The policing of Belfast, 1870-1914
By: Mark Radford
Series: History of crime, deviance and punishment series
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, Bloomsbury
Published: 2015
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 243
ISBN-13: 9781472513168; 9781472506375; 9781472514097
Subjects: Police; History; Social conditions; Royal Irish Constabulary
Description: 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
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 181-237) and index.
Table of contents: title: The most barbarous of towns; title: Black enamelled peelers; title: Tripping up a policeman; title: A peculiar disorder; title: Closely akin to actual warfare; title: First stand of the R.I.C.; title: The dark eleventh hour; title: Conclusion; title: Appendix One: "The Belfast special bobbies and King Mob"; title: Appendix Two: "Battle of the Brickfields"; title: Appendix Three: Judicial statistics table, population of Belfast and the strength of the Belfast R.I.C; title: Appendix Four: Ode to the Belfast burglar; title: Appendix Five: "Ode to the man of the week; title: the chief".