Hedge School: Policing in Ireland 1814 – 2014
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Hedge School: Policing in Ireland 1814 – 2014
@ National Museum of Ireland-Country Life, Castlebar, Co. Mayo, 16 January, 2015
Tommy Graham with Conor McNamara, Jim Herlihy, Sarah-Anne Buckley and John Cunningham
Recent controversies over penalty points and Garda ‘whistle-blowers’ have focused attention on an institution that we all take for granted. Yet Ireland’s first police force, the Peace Preservation Force, is a little over two centuries old. What went before? Why was it established? In what ways did the later Royal Irish Constabulary diverge from other police forces in the United Kingdom? How was it possible, in the midst of a civil war, for the Irish Free State to set up an unarmed ‘civic guard’? Discussing these and related matters were History Ireland editor, Tommy Graham, and his panel of experts—Jim Herlihy (Garda Siochána Historical Society), John Cunningham(NUI Galway), Sarah-Anne Buckley (NUI Galway) and Conor McNamara (Notre Dame).
