Review of a presentation by Michael Hanophy, Ph.D

The "Royal Irish Constabulary" (R.I.C.) was formed from several previously existing police forces through a series of legislative acts. It officially existed from 1836 to 1922 and the formation of the Irish Free State. Some records exist from as early as 1816. These are records of men from previous police forces who joined the R.I.C. The LDS (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) Library Catalogue lists 31 microfilms on over 80,000 men who served, plus county return records, supplemental service registers, and other reports on the R.I.C.

The R.I.C. "General Registers of Service" contain information such as: service number, name, age when joined, height, native county, religion, former occupation, name by whom recommended, if married, date and file number of authority granting permission to marry, native county of wife (but not her name), allocations, transfers, promotions, reductions, rewards, punishments, discharges, dismissals, resignations, or death, pensions and gratuities. It includes men who served, and also those men discharged during basic training. The records are indexed by the first letter of last name for the years 1816 to 1883. The years after 1883 are not indexed on these films, but an Australian group has indexed the entire series on microfiche.

The "Annual Returns of the R.I.C." gives statistics of officers of every county by religion. The "Nominal Returns by County" list all men in a particular county in a particular year. It runs from 1910 to 1921. The "Intelligence Prints" run from March 1895 to June 1895. They are pamphlets containing accounts of police activity from Newspapers, and District Inspectors reports.

The "Irish Constabulary Act of 1836" established the Irish Constabulary. In 1867, it became the Royal Irish Constabulary. It was a well designed, efficiently run, centralized, paramilitary armed police force, under the supervision of Dublin Castle. Catholics were encouraged to join. They were stationed in 1400 barracks throughout Ireland, except in Dublin City and parts of Wicklow (where the Dublin Metropolitan Police maintained order). They were recruited mainly from the tenant-farmer and laborer classes. Their jobs included putting down outbreaks of violence and revolution, assisting at evictions, collecting agricultural statistics, enforcing usury laws, collecting census information, and controlling land grabbing and cattle rustling. They could not serve in their native county or their wife's native county, or counties where close relatives lived. They were not permitted to vote, join secret societies or political groups. They generally stayed in one area from 5 to 20 years and received a pension.

The R.I.C. was disbanded in 1922 with the institution of the Uprising and Anglo/Irish War of 1919. There were always problems with this job. The police were poorly paid, had no recognized off duty periods, no days of rest, no annual leave. Promotions and opportunities for promotion were slow, and unevenly distributed throughout the country and especially by religion. In 1919, there was a proposed policy of social ostracism against them and a boycotting of the R.I.C. Many police sympathized with the I.R.A. The numbers of R.I.C. dropped off - younger men were resigning and older men were trying to hold on to their pensions. Winston Churchill replaced R.I.C. men who resigned with unemployed British Soldiers (mostly from England and Scotland) who had served in W.W.I. They became known as the hated "Black and Tans". They were paid by day and had no pension. They could become uncontrollable. Resignations continued until the R.I.C. was disbanded in August of 1922. A recruiting slogan:

"Join the R.I.F. and see the World;

Join the R.I.C. and see the Next!"

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