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Royal Ulster Constabulary
Abbreviation	RUC
220x140px
Badge of the Royal Ulster Constabulary.
Agency overview
Formed	1 June 1922
Preceding agency	Royal Irish Constabulary
Dissolved	2001
Superseding agency	Police Service of Northern Ireland
Legal personality	Governmental: Government agency
Jurisdictional structure
National agency	Northern Ireland, UK
Map of Royal Ulster Constabulary's jurisdiction.
Size	13,843 km²
General nature	Law enforcement Local civilian police
Operational structure

The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) was the name of the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2000. Following the awarding of the George Cross in 2000, it was subsequently known as the Royal Ulster Constabulary GC. It was founded on 1 June 1922 out of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC).^[1] At its peak the force had around 8,500 officers with a further 4,500 who were members of the RUC Reserve. During the Troubles, over 300 members of the RUC were killed and almost 9,000 injured in paramilitary assassinations or attacks, mostly by the Provisional IRA, which made the RUC (in 1983) the most dangerous police force in the world of which to be a member.^[2][3]

It became the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) in 2001. The RUC was renamed and reformed, as is provided for by the final version of the Police (Northern Ireland) Act 2000.^[4] The RUC was continually accused by sections of the minority nationalist community and human rights groups of one-sided policing and discrimination, as well as for its collusion with loyalist paramilitaries (see below). Conversely, the RUC was praised by other security forces as one of the most professional policing operations in the world.^[5] The allegations regarding collusion have prompted several inquiries, the most recent of which was published by Police Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan. No RUC Officer has been charged with any offence as a result of this report.

History[link]

Early history[link]

Under section 60 of the Government of Ireland Act 1920, Northern Ireland was placed under the jurisdiction of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC). On 31 January 1921, Richard Dawson Bates, the first Minister of Home Affairs for Northern Ireland, appointed a committee of inquiry on police organisation in Northern Ireland. 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).

An interim report was published on 28 March 1922, the first official report of the new Parliament of Northern Ireland, and it was subsequently accepted by the Northern Ireland Government. On 29 April 1922, King George V granted to the force the name Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC). In May, the Parliament of Northern Ireland passed the Constabulary Act 1922 and the RUC officially came into existence on 1 June. The headquarters of the force was established at Atlantic Buildings, Waring Street, in Belfast, and became the first Inspector General. The uniform remained essentially the same as that of the RIC - a dark green, as opposed to the dark blue worn by the other British police forces and the Garda Síochána. A new badge of the Red Hand of Ulster on a St George's cross surrounded by a chain was designed but proved unpopular and was never uniformly adopted. Eventually the Harp & Crown insignia of the Order of St Patrick as worn by the RIC was readopted.^[6]

From the beginning it had a dual role, unique among British police forces, of providing a normal law enforcement police service while protecting Northern Ireland from the activities of proscribed groups. For personal protection its members were armed as the RIC had been.

The RUC was limited by statute to a 3,000-strong force. Initially, a third of positions within the force were reserved for Roman Catholics - a reflection of the proportions of the population of Northern Ireland at that time. The first two thousand places were filled quickly. Due to a slow recruitment rate from Catholics, the force resorted to normal recruitment in order to fill the remaining vacancies. As a result, representation of Catholics in the RUC never exceeded 20% and, by the 1960s, it had a Catholic representation of 12%.^[7][8]

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 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.

Neither the newly established Irish Free State nor Northern Ireland had an auspicious beginning. The polarised political climate in Northern Ireland resulted in violence from both sides of the political and religious divide. The lawlessness that affected Northern Ireland in the period of the early twenties, and the problems it caused for the police, 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 states: "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". About 90 police officers were killed between 1920 and 1922 in what would become Northern Ireland. The security forces were also reportedly implicated in reprisal killings of Catholics, notably the McMahon Murders on 26 March 1922, in which six Catholics were killed and the Arnon Street Massacre on 1 April, where another six were shot dead in retaliation for the IRA killing of a policeman.^[9][10]

By the mid-twenties the situation had calmed down. Northern Ireland enjoyed a peace, interrupted only occasionally, for the next forty-five years. The murder rate was lower than in the rest of the UK and the crime detection rate was higher.^[11] The 1920s and 1930s were years of economic austerity. Many of Northern Ireland's traditional industries, notably linen and shipbuilding, were in recession. This contributed to the already high level of unemployment. Serious rioting broke out in 1932 in Belfast in protest at the inadequate nature of Poor Law relief and the threat of rioting was ever present.^{[citation needed]}

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 under way. 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.^{[citation needed]}

Sporadic IRA activity in the 1930s also required that the RUC be vigilant. In 1937, on the occasion of the visit of the King and Queen to the province, the IRA blew up a number of customs posts. In 1939. an IRA bombing campaign was launched in England. This campaign effectively ended on the 25 August, a few days before the outbreak of the Second World War. The war brought additional responsibilities for the police. The security of the land border with neutral Ireland was one important consideration. Allied to this was a greatly increased incidence of smuggling due to rationing, to the point where police virtually became revenue officers. There were also many wartime regulations to be enforced, including 'black-out' requirements on house and vehicle lights, the protection of post office and bank monies, and restrictions on the movement of vehicles and use of petrol. The RUC was a 'reserved occupation', i.e. the police force was deemed essential to the war effort on the Home Front and its members were forbidden to leave to join the other services.^{[citation needed]}

The wartime situation gave a new urgency to the 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 the gradual improvement in the lot of the RUC, interrupted only by a return to hostilities by the IRA. The IRA's border campaign of 1957-1962 killed seven RUC officers. The force was streamlined in the 1960s, a new headquarters was opened at Knock in Belfast and a number of rural barracks were closed. In 1967, the 42 hour work week was introduced.

The Troubles[link]

The civil rights protests at the end of the 1960s, and the reaction to them, marked the beginning of the Troubles. The RUC continued its traditional pro-unionist role when it found itself confronting marchers protesting at the gerrymandering of local governmental electoral wards and the discrimination in local housing allocation. Many of these Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association protests were banned or truncated by the government of Northern Ireland. The B Specials, proved highly controversial to some, with the unit seen by some nationalists as more anti-Catholic and anti-nationalist than the RUC, which, unlike the B Specials, did attract some Catholic recruits. The severe pressure on the RUC and B-Specials led, during the Northern Ireland riots of August 1969, to the British Army being called in to support the civil administration under Operation Banner. Initially the army was welcomed by Catholic nationalists in preference to the RUC and in particular the B Specials (who were stood down on 30 April 1970). The Catholics mostly turned away from the Army over perceptions of unequal treatment and abuse, such as the events at Duke Street in Derry and Burntollet Bridge.

The high level of civil disturbance led to an exhaustive inquiry into the disturbances in Northern Ireland carried out by the distinguished English judge Lord Scarman, the then Home Secretary, James Callaghan, called on Lord Hunt to assess and advise on the policing situation. He was assisted in this task by Sir Robert Mark, who later became Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service, and Sir James Robertson, the then Chief Constable of Glasgow.

The report was published on 3 October 1969 and most of the recommendations subsequently accepted and implemented. The aim being a complete reorganisation of the RUC, with the aim of both modernizing the force and bringing it into line with the other police forces in the UK. This meant the introduction of the British rank and promotion structure, the creation of 12 Police Divisions and 39 Sub-Divisions, the disbandment of the Ulster Special Constabulary,^[12] and the creation of a Police Authority representative of the whole community.

Callaghan 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.^{[citation needed]}

Callaghan picked 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 Mau Mau (1954).^[13]

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 Dungiven 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.^[14][15] 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. He became 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 Crossmaglen exploded. They became the first victims of the re-organized Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) 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 police officer to be murdered was Constable O'Reilly (a Catholic), who was killed by a Loyalist bomb in September 1998 during the Drumcree conflict.)

In March 1972, the Government of Northern Ireland resigned and the parliament was prorogued. Northern Ireland subsequently came under direct rule from Westminster with its own Secretary of State, who had overall responsibility for security policy. Starting in late 1982, a number of IRA and Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) men were shot dead by the RUC. This led to accusations of a shoot-to-kill policy by the RUC. In September 1983, four officers were charged with murder in connection with the deaths. Although all were subsequently found not guilty, the British government set up the Stalker Inquiry to further investigate.

In May 1986 John Hermon, then Chief Constable, publicly accused Unionist politicians of "consorting with paramilitary elements". Anger at the Anglo-Irish Agreement led to unionists attacking over five hundred homes, of Catholics and RUC officers in the mid-1980s. At least 150 RUC families were forced to move as a result.^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]} 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).^{[citation needed]}

The size of the RUC 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[link]

Policing Northern Ireland's divided society proved difficult, as each community (nationalist and unionist) had different attitudes towards the institutions of the state.^[16] To unionists, the state had full legitimacy, as did its institutions, its parliament, the Crown and its police force. Northern Ireland's Catholics, overwhelmingly nationalists, had been told by their leaders that Partition was temporary.^[17] They and their politicians had therefore refused to take part in the Province's institutions in the mistaken belief that Northern Ireland would be ceded to the South.^[18] Unionist fears of fundamental government services being infiltrated by Catholics disloyal to the new state polarised society and made many Catholics unwilling or unable to join the police or civil service.^[19]

This mindset was expressed by David Trimble in the following terms: "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".^[20]

From a nationalist perspective, the tone was set for the force at an early stage, when Dawson Bates in August 1922 gave the Orange Order special permission for an Orange Lodge to be formed in the RUC. In April 1923 he would speak at its first reunion, later however involvement in politics was "discouraged". In 1924 John Nixon a District Inspector would be dismissed after widespread complaints after making a "fiercely Unionist" speech at an Orange Order function. Despite this the force's character had been fixed according to Irish nationalist activist and author Michael Farrell. According to Farrell they were looked upon by most Catholics as simply the “coercive arm of the Unionist Party”.^{[citation needed]} The minister with responsibility was an Orangeman, with a police Orange Lodge; therefore he contends the RUC could scarcely be unbiased where the Unionist Party or the Orange Order was concerned. An enquiry by the British National Council for Civil Liberties in 1936 stated: "[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".^[21]

On 4 April 1922 the RIC was disbanded. On 7 April the Civil Authorities (Special Powers) Act (Northern Ireland) 1922 came into force, and the Belfast government though prohibited from raising or controlling a military force appointed Major General Solly Flood as a military advisor.^[22]

The RUC was to be 3,000-strong, recruiting 2,000 ex-RIC and 1,000 A Specials. Half of the RIC men recruited were to be Catholic, making up a third of positions within the force. Fewer than half the required number of Catholics came forward and the balance was made up with more A Specials, who continued to exist as a separate force.^[22]

Throughout its existence, republican political leaders and Roman Catholic clergy urged members of the nationalist community not to join the RUC. Social Democratic and Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP) and critic of the force Seamus Mallon, who later served as Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland, stated that the RUC was "97% Protestant and 100% unionist".

The RUC did attract some Roman Catholic members. These men were for the most part former members of the RIC, who came north from the Irish Republic after the Irish Free State was set up. The bitterness of the fighting in the Anglo-Irish War precluded them from remaining in territory now controlled by their former enemies. The percentage of Catholics in the RUC dropped as these men retired over time.^{[citation needed]} IRA attacks on Catholics who joined the RUC, and the perception that the police force was "a Protestant force for a Protestant people" meant that Catholic participation in the Royal Ulster Constabulary always remained disproportionally small in terms of the Catholic percentage of the overall Northern Irish population. Notable exceptions include RUC Chief Constable Sir James Flanagan KBE (Derry), Deputy Chief Constable Michael McAtamney, Assistant Chief Constable Cathal Ramsey, Chief Superintendent Frank Lagan^[23] as well as RUC Superintendents Kevin Benedict Sheehy (Glengormley) and Brendan McGuigan.

In December 1997, London's The Independent newspaper published a leaked internal RUC document which reported that a third of all Catholic RUC officers had suffered religious discrimination and/or harassment from Protestant fellow officers.^[24]

Casualties[link]

Royal Ulster Constabulary, 1999. Troubled Images Exhibition, Linen Hall Library, Belfast, August 2010

According to official sources, 314 officers were killed and over 9000 were injured during the history of the RUC. All but 12 of the dead were killed in the Troubles (1969 to 1998), of whom 277 were killed in attacks by Irish republican groupings.^[25] However, according to the CAIN project at the University of Ulster,^[26] 301 active RUC officers were killed and 18 ex-RUC officers, which would total 319 fatalities during the Troubles.

Twenty former RUC officers were killed by acts of terrorism after leaving the service while two members of the Police Authority and three of its employees were killed between 1972 and 1994.^[27]

The Newry mortar attack by the Provisional IRA on an RUC station in 1985, which killed nine officers, resulted in the highest number of deaths inflicted on the RUC in one incident.

The two highest-ranking RUC officers to be killed in the Troubles were Chief Superintendent Harry Breen and Superintendent Robert Buchanan when they were ambushed by the Provisional IRA South Armagh Brigade outside Jonesborough, County Armagh, on 20 March 1989.

The last RUC officer to be killed as a direct result of the conflict died on the 6 October 1998, a month after he had been injured in a Red Hand Defenders pipe-bomb attack in Portadown.^[28]

Criticism[link]

Ill-treatment of children[link]

On 1 July 1992, Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a detailed report on 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.^[29] In an accompanying statement, HRW said:

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. The extent of the violence inflicted on children is appalling. 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 Helsinki Watch of severe beatings in detention during interrogations by police.^[30]

No response has been issued by the British Government or by Northern Ireland paramilitaries, despite requests from various European bodies and human rights organisations.^[29]

Patten report[link]

The Good Friday Agreement (1998), produced a wholesale reorganisation of inter-community, governmental and policing systems, including a power-sharing executive with David Trimble and the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party's (SDLP) Seamus Mallon (later replaced by new party leader Mark Durkan) as co-chairmen. The perceived bias, and the clear under-representation of Catholics and nationalists in the RUC^{[citation needed]} led to, as part of the Good Friday Agreement, a fundamental policing review, headed by Chris Patten, a former Hong Kong Governor and British 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 renamed the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), and a greater drive to recruit Catholic recruits and should adopt a new crest and cap badge.^{[citation needed]}

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) was introduced in November 2001. As part of the change, the police service dropped the word "Royal" from everyday usage and adopted a new badge that included the crown, harp, and shamrock, an attempt at shared identification with both communities.^{[citation needed]}

Loyalist collusion[link]

Special Patrol Group[link]

Elements of the RUC are alleged to have colluded extensively with loyalist paramilitaries throughout the 30-year conflict in Northern Ireland. Particularly prominent in this regard were the actions of the specialist anti-terrorist unit, the Special Patrol Group. This unit was formed in the early 1970s and was disbanded in 1980 after two of its members were convicted of terrorist offences including kidnap and murder. The two, John Weir and Billy McCaughey implicated 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.^[31]

The Stevens Inquiry[link]

On 18 April 2003 as part of the third report into collusion between Loyalist paramilitaries, RUC, and British Army, Sir John Stevens published an Overview and Recommendations document (Stevens 3).^[32] Stevens intention was to make recommendations which arose from serious shortcomings he had identified in all three Enquiries.^[33] In his autobiography, Stevens was at pains to point out the outstanding loyalty and shared dedication to justice that he experienced from many RUC officers. He mentions many names including Detective Superintendent Maurice Neely, who died in the 1994 Chinook air crash.^[34]

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 murders in which collusion is alleged; the murder of Brian Adam Lambert in 1987 & the killing of Pat Finucane in 1989.

Stevens used the following criteria as a definition of collusion while conducting his investigation:

• The failure to keep records or the existence of contradictory accounts which could limit the opportunity to rebut serious allegations.
• The absence of accountability which could allow acts or omissions by individuals to go undetected.
• The withholding of information which could impede the prevention of crime and the arrest of suspects.
• The unlawful involvement of agents in murder which could imply that the security forces sanction killings.^[35]

Noted in the report was that as a result of the Stevens 3 inquiries and up to the date of publication there had been 144 arrests with 94 people convicted, along with fifty-seven separate reports submitted to the Northern Ireland Director of Public Prosecutions.

Despite an investigation that stretched almost 20 years no RUC Officer (or latterly, no PSNI Officer) has ever been charged with any offence.

Police Ombudsman[link]

In a report released on the 22 January 2007, the Police Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan stated Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) informers committed serious crimes, including murder, with the full knowledge of their handlers.^[36] The report stated Special Branch officers created false statements, blocked evidence searches and "baby-sat" suspects during interviews. Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) councillor and former Police Federation chairman Jimmy Spratt said if the report "had had one shred of credible evidence then we could have expected charges against former Police Officers. There are no charges, so the public should draw their own conclusion, the report is clearly based on little fact".^[37] However, Northern Ireland Secretary of State Peter Hain said that he was "convinced that at least one prosecution will arise out of today's report".^[38]

Awards[link]

Awards for gallantry for individual officers since 1969 included 16 George Medals, 103 Queen's Gallantry Medals, 111 Queen's Commendations for Bravery and 69 Queen's Police Medals.^[39]

On 12 April 2000, the RUC was awarded the George Cross for bravery in dealing with terrorist threat,^[40] a rare honour which had only been awarded collectively 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."

Chief officers[link]

The chief officer of the Royal Irish Constabulary was its Inspector-General (the last of whom, Sir Thomas J. Smith served from 11 March 1920 until partition in 1922). Between 1922 and 1969 the position of Inspector-General of the RUC was held by five officers, the last being Sir Arthur Young, who was seconded for a year from the City of London Police to implement the Hunt Report and disarm the police and disband the Ulster Special Constabulary ('B' Specials). Under Young the title was changed to 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 new Police Service. The final incumbent, Sir Ronnie Flanagan, became the first Chief Constable of the PSNI.

• Inspector-General Sir Charles George Wickham, from June 1922.
• Inspector-General Sir Richard Pim, from August 1945.
• Inspector-General Sir Albert Kennedy, from January 1961.
• Inspector-General J.A. Peacock, from February 1969.
• Inspector-General Sir Arthur Young, from November 1969.
• Chief Constable Sir Graham Shillington, from November 1970.
• Chief Constable Sir James Flanagan, from November 1973.
• Chief Constable Sir Kenneth Newman, from May 1976.
• Chief Constable Sir John Hermon, from January 1980.
• Chief Constable Sir Hugh Annesley, from June 1989.
• Chief Constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan, from October 1996 - November 2001, continuing as Chief Constable of the PSNI until April 2002

Ranks[link]

1922 to 1930[link]

• Inspector-General (insignia of a Brigadier)
• Deputy Inspector-General (insignia of a Colonel)
• County Inspector (insignia of a Lieutenant-Colonel)
• District Inspector 1st Class (insignia of a Major)
• District Inspector 2nd Class (insignia of a Captain)
• District Inspector 3rd Class (insignia of a Lieutenant)
• Head Constable Major (insignia of a Sergeant-Major)
• Head Constable (equivalent to Staff Sergeant)
• Sergeant (insignia of a Sergeant)
• Constable (serial number)

1930 to 1970[link]

• Inspector-General (insignia of a Lieutenant-General)
• Deputy Inspector-General (insignia of a Major-General)
• Commissioner (insignia of a Brigadier)
• County Inspector (insignia of a Colonel)
• District Inspector 1st Class (insignia of a Lieutenant-Colonel)
• District Inspector 2nd Class (insignia of a Major)
• District Inspector 3rd Class (insignia of a Captain)
• Head Constable Major (insignia of a Sergeant-Major)
• Head Constable (equivalent to Staff Sergeant)
• Sergeant (insignia of a Sergeant)
• Constable (serial number)

In 1970, the military-style rankings and insignia were dropped in favour of the standard UK police ranks.

1970 to 2001[link]

• Chief Constable
• Deputy Chief Constable
• Assistant Chief Constable
• Chief Superintendent
• Superintendent
• Chief Inspector
• Inspector
• Sergeant
• Constable
• Reserve Constable^[41]

Equipment[link]

Vehicles:

• Hotspur, Tangi Land Rover
• Shorland armoured car
• Firearms are used by Special Firearms Unit

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Weitzer, Ronald, 1985. "Policing a Divided Society: Obstacles to Normalization in Northern Ireland," Social Problems, v. 33 (October), pp. 41–55.
• Weitzer, Ronald, 1995. Policing Under Fire: Ethnic Conflict and Police-Community Relations in Northern Ireland (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press).
• Chris Ryder (1989, 1992, 1997), The RUC: A force under fire. London: Mandarin. ISBN 978-0-7493-2379-0.
• Graham Ellison, Jim Smyth (2000), The Crowned Harp: Policing Northern Ireland. London: Pluto Press. ISBN 978-0-7453-1393-1.

External links[link]

• Police Service of Northern Ireland
• Policing - Details of Source Material, CAIN, University of Ulster
• RUC GC Foundation
• Royal Ulster Constabulary GC Memorial Website
• RUC Roll of Honour

Ulster Ulaidh / Cúige Uladh Ulstèr
Flag
Sovereign states	United Kingdom Ireland
Counties	Antrim (UK) Armagh (UK) Cavan (IE) Donegal (IE) Down (UK) Fermanagh (UK) Londonderry (UK) Monaghan (IE) Tyrone (UK)
Government
• Teachtaí Dála & MPs	8 DUP MPs 8 Sinn Féin TDs/MPs 5 Fine Gael TDs 3 SDLP MPs 2 Fianna Fáil TDs 1 Alliance MP 2 Independent TDs/MPs
Area
• Total	21,552 km2 (8,275 sq mi)
Population (2011 estimate)
• Total	2,106,296[a]
a. ^ The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency[1] estimate for 2011 combined with the preliminary results of Census of Ireland 2011 for Ulster (part of).[2]

Ulster (Irish: Ulaidh or Cúige Uladh, Ulster Scots: Ulstèr^[3][4][5] or Ulster)^[6][7][8] is one of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island. In ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" Irish: rí ruirech. In modern times, clusters of counties have been attributed to certain provinces but these clusters have no legal status. The province itself, while enjoying common usage and forming a strong part of local identity, has no official function for local government purposes.

Ulster is composed of nine counties. Six of these (almost 57% of the land area) make up Northern Ireland: Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry and Tyrone. The three remaining counties (about 43% of the land area) are in the Republic of Ireland: Cavan, Donegal and Monaghan.

Terminology[link]

The name Ulster derives from the Irish Cúige Uladh (IPA: [ˈkuːɟ ˈʌlˠu, ˈʌlˠi]) meaning "The fifth of Uladh", a reference to the five regions into which ancient Ireland was divided. In the English language, the first part of the name ("Ul")refers to the Ulaidh tribes inhabiting this northernmost region. The latter part of the name ("ster") derives either from the Irish tír or the Old Norse staðr, both of which translate as "land" or "territory".

Ulaidh (or Cúige Uladh) has historically been anglicized as Ulagh or Ullagh^[9] and Latinized as Ulidia or Ultonia.^[10] The latter two have yielded the terms Ulidian and Ultonian. The Irish word for someone or something from Ulster is Ultach. Words that have been used in English are Ullish and Ulsterman/Ulsterwoman.

Northern Ireland is often referred to as 'Ulster',^[11] despite including only six of Ulster's nine counties. This usage is most common amongst people in Northern Ireland who are unionist,^[12] although it is also used by the media throughout the United Kingdom.^[13][14] Some people, mainly Irish nationalists, object to this use of the term.^[12]

Geography and demographics[link]

Ulster (coloured) showing the Northern Ireland part in pink and the Republic of Ireland part in green

Ulster has a population of just over 2 million people and an area of 21,552 square kilometres (8,321 sq mi). Its biggest city, Belfast has an urban area of over half a million inhabitants. Six of Ulster's nine counties, Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry and Tyrone, form Northern Ireland and remained part of the United Kingdom after the partition of Ireland in 1921. Three Ulster counties, Cavan, Donegal and Monaghan, form part of the Republic of Ireland. About half of Ulster's population lives in Counties Antrim and Down. Across the nine counties, according to the aggregate UK 2001 Census for Northern Ireland, and Irish 2002 Census for counties Cavan, Donegal and Monaghan, there is a very slim Catholic plurality over Protestant (49% against 48%), but not an overall majority (people of neither religion, "no religion" or those "not stating" religion making up the balance). The traditional counties of Northern Ireland are now ceremonial, with day-to-day administration in 26 districts

The biggest lake in Ireland, and in the United Kingdom, Lough Neagh, lies in eastern Ulster. The province's highest point, Slieve Donard (848 metres (2,782 ft)), stands in County Down. The most northerly point in Ireland, Malin Head, is in County Donegal, as are the sixth-highest (601 metres (1,972 ft)) sea cliffs in Europe, at Slieve League. The longest river in Ireland, the Shannon, rises at the Shannon Pot in County Cavan with underground tributaries from County Fermanagh. Volcanic activity in eastern Ulster led to the formation of the Antrim Plateau and the Giant's Causeway, one of the island's three UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The geographical centre of Ulster lies between the villages of Pomeroy and Carrickmore in County Tyrone. In terms of area, County Donegal is the largest county in all of Ulster. The two largest cities in the province are Belfast and Derry. Belfast is Ireland's second largest city, and the largest in Northern Ireland.

Access and transport[link]

Air access[link]

The province's main airport is Belfast International Airport (popularly called Aldergrove Airport), which is located at Aldergrove, near Antrim Town. George Best Belfast City Airport (sometimes referred to as "the City Airport" or "the Harbour Airport") is another, smaller airport in the same which is located at Sydenham. The City of Derry Airport is located at Eglinton on the eastern outskirts of the city of Derry serving the city and the counties of Londonderry, western Tyrone and eastern Donegal. The west Donegal Gaeltacht area is served by Donegal Airport (Irish: Aerfort Dhún na nGall. Popularly known as Carrickfinn Airport), which is located in The Rosses.

Rail access[link]

The majority of the railway lines operational today are run by Northern Ireland Railways (N.I.R.). The two most important lines are: firstly, the Belfast-Derry railway line connecting Derry's Waterside Station, via Coleraine, with Belfast Central and Belfast Great Victoria Street; and secondly, the jointly operated Enterprise run by N.I.R. and Iarnród Éireann, connecting Belfast Central to Dublin Connolly.

Main railway lines linking to and from Belfast Great Victoria Street and Belfast Central are:

• The Derry Line and the Portrush Branch.
• The Larne Line
• The Bangor Line
• The Portadown Line

The historic Great Northern Railway of Ireland would have connected the counties that have no mainline railway at present.

Ulster's counties without mainline railways are County Cavan, County Monaghan, County Fermanagh, County Tyrone and County Donegal. Waterside Station in Derry is the closest railway station to County Donegal.

Counties[link]

Counties shaded in grey are in the Republic of Ireland. Counties shaded in pink are in Northern Ireland.

Largest settlements[link]

Settlements in Ulster with at least 25,000 inhabitants, listed in order of population:

• Belfast (276,459)
• Derry Urban Area (90,663)
• Bangor (76,403)
• Lisburn (71,465)
• Newtownabbey (62,056)
• Craigavon Urban Area (57,685)
• Portadown (30,000)
• Ballymena (28,717)
• Newtownards (27,821)
• Newry (27,433)
• Carrickfergus (27,201)
• Lurgan (25,000)

Languages and dialects[link]

Most people in Ulster speak English. Irish is the next most commonly spoken language. The language is taught in all schools in the counties that are part of the Republic. In responses to the 2001 census in Northern Ireland 10% of the population had "some knowledge of Irish",^[15] 4.7% to "speak, read, write and understand" Irish.^[15] Large parts of County Donegal are Gaeltacht areas where Irish is the first language and some people in west Belfast also speak Irish, especially in the 'Gaeltacht Quarter'.^[16] The dialect of Irish (Gaeilge) most commonly spoken in Ulster (especially throughout Northern Ireland and County Donegal) is Gaeilge Thír Chonaill or Donegal Irish, also known as Gaeilge Uladh or Ulster Irish. Donegal Irish has many similarities to Scottish Gaelic. Cantonese forms the third most common language, mostly due to the considerable Chinese community of Belfast, the province's largest city. Ulster Scots (a dialect of Scots which is also sometimes known by the neologism Ullans) is also spoken in County Down and The Ards, County Antrim, County Londonderry and County Donegal.^[17]

Prehistory[link]

The archaeology of Ulster, formerly called Ulandia, gives examples of "ritual enclosures", such as the "Giant's Ring" near Belfast, which is an earth bank about 590 feet in diameter and 15 feet high, in the centre of which there is a dolmen (Riordain, 66).^[18]

History and politics[link]

Early history[link]

Ulster is one of the four Irish provinces. Its name derives from the Irish language Cúige Uladh (pronounced "Kooi-gah UH-loo"), meaning "'fifth' of the Ulaidh", named for the ancient inhabitants of the region.

The province's early story extends further back than written records and survives mainly in legends such as the Ulster Cycle.

In early medieval Ireland, the Uí Néill dynasty displaced the Ulaidh and dominated Ulster from their base in Tír Eóghain, most of which forms modern County Tyrone. Among the High Kings of Ireland were Áed Findliath (died 879), Niall Glúndub (died 919), and Domnall ua Néill (died 980), all of the Cenél nEógain branch of the Uí Néill. Their descendants took the surname Mac Lochlainn (McLaughlin), ruling the kingdom of Ailech.

A bronze statue commemorating The Flight of the Earls in County Donegal.

Domnall Ua Lochlainn (died 1121) and Muirchertach Mac Lochlainn (died 1166) were of this dynasty. The Mac Lochlainn were in 1241 overthrown by their cousins, the clan Ó Néill (see O'Neill dynasty). The Ó Néill's were from then on established as Ulster's most powerful Gaelic family.

The Ó Domhnaill (O'Donnell) dynasty were Ulster's second most powerful clan from the early thirteenth-century through to the beginning of the seventeenth-century. The O'Donnells ruled over Tír Chonaill (most of modern County Donegal) in West Ulster.

After the Norman invasion of Ireland in the twelfth century, the east of the province fell by conquest to Norman barons, first De Courcy (died 1219), then Hugh de Lacy (1176–1243), who founded the Earldom of Ulster based on the modern counties of Antrim and Down.

However, by the end of the 14th century the Earldom had collapsed and Ulster had become the only Irish province completely outside of English control.

In the 1600s Ulster was the last redoubt of the traditional Gaelic way of life, and following the defeat of the Irish forces in the Nine Years War (1594–1603) at the battle of Kinsale (1601), Elizabeth I's English forces succeeded in subjugating Ulster and all of Ireland.

The Gaelic leaders of Ulster, the O'Neills and O'Donnells, finding their power under English suzerainty limited, decamped en masse in 1607 (the Flight of the Earls) to Roman Catholic Europe. This allowed the English Crown to plant Ulster with more loyal English and Scottish planters, a process which began in earnest in 1610.

Plantations and civil wars[link]

The Plantation of Ulster (Irish: Plandáil Uladh) was the organised colonisation (or plantation) of Ulster by people from Great Britain (especially Presbyterians from Scotland). Private plantation by wealthy landowners began in 1606,^[19][20][21] while the official plantation controlled by King James I of England (who was also King James VI of Scots) began in 1609. All land owned by Irish chieftains, the Ó Neills and Ó Donnells (along with those of their supporters), who fought against the English Crown in the Nine Years War, were confiscated and used to settle the colonists. The Counties Tyrconnell, Tyrone, Fermanagh, Cavan, Coleraine and Armagh comprised the official Colony^[22] however most of the counties including the most heavily colonized Counties Antrim and Down were privately colonised.^[19][20][21] These counties, though not officially designated as subject to Plantation, had suffered violent de-populatation during the previous wars and proved attractive to Private Colonialists from nearby Britain.

The official reason for the Plantation is said to have been to pay for the costly Nine Years' War,^[23] but this view was not shared by all in the new 'British' establishment of the time, most notably the English Crown-appointed Attorney-General for Ireland in 1609, Sir John Davies:

A barbarous country must be first broken by a war before it will be capable of good government ; and when it is fully subdued and conquered, if it be not well planted and governed after the conquest, it will eftsoons return to the former barbarism^[24]

The Plantation of Ulster continued well into the 18th century, interrupted only by the Irish Rebellion of 1641. This Rebellion was initially led by Sir Phelim O'Neill (Irish: Sir Féilim Ó Néill), and was intended to overthrow British rule rapidly, but quickly degenerated into attacks on Colonialists, in which dispossessed Irish slaughtered thousands of the Colonialists. In the ensuing wars (1641–1653, fought against the background of civil war in England, Scotland and Ireland), Ulster became a battleground between the Colonialists and the native Irish. In 1646, an Irish army under command by Owen Roe O'Neill (Irish: Eoghan Ruadh Ó Néill) inflicted a defeat on a Scottish Covenanter army at Benburb in County Tyrone, but the native Irish forces failed to follow up their victory and the war lapsed into stalemate. The war in Ulster ended with the defeat of the native army at the Battle of Scarrifholis, near Newmills on the western outskirts of Letterkenny, County Donegal, in 1650, as part of the Cromwellian Conquest of Ireland conducted by Oliver Cromwell and the New Model Army, the aim of which was to expel all native Irish to the Province of Connaught^[25]

Forty years later, in 1688-1691, the Williamite War was fought, the belligerents of which were the Williamites and Jacobites. The war was partly due to a dispute over who was the rightful claimant to the British Throne, and thus the supreme monarch of the nascent British Empire. However, the war was also a part of the greater War of the Grand Alliance, fought between King Louis XIV of France and his allies, and a European-wide coalition, the Grand Alliance, led by Prince William of Orange and Emperor Leopold I of the Holy Roman Empire, supported by the Vatican and many other states. The Grand Alliance was a cross-denominational alliance designed to stop French eastward colonialist expansion under Louis XIV, with whom King James II was allied.

The majority of Irish people were ("Jacobites") and supported James II due to his 1687 Declaration of Indulgence or, as it is also known, The Declaration for the Liberty of Conscience, that granted religious freedom to all denominations in England and Scotland and also due to James II's promise to the Irish Parliament of an eventual right to self determination.^[26][27] However, James II was deposed in the Glorious Revolution, and the majority of Ulster Colonialists (Williamites) backed William of Orange. It is of note that both the Williamite and Jacobite armies were religiously mixed; William of Orange's own elite forces, the Dutch Blue Guards had a papal banner with them during the invasion, many of them being Dutch Catholics.^[28]

At the start of the war, Irish Jacobites controlled most of Ireland for James II, with the exception of the Williamite strongholds at Derry and at Enniskillen in Ulster. The Jacobites besieged Derry from December 1688 to July 1689, ending when a Williamite army from Britain relieved the city. The Williamites based in Enniskillen defeated another Jacobite army at the battle of Newtownbutler on July 28, 1689. Thereafter, Ulster remained firmly under Williamite control and William's forces completed their conquest of the rest of Ireland in the next two years. The war provided Protestant loyalists with the iconic victories of the Siege of Derry, the Battle of the Boyne (1 July 1690) and the Battle of Aughrim (12 July 1691), all of which the Orange Order commemorate each year.

The Williamites' victory in this war ensured British rule in Ireland for over 200 years. The Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland excluded most of Ulster's population from having any Civil power on religious grounds. Roman Catholics (descended from the indigenous Irish) and Presbyterians (mainly descended from Scottish Colonialists) both suffered discrimination under the Penal Laws, which gave full political rights only to Anglican Protestants (mostly descended from English settlers). In the 1690s, Scottish Presbyterians became a majority in Ulster, due to a large influx of them into the Province.

Emigration[link]

Considerable numbers of Ulster-Scots immigrated to the North America]n colonies throughout the 18th century (160,000 settled in what would become the United States between 1717 and 1770 alone).

Disdaining (or forced out of) the heavily English regions on the Atlantic coast, most groups of Ulster-Scots settlers crossed into the "western mountains," where their descendants populated the Appalachian regions and the Ohio Valley. Here they lived on the frontiers of America, carving their own world out of the wilderness. The Scotch-Irish soon became the dominant culture of the Appalachians from Pennsylvania to Georgia. Author (and U.S. Senator) Jim Webb puts forth a thesis in his book Born Fighting to suggest that the character traits he ascribes to the Scotch-Irish such as loyalty to kin, mistrust of governmental authority, and a propensity to bear arms, helped shape the American identity.

In the United States Census, 2000, 4.3 million Americans claimed Scotch-Irish ancestry. Interestingly, the areas where the most Americans reported themselves in the 2000 Census only as "American" with no further qualification (e.g. Kentucky, north-central Texas, and many other areas in the Southern US) are largely the areas where many Scotch-Irish settled, and are in complementary distribution with the areas which most heavily report Scotch-Irish ancestry.

According to the Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups, 400,000 people in the U.S. were of Irish birth or ancestry in 1790 when the first U.S. Census counted 3,100,000 white Americans. According to the encyclopedia, half of these Irish Americans were descended from Ulster, and half from the other three provinces of Ireland.

Republicanism, rebellion and communal strife[link]

Most of the 18th century saw a calming of sectarian tensions in Ulster. The economy of the province improved, as small producers exported linen and other goods. Belfast developed from a village into a bustling provincial town. However, this did not stop many thousands of Ulster people from emigrating to British North America in this period, where they became known as "Scots Irish" or "Scotch-Irish".

Political tensions resurfaced, albeit in a new form, towards the end of the 18th century. In the 1790s many Catholics and Presbyterians, in opposition to Anglican domination and inspired by the American and French revolutions joined together in the United Irishmen movement. This group (founded in Belfast) dedicated itself to founding a non-sectarian and independent Irish republic. The United Irishmen had particular strength in Belfast, Antrim and Down. Paradoxically however, this period also saw much sectarian violence between Catholics and Protestants, principally members of the Church of Ireland (Anglicans, who practised the British state religion and had rights denied to both Presbyterians and Catholics), notably the "Battle of the Diamond" in 1795, a faction fight between the rival "Defenders" (Catholic) and "Peep O'Day Boys" (Anglican), which led to over 100 deaths and to the founding of the Orange Order. This event, and many others like it, came about with the relaxation of the Penal Laws and Catholics began to be allowed to purchase land and involve themselves in the linen trade (activities which previously had involved many onerous restrictions). Protestants, including some Presbyterians, who in some parts of the province had come to identify with the Catholic community, used violence to intimidate Catholics who tried to enter the linen trade. Estimates suggest that up to 7000 Catholics suffered expulsion from Ulster during this violence. Many of them settled in northern Connacht. These refugees' linguistic influence still survives in the dialects of Irish spoken in Mayo, which have many similarities to Ulster Irish not found elsewhere in Connacht. Loyalist militias, primarily Anglicans, also used violence against the United Irishmen and against Catholic and Protestant republicans throughout the province.

In 1798 the United Irishmen, led by Henry Joy McCracken, launched a rebellion in Ulster, mostly supported by Presbyterians. But the British authorities swiftly put down the rebellion and employed severe repression after the fighting had ended. In the wake of the failure of this rebellion, and following the gradual abolition of official religious discrimination after the Act of Union in 1800, Presbyterians came to identify more with the State and with their Anglican neighbors, due to their civil rights now being respected by both the state and their Anglican Neighbors.

Industrialisation, Home Rule and partition[link]

Royal Avenue, Belfast. Photochrom print circa 1890-1900.

In the 19th century, Ulster had the only large-scale industrialisation and became the most prosperous province on the island. In the latter part of the century, Belfast overtook Dublin as the island's largest city. Belfast became famous in this period for its huge dockyards and shipbuilding — and notably for the construction of the RMS Titanic. Sectarian divisions in Ulster became hardened into the political categories of unionist (supporters of the Union with Britain; mostly, but not exclusively, Protestant) and nationalist (advocates of the Repeal of the Bill of Union 1900 ; usually, though not exclusively, Catholic). Northern Ireland's current politics originate from these late 19th century disputes over Home Rule that would have devolved some powers of government to Ireland, and which Ulster Protestants usually opposed—fearing for their religious rights calling it "Rome Rule" in an autonomous Catholic-dominated Ireland and also not trusting politicians from the agrarian south and west to support the more industrial economy of Ulster. This lack of trust however was largely unfounded as during the 19th and early 20th century important industries in the southern most region of Cork, included brewing, distilling, wool and like Belfast, shipbuilding.^[29]

Thousands of unionists, led by the Dublin-born barrister Sir Edward Carson and James Craig, signed the "Ulster Covenant" of 1912 pledging to resist Home Rule. This movement also set up the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). In April 1914, the UVF assisted with the landing of 30,000 German rifles with 3,000,000 rounds at Larne by blockading authorities. (See Larne gunrunning). The Curragh Incident showed it would be difficult to use the British army to enforce home rule from Dublin on Ulster's unionist minority.

In response, Irish nationalists created the Irish Volunteers, part of which later became the forerunner of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) — to seek to ensure the passing of the Home Rule Bill.

Infantry of the Royal Irish Rifles during the Battle of the Somme in World War I.

Upon the outbreak of World War I in 1914, 200,000 Irishmen, both Southern and Northern, of all religions sects volunteered to serve in the British Army. This had the effect of interrupting the armed stand-off in Ireland. As the war progressed, in Ireland, opposition to the War grew stronger, reaching its peak in 1918 when the British government proposed laws to extend conscription to all able bodied Irishmen during the Conscription Crisis.

In the aftermath of the War, Ireland saw several years of political violence, with Irish nationalists launching a guerrilla campaign against British rule as part of the Anglo-Irish War (January 1919–July 1921). In Ulster, the fighting generally took the form of street battles between Protestants and Catholics in the city of Belfast. Estimates suggest that about 600 civilians died in this communal violence, the majority of them (58%) Catholics. The IRA remained relatively quiescent in Ulster, with the exception of the south Armagh area, where Frank Aiken led it. A lot of IRA activity also took place at this time in County Donegal and the City of Derry, where one of the main Republican leaders was Peadar O'Donnell. Hugh O'Doherty, a Sinn Féin politician, was elected mayor of Derry at this time. In the First Dáil, which was elected in late 1918, Prof. Eoin Mac Néill served as the Sinn Féin T.D. for Derry city.

Partition of Ireland, first mooted in 1912, was introduced with the enactment of the Government of Ireland Act 1920, which gave self-government to six of Ulster's north-eastern counties within the UK. This was confirmed by the Anglo-Irish Treaty (6 December 1921) which ended in the partition of Ireland between the Irish Free State (now the Republic of Ireland) and Northern Ireland. Hostilities formally ceased on July 11, 1921. Low-level violence, however, continued in Ulster, causing Michael Collins to order a boycott of Northern products in protest at attacks on the Catholic/Nationalist community. When the Irish Free State came into existence in 1922, the Northern Ireland Parliament (already in existence) was given the option to 'opt out', which it did. For the subsequent general history of Ulster see History of Northern Ireland and History of the Republic of Ireland.

Current politics[link]

Electorally, voting in the six Northern Ireland counties of Ulster tends to follow religious or sectarian lines; noticeable religious demarcation does not exist in the South Ulster counties of Cavan and Monaghan in the Republic of Ireland. County Donegal is largely a Catholic county, but with a large Protestant minority. Generally, Protestants in Donegal vote for Fine Gael.^[30] However, religious sectarianism in politics has largely disappeared from the rest of the Republic of Ireland. This was illustrated when Erskine H. Childers, a Church of Ireland member and Teachta Dála (TD, a member of the lower house of the National Parliament) who had represented Monaghan, won election as President after having served as a long-term minister under Fianna Fáil Taoisigh Éamon de Valera, Seán Lemass and Jack Lynch.

The Orange Order freely organises in counties Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan, with several Orange parades taking place throughout County Donegal each year. The only Orange Order march in the Republic of Ireland takes place every July in thevillage of Rossnowlagh, near Ballyshannon, in south of County Donegal.

As of 2006^[update], Northern Ireland has eight Catholic Members of Parliament (of a total of 18 from the whole of Northern Ireland) in the British House of Commons at Westminster; and the other three counties have one Protestant T.D. of the ten it has elected to Dáil Éireann, the Lower House of the Oireachtas, the parliament of the Republic of Ireland. At present (August 2007) County Donegal sends six T.D.'s to Dáil Éireann. The county is divided into two constituencies: Donegal North-East and Donegal South-West, each with three T.D.'s. County Cavan and County Monaghan form the one constituency called Cavan-Monaghan, which sends five T.D.'s to the Dáil (one of whom is a Protestant). The Republic's parties have long ceased to base their selection of candidates purely on any religious criteria.

The historic Flag of Ulster served as the basis for the Ulster Banner (often referred to as the Flag of Northern Ireland), which was the flag of the Government of Northern Ireland until the proroguing of the Stormont parliament in 1973.

Irish language[link]

There are 29,199 Irish language speakers, with 14,456 native speakers in the Donegal Gaeltacht (areas where 30-100% of the population are native speakers) while 1,427 are living in areas where it is spoken by less than 30%.^{[citation needed]} There is also the 5,339 attending the 44 Gaelscoils (Irish language primary schools) and 7 Gaelcholáiste (Irish language secondary schools) across the province.^{[citation needed]} According to the Irish Census 2006 there are 7,977 daily speakers outside the education system in the province.

Sport[link]

In Gaelic games (which include Gaelic football and hurling), Ulster counties play the Ulster Senior Football Championship and Ulster Senior Hurling Championship. In football, the main competitions in which they compete with the other Irish counties are the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship and National Football League, while the Ulster club champions represent the province in the All-Ireland Senior Club Football Championship. Hurling teams play in the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship, National Hurling League and All-Ireland Senior Club Hurling Championship. The whole province fields a team to play the other provinces in the Railway Cup in both football and hurling. Gaelic Football is by far the most popular of the GAA sports in Ulster but hurling is also played, especially in Antrim, Armagh, Derry, and Down.

The border has divided association football teams since 1921.^[31] The Irish Football Association oversees the sport in NI while the Football Association of Ireland oversees the sport in the Republic. As a result, separate international teams are fielded and separate championships take place (Irish Football League in Northern Ireland, League of Ireland in the rest of Ulster and Ireland). Anomalously, Derry City F.C. has played in the League of Ireland since 1985 due to crowd trouble at some of their Irish League matches prior to this. The other major Ulster teams in the League of Ireland is Finn Harps of Ballybofey, County Donegal and Monaghan United from Monaghan. There have been cup competitions between FAI and IFA clubs, most recently the Setanta Sports Cup.

In Rugby union, the professional rugby team representing the province and the IRFU Ulster Branch, Ulster Rugby compete in the RaboDirect PRO12 along with teams from Wales, Scotland, Italy and the other Irish Provinces (Leinster, Munster and Connacht). They also compete in Europe's main club rugby tournament, the Heineken Cup, which they won back in 1999. Notable Ulster rugby players include Willy John McBride, Jack Kyle and Mike Gibson. The former is the most capped British and Irish Lion of all time, having completed four tours with the Lions in the sixties and seventies.

Cricket is also played in Ulster, especially in Northern Ireland and East Donegal. The game is mainly played and followed by members of the Protestant community.^[32]

Golf is however by far the most high profile sport and the sport that Ulster has succeeded at more than any other. Ulster has produced many great players over the years, from Fred Daly winning The Open Champiionship in 1947 at the Royal Liverpool Golf Club, Hoylake to most recently Rory McIlroy winning the US Open and Darren Clarke winning The Open Championship in 2011. Ulster also has another Major winner in Graeme McDowell who also won the US Open in 2010.

In Horse racing, specifically National Hunt Ulster has produced the most domnant jockey of all time Tony McCoy.

References noted[link]

General references[link]

The Ulster Countryside. Deane, C.Douglas. 1983. Century Books. ISBN 0-903152-17-7

Further reading[link]

• Faulkner, J. and Thompson, R. 2011. The Natural History of Ulster. National Museums of Northern Ireland. Publication No. 026. ISBN 0-900761-49-0
• Morton, O. 1994. Marine Algae of Northern Ireland. Ulster Museum, Belfast. ISBN 0-900761-28-8
• Stewart and Corry's Flora of the North-east of Ireland. Third edition. Institute of Irish Studies, The Queen's University of Belfast
• Luca Bellocchio, Irlanda del Nord. Un conflitto etnico nel cuore dell'Europa, Roma, Meltemi, 2006

See also[link]

• Ulster nationalism
• Northern Ireland
• Kings of Ulster
• Provinces of Ireland
• Ulster Scots dialects
• Ulster-Scots people
• Mid Ulster English
• Ulster Irish
• Plantation of Ulster
• Plantations of Ireland
• Ulster Covenant
• Culture of Ulster
• Ulster GAA
• Ulster Rugby
• Red Hand of Ulster

External links[link]

• BBC Nations History of Ireland
• Inconvenient Peripheries: Ethnic Identity and the United Kingdom EstatePDF (96.8 KiB) The cases of “Protestant Ulster” and Cornwall, by Professor Philip Payton
• Mercator Atlas of Europe Map of Ireland ("Irlandia") circa 1564
• Placenames Database of Ireland developed by Fiontar
• Gaeltacht Comprehensive Language Study 2007
• Gaelscoil stats

Media related to Ulster at Wikimedia Commons

•  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Ulster". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

v t e Counties of Ireland The counties are listed per province Connacht Galway Leitrim Mayo Roscommon Sligo Munster Clare Cork Kerry Limerick Tipperary (North Tipperary · South Tipperary) Waterford Leinster Carlow Dublin (Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown · Fingal · South Dublin) Kildare Kilkenny Laois Longford Louth Meath Offaly Westmeath Wexford Wicklow Ulster Antrim† Armagh† Cavan Donegal Down† Fermanagh† Londonderry† Monaghan Tyrone† Italics denote non-administrative counties. Brackets denote non-traditional counties. †denotes non-administrative counties of Northern Ireland

Coordinates: 54°24′N 7°00′W / 54.4°N 7.0°W / 54.4; -7.0

Bernadette Devlin McAliskey
A mural by the Bogside Artists in Derry's Bogside, depicting Devlin
Member of Parliament for Mid Ulster
In office 1969–1974
Preceded by	George Forrest
Succeeded by	John Dunlop
Majority	18,213
Personal details
Born	(1947-04-23) 23 April 1947 (age 65) Cookstown, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland
Nationality	Irish
Political party	Independent (1970-1974), (1976-1977), (1978-present)
Other political affiliations	Unity (1969-1970), Independent Socialist Party (1977-1978), Irish Republican Socialist Party (1974-1976)
Spouse(s)	Michael McAliskey
Children	Róisín Elizabeth McAliskey Deirdre McAliskey
Alma mater	Queens University of Belfast

Josephine Bernadette Devlin McAliskey (born 23 April 1947, in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland), also known as Bernadette Devlin and Bernadette McAliskey, is a socialist republican political activist. She served as a Member of Parliament at Westminster from 1969 to 1974 for the Mid Ulster constituency.

Political beginnings[link]

1970 newsreel film about the Ulster conflict featuring Bernadette Devlin

Devlin was born in Cookstown, County Tyrone and raised as a Roman Catholic. She attended St Patrick's Girls Academy in Dungannon.^[1] She was studying Psychology at Queen's University Belfast in 1968 when she took a prominent role in a student-led civil rights organisation, People's Democracy.^{[2][dead link]} Devlin was subsequently excluded from the university.^[2] She stood unsuccessfully against James Chichester-Clark in the Northern Ireland general election of 1969. When George Forrest, the MP for Mid Ulster, died, she fought the subsequent by-election on the "Unity" ticket, defeating a female Unionist candidate, Forrest's widow Anna, and was elected to the Westminster Parliament. At age 21, she was the youngest MP at the time, and remains the youngest woman elected.^[2]

Devlin stood on the slogan "I will take my seat and fight for your rights" – signalling her rejection of the traditional Irish republican tactic of abstentionism (being absent from Westminster). She made her maiden speech on her 22nd birthday, within an hour of taking her seat.^[3]

The Troubles[link]

The Battle of the Bogside[link]

Her radical left-wing politics resulted in conviction of incitement to riot in December 1969. She had actively engaged, on the side of the residents, in the 'Battle of the Bogside'. She served a short jail term.^[4] After being re-elected in the 1970 general election, Devlin declared that she would sit in Parliament as an independent socialist.^[5]

Bloody Sunday[link]

Devlin witnessed the events of Bloody Sunday. She was later infuriated that she was consistently denied the chance to speak in Parliament, although parliamentary convention decreed that any MP witnessing an incident under discussion would be granted an opportunity to speak about it in Parliament.^[6]

Devlin slapped Reginald Maudling, the Home Secretary in the Conservative government, across the face when he said in the House of Commons that the British Army had fired only in self-defence on Bloody Sunday.^{[2][dead link]} She was suspended from Parliament for six months as a result of the incident.^[7]

IRSP[link]

McAliskey helped to form the Irish Republican Socialist Party along with Seamus Costello in 1974.^{[citation needed]} This was a revolutionary socialist breakaway from Official Sinn Féin and paralleled the Irish National Liberation Army's split from the Official Irish Republican Army.^[8] She served on the party's national executive in 1975, but resigned when a proposal that the INLA become subordinate to the party executive was defeated.^{[9][dead link]} In 1977, she joined the Independent Socialist Party, but it disbanded the following year.^[10]

Support for hunger strike prisoners[link]

She stood as an independent candidate in support of the prisoners on the blanket protest and dirty protest at Long Kesh prison in the 1979 elections to the European Parliament in Northern Ireland, and won 5.9% of the vote.^[11] She was a leading spokesperson for the Smash H-Block Campaign, which supported the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike in 1980 and 1981.

Injured in Loyalist shooting[link]

On 16 January 1981, she and her husband were shot by members of the Ulster Defence Association using their cover name "Ulster Freedom Fighters"^[12][13] who broke into their home in Coalisland, County Tyrone. The gunmen shot McAliskey a total of seven times in front of her children.^[14] British soldiers were watching the McAliskey home at the time, but failed to prevent the assassination attempt.^[2][15] An army patrol of the 3rd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment heard the shots and rushed to McAliskey's house. The paramilitaries had torn out the telephone and while the wounded couple were being given first aid by the troops, a soldier ran to a neighbour's house, commandeered a car, and drove to the home of a councillor to telephone for help. The couple were taken by helicopter to hospital in nearby Dungannon for emergency treatment and then to the Musgrave Park Hospital in Belfast under intensive care. Three attackers, including Ray Smallwoods, captured by the army patrol, were subsequently jailed.^[16]

Dáil Éireann elections[link]

In 1982, she twice failed in an attempt to be elected to the Dublin North–Central constituency of Dáil Éireann.^[17]

Deported from USA[link]

In 2003, she was barred from entering the United States and deported on the grounds that the State Department had declared that she "poses a serious threat to the security of the United States", — apparently referring to her conviction for incitement to riot in 1969 — although she protested that she had no terrorist involvement and had frequently been permitted to travel to the United States in the past.^[18][19][20]

Personal life[link]

In 1971, while still unmarried, she gave birth to a daughter Róisín.^[2] This cost her some support in conservative Roman Catholic areas.^[21] She married Michael McAliskey on 23 April 1973, which was her 26th birthday.^{[citation needed]}

On 12 May 2007, she was guest speaker at éirígí's first Annual James Connolly commemoration in Arbour Hill, Dublin.^[22] She currently coordinates a not-for-profit community development organisation based in Dungannon, the South Tyrone Empowerment Programme,^[23] and works with migrant workers to improve their treatment in Northern Ireland.^[2]

In 1969 Director/producer John Goldschmidt made the documentary film 'Bernadette Devlin' for ATV, which was shown on ITV and on CBS's 60 Minutes and included footage of Devlin during the 'Battle of the Bogside'. Another documentary, 'Bernadette: Notes on a Political Journey', directed by Leila Doolan, was released in 2011.^[24] At the 2008 Cannes Film Festival a biopic of Devlin was announced,^[2] but Devlin stated that "[t]he whole concept is abhorrent to me" and the film was not made.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Bernadette Devlin, The Price of My Soul, 1969 (Foreword and Chapter Twelve)
• THE BLANKET: "Knowing Too Much and Saying It Too Well: Bernadette McAliskey Barred from US" - 23 Feb 2003, (by Anthony McIntyre)
• Interview by Peter Stanford, published in The Independent on Sunday: 29 July 2007.
• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Bernadette Devlin

Ciarán Murphy (born 30 May 1940) is a retired Irish Fianna Fáil party politician who was a Teachta Dála (TD) for Wicklow from 1973 to 1982.

A secondary school teacher before entering politics, Murphy was elected to Dáil Éireann on his first attempt, at the 1973 general election. He defeated the sitting TD Paudge Brennan, who had left Fianna Fáil over the Arms Crisis and was standing as a candidate for the short-lived breakaway party Aontacht Éireann. Murphy was re-elected at the next three general elections, before losing his seat at the November 1982 general election to Paudge Brennan, who had rejoined Fianna Fáil.

In October 1982, Murphy had been one of the "gang of 22" Fianna Fáil TDs who had voted in favour of a motion of no confidence in the then-Taoiseach Charles Haughey's leadership of the party.^[1] The motion had been tabled by Kildare TD Charlie McCreevy, but one of its main backers was Desmond O'Malley. O'Malley was expelled from Fianna Fáil in 1985 and founded a new political party, the Progressive Democrats ("the PDs").

Murphy, who was no longer a member of the Dáil, joined the PDs and stood as a Progressive Democrat candidate in Wicklow at the 1989 general election. He was unsuccessful, and did not stand again.

References[link]

• This page incorporates information from the Oireachtas Members Database

External links[link]

• Ciarán Murphy's electoral history (ElectionsIreland.org)

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