Why was it so hard to establish a regional police force in Northern Ireland after the 1998 Good Friday Agreement?

Authors Avatar

Rachel Adams                March 2007

Why was it so hard to establish a regional police force in Northern Ireland after the 1998 Good Friday Agreement?

The current police service that now replaces the RUC was formed in November 2001 and is called the Police Service of Northern Ireland. The aims of this new police force were to give Northern Ireland a new, unbiased police service. The police force now has a new name, instead of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, a new badge and a new uniform. Most people wanted to get rid of the RUC because it was so corrupt, and the PSNI aimed to be fair, neutral and professional, working with the community. The Good Friday Agreement was made because it was understood that the RUC needed a complete change. There were many events in the history of Northern Ireland which meant that nationalists and unionists couldn’t work together, and this same problem has hindered the police establishment for the past 86 years. The problem lies in the nationalist population refusing to accept the authority of the RUC because they don’t accept legitimacy of ‘Northern Ireland’ itself. This abhorrence was established in the way Northern Ireland was created in 1921 and reinforced in discrimination which nationalists suffered from 1922 to 1968, by the unionists and the RUC’s reaction to the civil rights protests of the later 1960’s but the creation of the provisional IRA (the Provo’s) in the early 1970’s and by the failure of peace agreements in the 1970’s to the 1990’s. Although the nationalists have recently accepted the new PSNI as legitimate, it has taken 8 years since 1998, and even now the unionists and nationalists have still now agreed to share power so the problem remains unsolved. It has taken so long for the same reasons as the last 79 years.

Join now!

 

        The way Northern Ireland was formed in 1921 after the Easter Rising of 1916 meant that the nationalists rejected the authority of the RUC from the very beginning. Northern Ireland was created as a result of the 1918 election in Ireland, the people of Ireland had voted for independence from Britain. The unionists didn’t want this and wanted to be part of Britain. By 1921 the British Prime Minister, Lloyd George and some Irish nationalists within Sinn Fein were getting fed up with the war, so they began peace talks. He persuaded the leader of the IRA to agree ...

This is a preview of the whole essay