Epilogue: The Irish Constabulary

during the remaining years of its existence, the Irish Constabulary continued to grow in numbers and efficiency. In 1839 the long-needed reserve force was created, and from 1842 it was the practice to appoint cadets to be trained for the position of sub-inspector. The Constabulary played a conspicuous role in the two minor uprisings of the mid-nineteenth century. In 1848 a pathetic attempt at an uprising by Smith O’Brien and his followers ended in the ‘battle of Widow McCormick’s potato patch’, and the Irish lord chief justice declared that the Irish Constabulary had ‘saved the country’. ¹ The more serious challenge of the Fenian uprising in 1867 put the Constabulary to a more severe test, which they passed well. Their efforts were rewarded by the thanks of parliament and the right to be called the ‘Royal’ Irish Constabulary. With the establishment of the Irish Free State, the Constabulary was dissolved and replaced by the Garda Siochana, but the organization established in 1836 still exists in the Royal Ulster Constabulary.