Spears in February 1923. Referring to the situation in Belfast after July 1921 he stated:

For twelve months after that, the city was in a state of turmoil. The IRA (

Irish Republican Army) was responsible for an enormous number of murders, bombings, shootings and incendiary fires. The work of the police against them was, however, greatly hampered by the fact that the rough element on the Protestant side entered thoroughly into the disturbances, met murder with murder and adopted in many respects the tactics of the rebel gunmen. In the endeavour to cope simultaneously with the warring factions the police efforts were practically nullified. They were quite unable to rely on the restraint of one party while they dealt with the other.[15]

About ninety police officers were killed between 1920 and 1922 in what would become Northern Ireland (see

The Troubles in Northern Ireland (1920–1922)). The security forces were implicated in reprisal killings of Catholics but no convictions ever rendered. Most notable of these incidents were the McMahon killings on 26 March 1922, in which six Catholics were killed; and the Arnon Street killings several days later on 1 April 1922, in which six more Catholics were shot dead in retaliation for the IRA killing of a policeman.[16][17] By the mid-1920s the situation had calmed down; for the next forty-five years the murder rate in Northern Ireland would be lower than in the rest of the UK and the crime detection rate higher.[14]

The 1920s and 1930s were years of economic austerity. Many of Northern Ireland's traditional industries, notably linen and shipbuilding, were in recession, which contributed to the already high level of unemployment. Serious rioting broke out in 1932 in Belfast in protest at inadequate relief for the unemployed.[18] In response to the growth of motorised transport, the RUC Traffic Branch was formed on 1 January 1930. In 1936 the police depot at Enniskillen was formally opened and an £800,000 scheme to create a network of 196 police barracks throughout Northern Ireland by rationalizing or repairing the 224 premises inherited from the RIC was underway.[13]: 22  In May 1937 a new white glass lamp with the RUC crest went up for the first time to replace the RIC crest still on many stations. About the same time the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in Belfast was significantly expanded, with a detective head constable being appointed to head the CID force in each of the five Belfast police districts. There was sporadic IRA activity in the 1930s.

In 1937, on the occasion of the visit of

striking workers, port security, and restrictions on the movement of vehicles and use of petrol.[19]

The RUC was a "reserved occupation", i.e. the police force was deemed essential to the domestic war effort and its members were forbidden to leave to join the other services. The wartime situation gave a new urgency to discussions regarding the appointment of women police. The Ministry of Home Affairs finally gave approval to the enrolment of women as members of the RUC on 16 April 1943, with the first six recruits starting on 15 November. Post-war policies brought about a gradual improvement in the lot of the RUC, interrupted only by a return to hostilities by the IRA

Knock, Belfast and a number of rural barracks
were closed.

"The Troubles"

Picture showing the fortifications of the RUC station in Dungiven.

The

Northern Ireland riots of August 1969, to the British Army being called in to support the civil administration under Operation Banner. Catholics largely turned away from the British Army, who they saw as treating Protestants differently, especially after the Falls Curfew.[20][21]

Reform

The high level of civil unrest led to an exhaustive inquiry into the disturbances in Northern Ireland carried out by

Police Authority designed to be representative of all segments of the community.[25]

Callaghan, later elected Prime Minister, asked Sir Arthur Young, Commissioner of the City of London Police, to be seconded for a year. Young's appointment began the long process of turning the RUC into a British police service. The RUC Reserve was formed as an auxiliary police force, and all military-style duties were handed over to the newly formed Ulster Defence Regiment, which was under military command and replaced the B Specials. Callaghan selected Young, a career policeman, because no other British policeman could match his direct experience of policing acutely unstable societies and of reforming gendarmeries. from 1943 to 1945, he was Director of Public Safety and Director of Security in the military government of Allied-occupied Italy. Later, he had been seconded to the Federation of Malaya at the height of the Malayan Emergency (1952–53) and to the crown colony of Kenya during the Mau Mau rebellion (1954).[26]

First deaths

The first deaths of the Troubles occurred in July 1969. Francis McCloskey, a 67-year-old Catholic civilian, had been found unconscious on 13 July near the

Orange Hall following a police baton charge against a crowd who had been throwing stones at the hall. Witnesses later said they had seen police batoning a figure in the doorway where McCloskey was found, although police claimed that he had been unconscious before the baton charge and may have been hit with a stone. He was taken to hospital and died the following day.[27][28]

On 11 October 1969, Constable Victor Arbuckle was shot dead by loyalists on Belfast's Shankill Road during serious rioting in protest at the recommendations of the Hunt Report. Arbuckle was the first police fatality of the Troubles. In August 1970, two young constables, Donaldson and Millar, died when an abandoned car they were examining near the strongly republican town of Crossmaglen exploded. They became the first security forces victims of the Provisional Irish Republican Army campaign. This campaign involved the targeting of police officers, and continued until the final ceasefire in 1997, as the peace process gained momentum. The last RUC officer killed, Constable Francis O'Reilly (a Catholic), was also killed by loyalists, in a September 1998 bombing during the Drumcree conflict.[27]

Later years

In March 1972, the

Chief Constable, publicly accused unionist politicians of "consorting with paramilitary elements".[29]

Anger over the Anglo-Irish Agreement led to loyalist assaults on more than 500 homes belonging to Catholics and RUC officers during the mid-1980s. At least 150 RUC families were forced to move as a result. In 1998 Chief Constable Ronnie Flanagan stated in an interview on television that he was unhappy with any RUC officers belonging to the Orange Order or any of the other loyal orders. While the RUC refused to give any details on how many officers were members of the Order, thirty-nine RUC officers are listed on the Order's Roll of Honour (of 'Orangemen' killed in the conflict). The size of the RUC was increased on several occasions. At its height, there were 8,500 regular police officers supported by about 5,000 full-time and part-time reserve officers, making it the second largest force in the United Kingdom after the Metropolitan Police in London. The direction and control of the RUC was in the hands in the Chief Constable, who was assisted by two Deputy Chief Constables and nine Assistant Chief Constables. For operational purposes, Northern Ireland was divided into twelve Divisions and thirty-nine Sub-Divisions. RUC ranks, duties, conditions of service and pay were generally in line with those of police forces in Great Britain. [citation needed]

Policing in a divided society

Policing Northern Ireland's divided society proved to be difficult, as each of the main religious blocs (Protestant and Roman Catholic) had different attitudes towards the institutions of the state.[30] To most Ulster Protestants, the state had full legitimacy, as did its institutions, its parliament, its police force and the Crown. Many of Northern Ireland's Catholics, along with their political leaders, believed that partition would only be temporary.[31][32] Many abstained from and/or refused to take part Northern Ireland's institutions for a variety of reasons, including the treatment of Catholic civilians by the Ulster Special Constabulary during the recent conflict and the mistaken belief that Northern Ireland would be ceded to the Free State in the not too distant future.[33][34] Protestant fears of strategically important government services being infiltrated by Catholics disloyal to the new state polarised society and made most Catholics unwilling and/or unable to join either the police or the civil service.[2]

This mindset was referenced by David Trimble:

Ulster Unionists, fearful of being isolated on the island, built a solid house, but it was a cold house for Catholics. And northern nationalists, although they had a roof over their heads, seemed to us as if they meant to burn the house down[35]

In August 1922, Dawson Bates gave the

National Council for Civil Liberties in 1936 concluded that:

[I]t is difficult to escape the conclusion that the attitude of the government renders the police chary of interference with the activities of the Orange Order and its sympathisers.[36][37]

On 4 April 1922, the RIC was disbanded. Three days later, the Civil Authorities (Special Powers) Act (Northern Ireland) 1922 came into force, and the Belfast government, although prohibited from raising or controlling a military force, appointed Major General Frederick Solly-Flood as a military advisor. The RUC was to be 3,000-strong, recruiting 2,000 ex-RIC and 1,000 "A Specials". It was intended that half of the RIC men recruited were to be Catholic, making up a third of positions within the force. However, fewer than half the expected number of Catholics came forward and the balance was made up with more A Specials, who continued to exist as a separate force.[36]

Throughout its existence, republican political leaders and most Roman Catholic clerics discouraged Catholics from joining the RUC.[

Anglo-Irish War largely precluded them from remaining in territory now controlled by their enemies. The percentage of Catholics in the RUC dropped as these men retired over time. [citation needed
]

Notable Catholics in the RUC include RUC Chief Constable Sir James Flanagan, who survived an IRA assassination attempt; Deputy Chief Constable Michael McAtamney; Assistant Chief Constable Cathal Ramsey; Chief Superintendent Frank Lagan,[38] and Superintendents Kevin Benedict Sheehy and Brendan McGuigan. In December 1997, The Independent (London) published a leaked internal RUC document which reported that a third of all Catholic RUC officers had reported suffering religious discrimination and/or harassment from Protestant fellow officers.[39]

Casualties

According to The Thin Green Line – The History of the Royal Ulster Constabulary GC, written by RUC reservist

University of Ulster, however,[40] 301 RUC officers and 18 former or retired RUC officers were killed, totaling 319 fatalities.[41]

The

Chief Superintendent Harry Breen and Superintendent Robert Buchanan, who were ambushed by the Provisional IRA South Armagh Brigade outside Jonesborough, County Armagh, on 20 March 1989. On 4 December 2013, in a report by judge Peter Smithwick in the Smithwick Tribunal (a public inquiry), it was alleged that members of the Republic's police force (Garda Síochána) had colluded in the killing of the two policemen.[42] The last RUC officer killed as a direct result of the conflict, Francis O'Reilly (a Catholic constable), died on 6 October 1998, a month after he had been injured in a Red Hand Defenders pipe-bomb attack in Portadown during the Drumcree conflict.[43]

Criticism

Ill-treatment of children

An Ógra Shinn Féin propaganda sticker calling for the RUC to be disbanded

On 1 July 1992, Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a detailed report, alleging RUC and paramilitary violations against children's rights during the Troubles. Both Catholic and Protestant children alleged regular and severe physical assault and mental harassment at the hands of RUC officers, usually conducted to force a false confession of a crime.[44] In an accompanying statement, HRW cited allegations that:

Police officers and soldiers harass young people on the street hitting, kicking and insulting them. Police officers in interrogation centres insult, trick and threaten youngsters and sometimes physically assault them. Children are locked up in adult detention centres and prisons in shameful conditions. Helsinki Watch heard dozens of stories from children, their parents, lawyers, youth workers and political leaders of children being stopped on the street and hit, kicked and abused again and again by police and soldiers. And seventeen-year-olds told Human Rights Watch Helsinki of severe beatings in detention during interrogations by police.[45]

Patten report

Main article:
Patten Report

The Good Friday Agreement (GFA) of 1998 produced a wholesale reorganisation of inter-community, governmental and policing systems, including a power-sharing executive. The bias, and the under-representation of Catholics and nationalists in the RUC led to, as part of the Good Friday Agreement, a fundamental policing review, headed by Chris Patten, a former British Governor of Hong Kong and Conservative Minister under Margaret Thatcher. The review was published in September 1999. It recommended a wholesale reorganisation of policing, with the Royal Ulster Constabulary being replaced by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), and a drive to recruit Catholics and the adoption of a new crest and cap badge. The PSNI was introduced in November 2001. As part of the change, the police service dropped the word "Royal" from and adopted a new badge that included the crown, harp, and shamrock, an attempt at representation of the major ideologies. [citation needed]

Loyalist collusion

Special Patrol Group

See also: Special Patrol Group (RUC)

The Special Patrol Group was formed in the late 1960s as the Police Reserve Force. The name was changed to avoid confusion with the newly formed part-time Police Reserve in 1970,[2] and was renamed "Divisional Mobile Support Unit" in 1980 after two of its members were convicted of kidnap and murder.[2] The two, John Weir and Billy McCaughey, implicated some of their colleagues in a range of crimes including giving weapons, information and transport to loyalist paramilitaries as well as carrying out shooting and bombing attacks of their own.[46] Weir alleged that senior officers, including Chief Superintendent Harry Breen, were aware of and approved of their activity.

The Stevens Inquiries

Main article: Stevens Inquiries

On 18 April 2003 as part of the

1994 Chinook air crash.[49]

The third Stevens Inquiry began in 1999, and referred to his previous reports when making his recommendations. Stevens' third inquiry focused in detail on only two of the killings in which collusion was alleged; that of

Pat Finucane
in 1989. Stevens used the following criteria as a definition of collusion while conducting his investigation:

On 12 December 2012 the British Prime minister David Cameron admitted a statement to the House of Commons that "shocking levels of collusion occurred in the murder of Finucane."[51]

Police Ombudsman

See also:
Nuala O'Loan § Operation Ballast investigation into collusion

In a report released on 22 January 2007, the Police Ombudsman

Dame Nuala O'Loan stated Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) informers committed serious crimes, including murder, with the full knowledge of their handlers.[52] The report stated that RUC Special Branch
officers created false statements, blocked evidence searches and "baby-sat" suspects during interviews.

Awards

Awards for gallantry for individual officers since 1969 included 16

Queen's Police Medals.[53]

On 12 April 2000, the RUC was awarded the George Cross for bravery,[54] a rare honour which had been awarded collectively only once before, to the island nation of Malta. The Award stated:

For the past 30 years, the Royal Ulster Constabulary has been the bulwark against, and the main target of, a sustained and brutal terrorism campaign. The Force has suffered heavily in protecting both sides of the community from danger – 302 officers have been killed in the line of duty and thousands more injured, many seriously. Many officers have been ostracised by their own community and others have been forced to leave their homes in the face of threats to them and their families. As Northern Ireland reaches a turning point in its political development this award is made to recognise the collective courage and dedication to duty of all of those who have served in the Royal Ulster Constabulary and who have accepted the danger and stress this has brought to them and to their families.[55]

Chief officers

The chief officer of the Royal Irish Constabulary was its

Chief Constable in line with the recommendations of the Hunt Report. Young and six others held the job until the RUC was incorporated to the PSNI. The final incumbent, Sir Ronnie Flanagan, became the first Chief Constable of the PSNI.[citation needed
]

Ranks

Ranks
1922-1930
Inspector-General Deputy Inspector-General County Inspector District Inspector 1st Class District Inspector 2nd Class District Inspector 3rd Class Head Constable Major Head Constable Sergeant Constable
(insignia of a Brigadier) (insignia of a Colonel) (insignia of a Lieutenant-Colonel) (insignia of a Major) (insignia of a Captain) (insignia of a Lieutenant) (insignia of a Sergeant-Major) (equivalent to Staff Sergeant) (insignia of a Sergeant) (serial number)
Ranks
1930-1970
Inspector-General Deputy Inspector-General Commissioner County Inspector District Inspector 1st Class District Inspector 2nd Class District Inspector 3rd Class Head Constable Major Head Constable Sergeant Constable
(insignia of a Lieutenant-General) (insignia of a Major-General) (insignia of a Brigadier) (insignia of a Colonel) (insignia of a Lieutenant-Colonel) (insignia of a Major) (insignia of a Captain) (insignia of a Sergeant-Major) (equivalent to Staff Sergeant) (insignia of a Sergeant) (serial number)
Ranks
1970-2001
Chief Constable
 Deputy Chief Constable Assistant Chief Constable Chief Superintendent Superintendent Chief Inspector Inspector Sergeant Constable Reserve Constable

Equipment

Firearms

References

Footnotes

  1. ^ Following the awarding of the George Cross (GC) in 2000, its supporters have appended post-nominal letters to the name, as Royal Ulster Constabulary, GC (abbreviated RUC GC or RUCGC).

Citations

  1. ^ ONS Geography (8 January 2016). "The Countries of the UK". Office for National Statistics. Office for National Statistics (United Kingdom). Archived from the original on 1 January 2016. Retrieved 26 November 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  2. ^
    ISBN 1-84415-058-5
  3. ^ Weitzer, Ronald. Policing Under Fire: Ethnic Conflict and Police-Community Relations in Northern Ireland. SUNY Press, 1995. pp.72-73
  4. ^ [1] Archived 26 August 2016 at the Wayback Machine, 15 murders linked to police collusion with loyalists.
  5. ^ [2] Archived 2 October 2018 at the Wayback Machine, There was collusion between some police officers and loyalist gunmen who killed six Catholics 22 years ago, a report by NI's Police Ombudsman has said.
  6. ^ "The RUC: Lauded and condemned". BBC News. bbc.co.uk. 31 October 2001. Archived from the original on 29 August 2017. Retrieved 5 June 2007. Condemned by republicans, nationalists and human rights groups for embodying sectarianism and lauded by British security forces as one of the most professional police operations in the world, the Royal Ulster Constabulary is one of the most controversial police forces in the UK.
  7. ^ Number of RUC killed during the Troubles Archived 19 July 2006 at the Wayback Machine, cain.ulst.ac.uk; accessed 22 December 2014.
  8. ^ "CNN Specials - Northern Ireland". 29 August 2007. Archived from the original on 29 August 2007. In 1983, Interpol figures showed that Northern Ireland was the most dangerous place in the world to be a police officer, the risk factor being twice as high as in El Salvador, the second most dangerous.
  9. ^ "Northern Ireland – Identity Crisis for Police". CNN. Archived from the original on 29 August 2007.
  10. ^ Number of people killed by RUC in Northern Ireland Archived 7 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine, cain.ulst.ac.uk; accessed 22 December 2014.
  11. ISBN 978-0748669738
    .
  12. ^ Synopsis of report by Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan Archived 19 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine, BBC.co.uk; accessed 19 September 2014.
  13. ^
    ISBN 978-0-7453-1393-1
    .
  14. ^
    ISBN 1-872076-15-7
    .
  15. ISBN 9780716533771
    – via Google Books.
  16. ISBN 9781851827923
    .
  17. ISBN 978-1-85182-792-3
    .
  18. ISBN 978-1-60846-748-8
    .
  19. ISBN 978-0-901905-69-7
    .
  20. ^ Cochrane, Feargal (2013). Northern Ireland: The Reluctant Peace. Yale University Press. p. 57.
  21. ^ Smith, William (2011). The British State and the Northern Ireland Crisis, 1969–73: From Violence to Power-sharing. US Institute of Peace Press. p. 151.
  22. ^ "Scarman Report on violence and civil disturbances in Northern Ireland in 1969". discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk. The National Archives. 4 April 1972. Archived from the original on 16 September 2017. Retrieved 16 September 2017.
  23. Her Majesty's Stationery Office. Archived from the original on 20 February 2015. Retrieved 25 February 2015 – via Conflict Archive on the Internet
    @ cain.ulst.ac.uk. (11) The rank structure should be reviewed (paragraph 97). (Extract-chapters 1.General Considerations about our Mission) & 10.Conclusions and Recommendations, only)
  24. ^ "1969: Ulster's B Specials to be disbanded". On This Day-10 October. BBC. Archived from the original on 13 November 2012. Retrieved 12 March 2014.
  25. ^ Hunt Report–Summary of Recommendations: (2) "There should be a Police Authority for Northern Ireland, whose membership should reflect the proportions of different groups in the community (paragraphs 87,88)."
  26. ^ Sir Arthur Young biodata, psni.police.uk; accessed 21 February 2014. Archived 8 March 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  27. ^
    ISBN 978-1-84018-504-1
    .
  28. ^ Sutton, Malcolm. "14 July 1969 (re Francis McCloskey)". An Index of Deaths from the Conflict in Ireland. Conflict Archive on the Internet. Archived from the original on 19 February 2012. Retrieved 21 February 2014.
  29. ^ Sutton, Malcolm. "Friday 2 May 1986". A Chronology of the Conflict. Conflict Archive on the Internet. Archived from the original on 14 May 2011. Retrieved 25 February 2014.
  30. ^ Weitzer 1985, 1995
  31. ISBN 978-0-330-42759-3
    . In Northern Ireland itself, nationalists faced some very difficult issues of community, struggle and power from those which faced their southern counterparts ... Many nationalists at the time of partition had assumed the division of Ireland to be a temporary one
  32. ISBN 978-1-107-42234-6
    .
  33. ISBN 978-0-19-923483-7
    .
  34. ISBN 0-85640-764-X
    . Except in Irvinestown and Ballycastle, Nationalists and Sinn Fein refused to meet the Leech commission. The result was that local Unionist parties, with the enthusiastic co-operation of Dawson Bates, were able to dictate the positioning of boundaries with meticulous care to their own complete satisfaction. The results speak for themselves. Since many Catholics abstained in 1924, the best comparison is between the local election results of 1920 and 1927 ... Unionists countered criticism by pointing to the failure of Nationalists and Sinn Fein to make submissions to the Leech commission. Certainly by refusing to take their seats in the Northern Ireland parliament, Nationalists and Sinn Fein not only reinforced the Unionist view that they were intent on bringing down the state but also denied themselves a wider audience and a chance to obtain some redress from Westminster.
  35. ^ Trimble, David (10 December 1998). "Nobel Peace Prize 1998 – Nobel Lecture, Oslo". nobelprize.org. Archived from the original on 24 February 2014. Retrieved 20 February 2014.
  36. ^
    ISBN 0-86104-300-6
    – via Google Books.
  37. ^ Northern Ireland. Parliament. House of Commons (1969). Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) House of Commons Official Report. Vol. 72. H.M. Stationery Office, 1969. p. 926.
  38. ^ Edwards, Ruth Dudley (13 November 2005). "The twists and turns on the road to one rule of law". Sunday Independent. Archived from the original on 25 February 2015. Retrieved 25 February 2015 – via ruthdudleyedwards.co.uk.
  39. ^ Discrimination survey Archived 22 November 2005 at the Wayback Machine; serve.com; accessed 19 February 2014.
  40. ^ Sutton, Malcolm. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". Archived from the original on 19 July 2006. Retrieved 20 July 2006.
  41. ^ policememorial.org.uk Archived 31 October 2009 at the Wayback Machine; accessed 21 February 2014.
  42. ^ Smithwick: Collusion in Bob Buchanan and Harry Breen murders Archived 22 September 2018 at the Wayback Machine, BBC.co.uk; 3 December 2013; accessed 21 February 2014.
  43. ^ CAIN profile of RUC Officer Francis O'Reilly Archived 29 November 2014 at the Wayback Machine, cain.ulst.ac.uk; accessed 20 February 2014.
  44. ^ Children in Northern Ireland: Abused by Security Forces and Paramilitaries, Human Rights Watch Helsinki Archived 5 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, hrw.org; accessed 21 February 2014.
  45. ^ Children in Northern Ireland Archived 28 February 2014 at the Wayback Machine, Human Rights Watch; 1 July 1992; accessed 21 February 2014.
  46. ^ Center for Civil & Human Rights Archived 15 June 2007 at the Wayback Machine, www.nd.edu; accessed 20 February 2014.
  47. ^ Overview and Recommendations document for Stevens 3 is available in PDF format here Archived 6 December 2006 at the Wayback Machine.
  48. ^ For a chronology of the Stevens Inquiries and surrounding events see BBC News, 17 April 2003 available here Archived 25 June 2004 at the Wayback Machine
  49. ISBN 978-0-297-84842-4
  50. ^ Conclusions section of Stevens 3 Overview and Recommendations document, p. 16
  51. ^ Guardian (12 December 2012). "David Cameron admits 'shocking levels of collusion' in Pat Finucane murder". Retrieved 28 November 2021.
  52. ^ Statement by the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland on her investigations into the circumstances surrounding the death of Raymond McCord, Jr. and related matters "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original on 23 September 2021. Retrieved 23 September 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link), bbc.co.uk, 22 January 2007; accessed 22 December 2014.
  53. ^ RUC awards Archived 2 January 2010 at the Wayback Machine, royalulsterconstabulary.org; accessed 21 February 2014.
  54. ^ Queen honours NI police Archived 7 March 2008 at the Wayback Machine, BBC.co.uk; accessed 21 February 2014.
  55. ISBN 978-1-84884-200-7. Archived from the original on 23 September 2021. Retrieved 21 October 2019. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help
    )
  56. ^ Ryder, p. 108
  57. ^ The RUC The Black and Blue Book By Denis Faul, Raymond Murray · 1975
  58. ^ Death in the Fields The IRA in East Tyrone By Jonathan Trigg · 2023
  59. ^ The RUC A Force Under Fire By Chris Ryder · 1990
  60. ^ https://www.patfinucanecentre.org/sites/default/files/2017-02/jordan.pdf
  61. ^ "Ruger Mini 14 Pouch". 22 February 2021.
  62. ^ The Sterling Submachine Gun By Matthew Moss · 2018
  63. ^ "Fears after police machine-gun is lost". Belfasttelegraph.co.uk. 18 May 2000.

Bibliography

External links

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