ABSTRACT
Access to a site, whether a group, organization, or a neighborhood, is a fundamental problem for fieldworkers. It typically involves continuous negotiation over time. Negotiating access to powerful and secretive organizations is often thwarted or truncated. This chapter describes the problems of seeking access to An Garda Síochána, the police of the Republic of Ireland. The focus of the research was the consequences of the Patten Report (1999) for social change in the Garda. Until recently, few studies had been done of the organization. Interviews and historical materials were gathered from 2008 to 2013, but no direct observations of practices were gathered. The content of the interviews was consistent with the several reports of tribunals and commissions that noted the resistance of the Garda to change.
