Transition, ‘Never Again’ and ‘Moving On’

Viewing Irish republican policing memory primarily through a transitional justice lens, this chapter critically examines how Irish republicans, as a principal party to the conflict, approach the difficult issue of ‘dealing with the past’ as both collective victims and perpetrators of human rights violations during the conflict. It will interrogate the range of divergent views within modern Irish republicanism on issues such as victimhood, truth recovery, ‘moving on’ and ‘dealing with the past’. In particular, it looks at how the memory of human rights violations framed the wider policing debate and led to a master narrative of ‘never again’ whereby the value of ‘remembering’ past abuses lay in helping to prevent future repetition. This is placed against a more general backdrop of the stop-start ‘dealing with the past’ process in the North of Ireland that has included the establishment, operation and subsequent replacement of the Historical Enquiries Team (HET), the passage of the Civil Service (Special Advisers) Act (Northern Ireland), and proposals like the Haass/O’Sullivan document and the Stormont House Agreement.

The Patriot Dead

This chapter assesses the centrality of martyrology to Irish republicanism as an ideology. It examines how the dead become a useful political resource for competing memory entrepreneurs who are keen to sanctify their current strategies and in the process keep their grassroots support base on board during periods of political transition. It interrogates contending narratives on whether ‘critical engagement’ is in furtherance of or contradiction to the ideological goals that the Irish republican war dead sacrificed themselves for. The chapter grapples with the policing narrative proffered by each side; the narrative of ‘critical engagement’ being the extension of the courage shown by the dead during armed struggle and the counter-narrative that endorsement of policing represents a defeat of the goals for which the Irish republican war dead sacrificed themselves. It examines how commemoration and memorialisation were used by competing political groups prior to, during and following the Sinn Fein Extraordinary Ard Fheis on policing in order to bolster their respective positions through building a link of continuity with the martyred dead.

The PSNI and ‘Community Policing’

This chapter critically evaluates how the interaction between memory politics and police reform processes shapes current views of community policing within Irish republican communities. Establishing the overarching context of post-conflict police reform within which opposing narratives on community policing are pieced together, the chapter critiques the impact that changes in police symbolism, police composition and the nature of the core policing function fulfilled by the PSNI has had on views of policing within working class republican communities. It examines how the Patten programme of police reform has interacted with individual and collective memory to fashion opposing narratives on community policing. The chapter suggests that there are currently two competing master narratives on community policing that prevail within modern Irish republicanism; the ‘critical engagement’ narrative proffered by those in favour of policing that uses the memory of past ‘suspect community’ policing by the RUC to frame itself with assertions of newness, change and of the primary policing function now being to provide a policing service to local communities and the ‘cosmetic reform’ narrative espoused by those who continue to reject post-Patten policing in Northern Ireland that uses memory in a more ideologised manner in order to dismiss police reform as an attempt to normalise ‘British’ policing in Ireland.

The PSNI and ‘Political Policing’

This chapter critically examines how the historically problematic issue of ‘political policing’ features in opposing policing narratives within modern Irish republicanism. Establishing the overarching contexts of institutional crossover and heightened usage of ‘anti-terror’ legislation within which competing policing narratives are fashioned, the chapter conducts a thematic examination of opposing narratives on political policing. The chapter will establish that those in favour of policing have constructed a narrative of ‘political policing’ that is premised on the notion of rupture that seeks to differentiate the PSNI from the RUC. This narrative disaggregates the policing monolith into ‘good’ policing by the ‘new’ breed of police officer and ‘bad’ policing by the residual ‘securocrat’ element, and emphasises the need to proactively fight the ‘roll back’ of change in order to further the ongoing process of wider equality based transformation of the ‘Orange state’. The anti-policing narrative on ‘political policing’ is conversely premised on the notion of continuity with past political policing of Irish republicans by the RUC. This counter-narrative draws on themes such as the continued abuse of ‘anti-terror’ legislation, the retention of RUC ‘political policing’ methods and the refined targeting of Irish republicans for political policing by the PSNI.

Ideology and Policing

This chapter critically examines the overarching ideological dimension to the policing debate within modern Irish republicanism, interrogating how competing views of where Irish republicanism is currently at in transition and where it is believed to be heading in the future are construed through value laden interpretations of where is has come from. It evaluates how ‘critical engagement’ with post-Patten policing in Northern Ireland is interpreted through long held belief systems that frame the move in terms of congruence with or contradiction to past positions. The chapter posits that there are two contesting ideological models for understanding the current Sinn Fein strategy in transitional Northern Ireland; the ‘progressive republican’ model that interprets current Sinn Fein strategy as being premised on a change of tactics that has moved the pursuit of ideological goals from an armed struggle to a political struggle and the ‘constitutional nationalist’ model that interprets Sinn Fein strategy as an abandonment of Irish republican principles that involves a reformist working of the state that can ultimately only lead to assimilation into, rather than removal of, a partitionist state.

Understanding a Fraught Historical Relationship

This chapter provides an historic overview of policing and the rule of law in Northern Ireland and the violent antagonistic relationship Irish republicanism has traditionally had with it. It traces the development of this problematic relationship from the earliest use of the colonial policy of plantation, through to the fostering of ‘divided society’ policing following the partition of the island of Ireland and the creation of a ‘Protestant state for a Protestant people’, eventually culminating in the open armed confrontation between the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and Irish republican armed groups during the most recent phase of conflict in the six counties. Linking the issue of policing to the prevailing political climate, the chapter closes by examining how the issue of policing was addressed in respect of the wider transition then taking place in Northern Ireland. It analyses how Irish republicans adapted their position on and attitude towards policing and the rule of law in tandem with a changing political relationship with the Northern Ireland state following the Good Friday Agreement (GFA).

Introduction

This chapter provides an introductory overview of the arguments made throughout the following chapters of the book. It brings together insights from the fields of memory studies and transitional justice to establish a theoretical framework for examining the construction, circulation and contestation of collective memories during periods of political violence and how these change during periods of political transition. Drawing on observations made in transitioning societies elsewhere, the chapter will highlight how the past becomes a highly contestable resource not only between but also within collectives during political transition. Cognisant of this, the chapter will proceed to outline the main research aims of the book and the research questions that it aims to provide answers to in ascertaining both how and why memory is/was moulded by various actors within modern Irish republicanism to either support or reject the endorsement of policing and criminal justice in Northern Ireland.

Conclusion

The conclusion outlines how memory politics features in different ways and at different levels within the extended Irish republican debate on policing. It suggests that any understanding of the role memory politics plays within modern Irish republicanism must acknowledge that it operates on three different levels; the conventional level, an inter-communal level and an intra-communal level. In operating on the conventional level, memory politics is seen to feature in the Irish republican policing debate in ways that it has featured in other transitioning societies. In operating on an inter-communal level Irish republican policing memory can be seen to feed into the ‘metaconflict’ in a post-conflict society that has not yet systematically addressed its violent past. In operating on an intra-communal level memory is a useful political resource between competing groups who are seeking to either drive or spoil transitional processes in Northern Ireland.

Irish Republican Memory as Counter-Memory

This chapter critically examines the inter-communal contestation over policing memory. It contextualises this dimension to memory contestation in contemporary Northern Ireland by drawing on theoretical literature on the use of memory in deeply divided societies and on memory politics in transitioning societies. In doing so it establishes how the collective memory of violence, suffering and victimhood can become ‘war by other means’ in post-conflict societies trying to ‘deal with the past’. This chapter uses the Irish republican policing narrative to critique Unionist, state and RUC narratives of policing that have little resonance with the lived on the ground reality in republican communities, thus developing a fuller understanding of the counter-memory function that Irish republican policing memory performs in current debates on the policing legacy in the North of Ireland.