NCJ Number
129603
Date Published
1988
Length
848 pages
Annotation
This historical review of the British and Irish police covers the period from 1780 to 1850 and especially looks at the contribution of protest in Ireland to British police history.
Abstract
The review does not argue for a sustained connection between protest movements and the police. Rather, the emphasis is on a pattern of developments triggered by conditions in each country. Protest is viewed as not only public disorders, but also opposition to new policing ideas. Police history broadly reveals much about social history; the different paths of police developments in England and Ireland indicate basic aspects of each country's society. The review considers the police in political and regional contexts, contrasts societies in the two countries, and explores crime and protest. Attention is also paid to the use of military forces to aid civilian police, police legislation and reform, police experimentation and the threat of revolution in Ireland, policing innovations, the Irish constabulary, and borough and rural police in England. It is concluded that the modern police system in England and Ireland was in place by 1860, although both countries took different paths in establishing the police. A centralized, armed, military-style police force was not established in England because such a force would have provoked widespread public outcry. In Ireland, rebellions of various forms provided ample reasons for introducing an armed, centralized police force. Appendixes provide additional information on committals for protest offenses in England and Ireland from 1835 to 1856, growth of the Irish constabulary from 1824 to 1852, police recruit occupations, and early characteristics of the Irish police. References, tables, maps, and illustrations