ABSTRACT
Joining the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) as a teenager at the start of the 1980s was an exciting but very dangerous thing. Street protests, murders, and explosions were the normal expectations for society in Northern Ireland, and the police force was there to detect, contain, and prevent acts of violence, investigate crime, and provide as normal a policing service as could be expected. Unfortunately, the makeup of the RUC along with the inequalities and sectarian hatred that existed at that time meant that the police were seen as partisan, a tool of the United Kingdom, and more crucially, the Protestant Unionists in Northern Ireland.
