A: Well at least we’ve got the police thing sorted.
B: How do you mean, sorted?
A: Well, we started the PSNI with 50-50 recruitment but that’s not needed anymore.
B: It’s not?
A: No. It was an artificial system and while it was necessary to encourage nationalists to join the police, it was also blocking recruitment for unionist candidates.
B: It was?
A: Oh definitely. You’d have, say, ten really good applicants from a unionist background, but only five of them could be taken on, because they’d have to balance with five from the nationalist community.
B: Mmm. So it was doing a gross injustice to unionists?
A: Oh definitely.
B: But now the PSNI are 50% unionists, 50% nationalists?
A: Um, not quite. But we’re getting there, we’re getting there.
B: We are?
A: Oh definitely.
B: So what are the actual figures?
A: Around 30% nationalist, 70% unionist.
B: WHAT?
A: Around 30% nat –
B: I heard what you said, I was expressing my shock – and alarm – when I said ‘WHAT?”
A: No need to be alarmed.
B: There isn’t?
A: Definitely not. All of the young men and women recruited are fine, dedicated people. It’d be silly to start a sectarian headcount.
B: But wasn’t that the problem – or one of the problems – with the RUC? That they were overwhelmingly unionist?
A: You could say that. But this is a much better situation. 70-30.
B: But that means there’s around twice as many recruits who are unionist.
A: I know that. But 30% is a lot more nationalists than once was the case.
B: Yes but I mean – it’s still not balanced.
A: Why does it have to be? Why must we always have a sectarian head-count?
B: Because the population is near as dammit to 50-50, so the police should reflect that.
A: So it does – 70-30. Not an exact balance, but we’re getting there. Slowly, slowly catchee monkey.
B: What?
A: An old adage. Forget I ever said it.
B: And should I forget about worrying over the 70-30 thing too?
A: Oh definitely.
B: Because the nationalist population won’t mind being outnumbered 2 to 1?
A: They won’t if they’re fair-minded. This is a new beginning to policing, you know. You could say it’s a Fresh Start.
B: So 70-30 is as good as it gets?
A: Oh definitely. When’s the last time you’ve been hit with a baton or a blackthorn stick by a policeman?
B: I never have been hit by a policeman with a baton or a blackthorn stick.
A: I rest my case.
Great.story.Jude.
‘Allo.’Allo.’Allo.Nothing.To.See.Here.Move.Along. Thanks.Jim.
In August 1922, Dawson Bates gave the Orange Order special permission for an Orange Lodge to be formed in the RUC. An inquiry by the National Council for Civil Liberties in 1936 concluded that:
“It is difficult to escape the conclusion that the attitude of the government renders the police chary of interference with the activities of the Orange Order and its sympathisers”
In 2010, Mr Paterson, the former proconsul said he was “not minded” to continue the practice of 50-50 recruitment in the PSNI. Mr Paterson said that currently more than 29% of serving officers are from a Catholic background which is within the target set by the Patten report.
The present proconsul believes that the interests of National Security mst be protected at all costs. It is not so long ago that any reference to ‘collusion’ or a ‘shoot to kill policy’ was dismissed as nonsense. We know now from the recent exhumation of Joseph Murphy’s body, one of eleven victims of the Ballymurphy Massacre, that the agents of the British state are finding it more and more difficult to bury the truth about Human Rights abuses in Ireland.
whats religion got to do with it,
An important point here, Jude. There are no Irish nationalists in the British regional PSNI. There may be Catholics, atheists , Protestants and others but sorry no nationalists. There may be GAA stalwarts and Gaeilgeoirí but no nationalists.
That’s a fair point fiosrach. Catholic , Protestant, Hindu or Jain….they mightn’t have a political thought in their heads, so it’s not right to equate either unionism or nationalism with religions of any kind, but in the context of Norneverland, that’s historically how it’s been seen.Are the police recruits being asked are they nationalists or unionists ….or are they being asked are they Catholics, buddhists , protestants , atheists or whatever? Mind you there might be a few closet nationalists in there …hoping for a more united future.You are wondering if it is possible for a “true” nationalist to buy into a police service {or “force”} that could never be recognised by a proper nationalist….ever…in a divided Ireland ….Is that it?
I referred in that blog to nationalist and unionists and not Catholics and Protestants, even though I know that the c/P is the box that gets ticked. I detest that people be given a chance to see our differences here as theological – although I do know there is a small hard sectarian core, I think the differences are essentially about partition.
On a day when one heard on RTE of a call for the Gardai Siochana, Esteemed Blogmeister, to recruit more Muslims into the Force of the Free Southern Stateen, it was timely to read your blog today.
Haven’t heard any reports on RTE of late of that 70/30 stat which does not see the Nats on the fat side of the diagonal. Much less any calls for a rectification of that imbalance. Or, perceived imbalance, as RTE would phrase it.
The recruitment of more Muslims would indeed be welcome: if for no other reason that one suspects they would have, with their background in Arabic, a more tolerant and enlightened attitude to those of the citizenry who might be inclined to give their name in leprechaun.
The prevailing intolerance of the Gardai in this particular instance has become so entrenched that no one bothers to highlight it any more, it they ever did. Indeed, most citizens who use the First Official Language / Cead Theanga Oifigiuil version of their name automatically tend to give the English versh when on the A side of a Garda Q .
This is done on a profoundly philosophical basis, taken from the school of thought first made popular by the toga-wearing Roman philosopher, Pragmaticus, in the time of the Caesars. And whose central tenet was: (a loose translation from the Latin): ‘anything for a quiet life, Mac’.
This week saw the sad passing of a great sportsman from Tonga: Jonah Lomu, the Muhammad Ali of rugby. One mentions this not because Tonga is remarkably similar to the leprechaun for language, Teanga. Tonga as it happens also has two official languages: Tongan and (gulp) English.
Lomu is an original Tongan surname. One imagines the bould Jonah on a motoring tour of the FSS being stopped at a Garda roadblock, giving his name in his genial manner and being barked at: ‘What’s that in English?’, not.
Coppers, not in the constabulary or even in the nocturnal club scene meaning but in the currency sense , were under the spotlight today on a show whose eminent hostess is eminently qualified to discuss such matters: the Dame Dosh Finucane Show. Yes, that four-hour a-week show which wheelbarrows home a six-figure sum for its national treasure of a presenter.
Two organisations were focused upon: the IFA and the FAI. (This seems be a day for sound alikes, see Teanga and Tonga above). Being the daughter of a modest Garda (as she likes to remind us) Dame Dosh used the time honoured police tecnique as the topic of the secretary of the IFA’s whale-sized slice of the cowpie was glossed over.
This was (gasp) semi-million-shaped smackeroos, plus. Wow !
(Back in 2008 Wikipedia states that Dame Dosh was earning (gulp) 570,000 smackeroos. This is factually incorrect. In fact she was GETTING (gulp) 570,00 smackeroos).
What’s all this, then? Nothing to see here. Move along there.
Moving swiftly along – possibly down to her Bangharda, oops, Garda genes, Dame Dosh switched then to the wanted poster boy of the FAI. When she subjected Martin O’Neill, OBE to a rigorous grilling which might have been plucked from the Castlereagh romper room manual itself.
Dame ‘put your cans on there’ Dosh played bad cop/ bad cop even as she subjected the Londonderry lad to everything from the sleep deprivation of ‘what does it feel like being the hero of the nation?’ to the white noise of ‘after the bitter disappointment of the Rugby World Cup do you realise what a spring in the step of the nation your dream management of the our gallant soccer, oops, football team has put?’.
And nor was the bogball overlooked: meaning a mench of the International Rules that evening in Cr-k- P-rk? Well, no. Just a reiteration of the (yawn) received opinion of the Dame’s generic view of the harmless barbaric past time of the Paddy Stinks and Mickey Mudds. More in sorrow than in judgement.
‘Of course, on the Gaelic fields where they seem to spend most of the time trying to kill each other !’
Eh?
It was, yes, La Finucane who uttered this measured observation. Yes, the same La Finucane who carries a tactical rechargeable police flashlight torch for Roy , erm, the poppy-wearing cuntoir/ assistant to the Londonderry Lad.
Yes, the same restrained Roy who once on the civilized pitch of Landsdowne Road itself once got unjustly red carded for having his right boot discommoded by the provocative left buttock of a prone Russian prayer.
To this unfair incident, some incurable romantics trace the unshakeable devotion of the love-blind Dame Dosh for her hero of heroes.
Perhaps, Roy Nosurname-Needed will reciprocate by presenting his admirer with a symbol of his favourite charity, a (erm) guide dog?
While crooning , perhaps, the words of that plaintive C and W classic: ‘ If you can’t live without me, how come you’re still alive?’.
I say, then, has that dog got a current licence?
Good God an do you ever give it a break what can the police do they wanted Catholics, women and people west of the Bann to put their names forward and sadly they didn’t what are the police supposed to do?
BTW if you wish to point the finger why don’t you point the finger at the catholic community and their reluctance to enlist is it because people are put off because of the possible threat coming from Ex IRA dissident’s.?
“BTW if you wish to point the finger why don’t you point the finger at the catholic community and their reluctance to enlist is it because people are put off because of the possible threat coming from Ex IRA dissident’s.?”
Ex IRA dissidents neill?, oh you mean the ex IRA who are still on the payroll as agents to the british state forces and seemingly untouchable to the PSNI.
“BTW if you wish to point the finger why don’t you point the finger at the catholic community and their reluctance to enlist is it because people are put off because of the possible threat coming from Ex IRA dissident’s.?”
Or maybe its because of the RUC elements still in the PSNI Neill? You know the ones who arrest senior republicans like Bobby Storey, offer absolutely no evidence of any crime then release Storey again without charge? And the arrest just happens when there’s serious political turmoil and held an advantage for Unionism? What a coincidence! Oh and that’s right, the DUP leader knew about the arrest shortly before it happens! Wow, your not the only one with crystal ball out there Neill!
As I said before the PSNI needs to be 50/50 Nationalist and Unionist, RUC elements must be rooted out from its senior officers because those elements have no interest in a shared, equal society, in fact, they are doing all they can to oppose it.
70-30? Hardly balanced when there’s over twice as many Unionists in the PSNI as there are Nationalists. I’m not sure if 50/50 recruitment is still ongoing, I think it stopped quite a while ago. Will a Unionist dominated police force attract nationalists to join? Will a Unionist dominated police force garner the confidence and support of the Nationalist/Catholic community? Very unlikely, especially since we know there’s definitely RUC elements in the PSNI and we all know how the Nationalist community viewed the RUC…..
50/50 recruitment should be reinstated and continued until there’s 50/50 Unionist/Nationalist population in the PSNI. In that way we can be sure the PSNI is a police force for all the community and not just a police force for one, like the RUC was.
their still the peelers,few castle catholics changes nothing.
More cross border cooperation, joint Garda Síochána and PSNI bodies to deal with all island crime is the way to go, then eventually merging both forces will even things up.
And another thing – why would anyone want to spend a fortune building an academy in Mid Ulster instead of using Templemore? That would definitely save a lot on operating expenses never mind capital expense as well as gaining the intangible advantages of cross border relatinships, sharing of ideas and so on. Surely the cost conscious amongst us would support that and the advocates of shared future would salivate – no?
Can you all not see the major change?
The former pro-consul Paterson said in 2010 there were 29% Catholic Police officers. Now there is 30% !!!