ABSTRACT
For two weeks in late July and early August 1882 newspapers in Ireland and London carried accounts of discontent among members of the Royal Irish Constabulary (R.I.C.), which policed the whole of Ireland except Dublin. The R.I.C. agitation had its immediate cause in the context of three years of the Irish land war, as well as longer-term origins in lagging pay and benefits for those who tried to make a stable career in the constabulary service. During the land war even large bodies of policemen could encounter local resistance, such as the 150 police who met a 'most determined opposition' from a crowd armed with pitchforks and scythes at Derrypark, County Mayo, in 1880. All accounts of the 1882 R.I.C. agitation agree that, while the underlying issues had been matters of great interest among Irish policemen for months, the movement began at William Street R.I.C. station in Limerick city on Friday 28 July 1882.
