ABSTRACT
Due to the fact that, since the birth of Northern Ireland in 1920-1921, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) posed either a latent or actual threat to the state, this threat was reflected in the organisation and structure of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC). For example, during the 1930s and in each decade until 1997, RUC officers have been murdered as a result of IRA violence. Indeed, during the ‘troubles’, 302 officers lost their lives, the vast majority of whom were killed by the IRA and other Republican groups. The lethality of the terrorist threat meant that policing in Northern Ireland was prevented from following the style of policing adopted elsewhere in the United Kingdom. In order to protect both themselves and law-abiding citizens from terrorist violence as well as operating effectively in countering terrorism, the RUC evolved into a ‘formidable, militarized security force’ (Weitzer 1985 p. 4 emphasis in original). Indeed, as the ‘troubles’ took hold and IRA attacks intensified in the 1970s, police stations became structurally fortified and mobile patrolling was done in bullet-proof cars and armoured Land Rovers (Ryder, 2000). These measures were considered a proportionate response to the dangerous circumstances in which officers had to function. Yet, in addition to the paramilitary features of policing in Northern Ireland during the conflict, the RUC had to perform the full range of duties associated with normal policing (Brewer and Magee, 1991).
