The Crowned Harp: Policing Northern Ireland

By Jim Smyth and Graham Ellison

The Crowned Harp provides a detailed analysis of policing in Northern Ireland. Tracing its history from 1922, Ellison and Smyth portray the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) as an organisation burdened by its past as a colonial police force. They analyse its perceived close relationship with unionism and why, for many nationalists, the RUC embodied the problem of the legitimacy of Northern Ireland, arguing that decisions made on the organisation, composition and ideology of policing in the early years of the state had consequences which went beyond the everyday practice of policing. The authors provide an extended discussion of policing after the outbreak of civil unrest in 1969, ask why policing was cast in a paramilitary mould, and look at the use of special constabularies and the way in which the police dealt with social unrest which threatened to break down sectarian divisions. Examining the reorganisations of the RUC in the 1970s and 1980s, Ellison and Smyth focus on the various structural, legal and ideological components, the professionalisation of the force and the development of a coherent, if contradictory, ideology. The analysis of the RUC during this period sheds light on the problematic nature of using the police as a counter insurgency force in a divided society. Perceptions of the police, and the opinions of rank and file members are examined and an assessment is made of the various alternative models of policing, such as community policing and local control. This book offers important lessons about the nature of policing in divided societies.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0745313930
• ISBN13: 9780745313931
• Release Date: June 2000
• Publisher: Pluto Press (UK)
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.81 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.4" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

a timely addition to the literature

This book is timely addition to the literature, not least because of the planned restructuring of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) under the terms of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland. The authors' provide a coherent and cogent analysis of the development and history of policing in Northern Ireland since partition, and suggest that its developmental trajectory owes more to the continental gendarmerie of France or Austria, than to the 'British' or Westminster model, applied in England and Wales. It is clear that the authors dispense with functionalistic notions of policing - to my mind a good thing - and it is assumption throughout the book is that the RUC must be regarded as part of a dense network of control and surveillance. This was principally directed towards the nationalist minority, with not only outright signs of political dissent being suppressed, but also (and somewhat intriguingly) those expressions of minority culture such as with St Patrick's Day parades. Several myths to do with Northern Ireland are debunked. The notion that pre-Troubles was in any sense a stable, 'normal' society under the Unionist Government at Stormont is subjected to critical scrutiny. Similarly, the authors demonstrate that the RUC itself played a major role in exacerbating (if not actually causing) the unrest in the late 1960s - with calamitous consequences. The concluding chapters of the book deals with the issue of symbols, and provides some insight (for the British reader at any rate) of why symbols assume such a strategic importance in schismatic societies such as Northern Ireland, becoming fused with notions of national identity and so on. There is some good sociology at work here. The final chapter of the book, deals with the Patten Commission report on the RUC. Unfortunately, the discussion is brief, and has little to say about the content of the Report itself, although perhaps this has something to do with the timing of the books publication, and the fact that the legislation implementing the proposals is still at the Committee stage in Parliament. 'The Crowned Harp' is an excellent and well timed contribution, to an under-researched area. The general reader might find some of the detail rather overwhelming. However, this should be of advantage to the more serious scholar.