Policing Ireland under the union: a social history

Abstract

Although Irish republicans argue that the union with Britain (1801-1921) was imposed upon the country, many Irish people worked for the British. This project aims to examine the 85,000 Irishmen who served in the Irish constabulary from the 1820s to the 1920s. The police were the most powerful arm of British government and yet the force was composed largely of rural Catholic nationalists. The book will consider how such men negotiated their complex and conflicting roles and identities. It will throw light on the mechanisms of British rule, on techniques of policing and on how native elites function in a colonial context.