The armed Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) was Ireland's major police force from the early nineteenth century until the partition of Ireland in 1922. A separate civic police force, the unarmed Dublin Metropolitan Police controlled the capital, and the cities of Derry and Belfast, originally with their own police forces, later had special divisions within the RIC. About seventy-five percent of the RIC were Roman Catholic and about twenty-five percent were of various Protestant denominations. The RIC's successful system of policing influenced the Canadian North-West Mounted Police, the Victoria Police force in Australia, and the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary in Newfoundland. In consequence of partition, the RIC was disbanded in 1922 and replaced by the Garda Síochána south of the new border, and the Royal Ulster Constabulary to its north.
Read more about Royal Irish Constabulary: History, The Irish War of Independence
Famous quotes containing the words royal, irish and/or constabulary:
“Because humans are not alone in exhibiting such behavior—bees stockpile royal jelly, birds feather their nests, mice shred paper—it’s possible that a pregnant woman who scrubs her house from floor to ceiling [just before her baby is born] is responding to a biological imperative . . . . Of course there are those who believe that . . . the burst of energy that propels a pregnant woman to clean her house is a perfectly natural response to their mother’s impending visit.”
—Mary Arrigo (20th century)
“Concurring hands divide
flax for damask
that when bleached by Irish weather
has the silvered chamois-leather
water-tightness of a
skin.”
—Marianne Moore (1887–1972)
“When constabulary duty’s to be done,
A policeman’s lot is not a happy one.”
—Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (1836–1911)