Fateful Split: Catholics and the Royal Ulster Constabulary. Dieser Artikel ist nicht verfügbar.Fateful Split: Catholics and the Royal Ulster Constabulary

Reporting on the violence and civil disturbances in Northern Ireland in 1969, which marked the start of the modern troubles, the tribunal of inquiry chaired by Mr. Justice Scarman concluded: 'Thus there developed the fateful split between the Catholic community and the police. Faced with the distrust of a substantial proportion of the whole population and short of numbers, the RUC had (as some senior officers appreciated) lost the capacity to control a major riot. Their difficulties naturally led them, when the emergency arose, to have recourse to methods such as baton charges, CS gas and gunfire, which were sure ultimately to stoke even higher the fires of resentment and hatred.'
In reality those fires had been smouldering dangerously ever since the partitioning of Ireland and the formation of the RUC in 1922. With the approval and financial support of the British government, the Northern Ireland Unionists were allowed to raise a 'swollen constabulary' and put thousands of Protestants under arms: Abandoned by the south, the Catholic minority in the north regarded the police as an instrument of repression and discrimination.
Despite the abolition of the notorious B Specials in 1969 and periodic efforts to reform it throughout the years of conflict afterwards, the RUC continued to be dogged by antagonism and dispute and never managed to bridge the deep sectarian fault-line dividing the people of Northern Ireland. At Drumcree in July 1996, when the RUC surrendered to force of numbers and allowed the Protestant Orange Order's disputed march along the Catholic Garvaghy Road, it reached the point of no return. Three years later, in the wake of the historic Belfast Agreement, the Patten Commission recommended a comprehensive new beginning for policing in Northern Ireland.
In recognition of its unparalleled bravery and sacrifice under fire - terrorists murdered 302 police officers and another 13,000 were injured during the years of conflict - the RUC was awarded the George Cross in 2000. A year later it became the Police Service of Northern Ireland as part of a major programme designed, at last, to heal the fateful split and reform what the chief constable described as its 'white, male, Protestant' culture.
Drawing on previously unpublished material from the National Archives in London, the Public Record Office in Belfast and on further research in Britain, Ireland and the United States, Chris Ryder has written an authoritative and revealing new history of a unique police force and its seventy-nine-year record of courage and controversy.

Chris Ryder is a freelance journalist writing regularly for publications including the Sunday Times and Irish Times, and was formerly Northern Ireland Correspondent for the Daily Telegraph.