The Policing of Belfast 1870-1914

Mark Radford

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN:
  9781350011090
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781472506375
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: 19th Century History
• Index: History

The Policing of Belfast, 1870-1914 examines the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) in late Victorian Belfast in order to see how a semi-military, largely rural constabulary adapted to the problems that a city posed. Mark Radford explores whether the RIC, as the most public face of British government, was successful in controlling a recalcitrant Irish urban populace. This examination of the contrast in styles between urban and rural policing and semi-rural and civil constabulary offers an important insight into the social, political and military history of Ireland at the turn of the twentieth century. The book concludes by showing how governmental neglect of the force and its failure to comprehensively address the issues of pay and conditions of service ultimately led to crisis in the RIC.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Figures and Tables
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1. The Most Barbarous of Towns
• 2. Black Enamelled Peelers
• 3. Tripping Up a Policeman
• 4. A Peculiar Disorder
• 5. Closely Akin to Actual Warfare
• 6. The First Stand of the RIC
• 7. The Dark Eleventh Hour
• Conclusion
• Appendix 1: ‘The Belfast Special Bobbies and King Mob’
• Appendix 2: ‘Battle of the Brickfields’
• Appendix 3: Judicial Statistics Table, Population of Belfast and the Strength of the Belfast RIC
• Appendix 4: ‘Ode to the Belfast Burglar’
• Appendix 5: ‘Ode to the Man of the Week – “The Chief ” ’
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index