MY RIC

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We are still in the decade of centenaries, and the State announced it would commemorate the RIC in a special event on 17 January 2020.

While the centenary involved was the War of Independence 1919-21, I don't think it was clear whether the commemoration was limited to those members who were killed, or those who served, over this period. Or, indeed, if the commemoration would cover all who ever served in this force.

There are a number of complications attached to any such commemoration.

The RIC was not just an ordinary police force, though it was that at well. However, it was an armed force and an integral part of the occupying power and its army. Its presence throughout the island, with the exception of Dublin, made it an ideal agency for reporting (spying) on the activities of nationalists. It also had baggage from the suppression of the Fenians and the period of mass evictions.

Happy Auxies

When it came to the War of Independence, and particularly from 1920 on, the rebels' guerilla warfare seriously wounded it to the point where it was not up to the job. This led to the recruitment of two special units, the Black & Tans and the Auxiliaries, the latter of which was to prove the crueler of the two.

So any State commemoration of the RIC was going to prove problematic from the outset and opposition was not long coming to the fore.

The Justice Minister, defending the event, said that the main body of the RIC were just policemen doing their job and the commemoration would not cover the Tans or the Auxies. And, anyway, the State was just following the advice of its distinguished Advisory Committee.

An added complication was that, in a highly emotive atmosphere, the subtle difference between commemoration and celebration was likely to be lost.

And even a plain commemoration of this controversial force was anathema to many.

Opposition continued to mount and to cap it all, a member of the Advisory Committee pointed out that the type of event proposed by the State was not at all what they had in mind with their advice.

The Minister for Justice has now deferred the event, hinting at sinister plots in play to subvert it.

Michael Dwyer RIC

This whole episode has been a difficult one for me. I was far from pleased when, in my family history research, I discovered five RIC members in my family. The only slight consolation in the present context is that none of them were serving during the War of Independence.

The latest serving was my grandfather, Michael Dwyer pictured above. He retired in 1911.

Uncle Paddy's Death Notice

Nevertheless, with feelings running high, in May 1922, both his and his wife's names were omitted from their son's death notice (above). Former RIC members in the area were being taken out and shot by the Irregulars at that time.

Luke Reilly RIC

This is my great-grandfather, Michael's father in law, Luke Reilly. He was also RIC and may have been among those members drafted in to report on the Knock Apparition in 1879.

I have adopted him as my Twitter avatar.

Just by way of illustrating the diversity of my background, I had three relations in the British Army; one of them died on the Somme in WWI. An IRA first cousin of a first cousin by marriage twice removed, was sentenced to death for an attack on an RIC barracks. One of my second cousins was married to a grand-son of Eoin McNeill.

I'll wager there are many others out there who would be surprised at what they might discover if they delved into their family history.

Hopefully all the above gives you some small idea of the complexities faced by the State, and of course the people, as we drift into the trickier end of the decade of centenaries.

From my own point of view, discovering all these various threads has meant that I have needed to go beyond the lazy & superficial view of the period which I have had since my schooldays. My long departed relations deserve it.