MY RIC

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Ireland is now well past the midpoint of the decade of commemorations. The 1913 Lockout, the 1916 Rising, the 1918 General Election and the 1919 First Dáil are behind us. And we are facing into the tricky bits of the 1919-21 War of Independence and the 1922-24 Civil War.

One of the difficulties posed by the War of Independence is the large number of Irishmen on the opposing side, in the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC).

A recent effort by the Government to stage a remembrance ceremony for the RIC, and particularly those members who died during the War of Independence, had to be abandoned in the face of widespread protests.

Nature of the force

You could look on the RIC as an ordinary civil police force, and they did all the things that such a police force would do. But, over the years, they had also been the eyes and ears of the British administration and during the Land War had overseen evictions of the Irish from their homesteads. Also, they were an armed force.

They became the target of the IRA in the War of Independence, and attacks on rural barracks forced most of them to withdraw into the relative safety of the towns.

In the course of 1920, their numbers were augmented with British ex-servicemen: Black & Tans (ex-soldiers) and Auxiliaries (ex-officers). These additional members were specifically recruited to carry out reprisals, including against civilians, which they did on a large scale. They were subject to little if any discipline and created widespread havoc.

The Government's commemoration was aimed at the local bobby on the beat, so to speak, but there was no effective way of isolating this element of the force's activities and any ceremonials would end up commemorating the force as a whole. Hence the protests.

Individuals

So on to my family, which can "boast" six RIC members, three blood-related and three inlaws.

For the sake of clarity I should point out that they were all out of the force by 1911.

I have set out their records below, but let me first make some comments of more general interest.

Out of County

There was a rule in the RIC that a member should not serve in his own county or that of his wife if he was married. Yet my grandfather and his brother in law both served in their wives' county, Mayo.

I think this may have happened due to my great-grandfather's influence. The wives were his daughters, both born in Mayo where he himself served. When he died in 1910 the force then attempted to transfer my grandfather out of the county. He resigned instead of moving but still lived on in the house in Barracks St. behind the RIC station.

Ongoing danger

Some measure of the animosity of Republicans to RIC men, including those who were retired, may be gathered from the fact that no mention was made of my grandfather in his son's death notice in the newspaper in 1920.

He was very much alive at the time and had been at the inquest in Ballinasloe, breathing fire against a local boatman whom he held responsible for his son's death.

However, RIC men were being taken out and shot in both Ballyhaunis & Ballinasloe at that time.

Our Lady of Knock

I have often wondered if my great-grandfather had been called on to write up a report on the Knock apparitions of 1879. He was stationed in Kiltimagh at the time and I understand that RIC from surrounding districts had been drafted in to report on these strange occurrences.

Marriage Bar

The RIC recruited single men and they were forbidden to marry for a period of seven years. I'm sure that this led to some degree of sexual tension in many cases.

Perusing the records, you can see a rash of marriages occurring just seven years after enlistment.

My grandfather is reputed to have stashed his bride-to-be in Liverpool for safekeeping during this period, though I'm sure this in itself must have been something of a gamble.

His brother, also in the RIC, resigned after five years in the force, ostensibly to emigrate, but really to get married. His granddaughter, Peig, later married a grandson of Eoin MacNeill.


The Records
Family

Michael Dwyer
Life: 1860-1941 RIC: 1881-1911 Rank: Constable Service No.: 46669

Michael was my paternal grandfather.

He is recorded as joining the RIC in Limerick in 1881(he was from Cappanahanagh in East Limerick, near the Tipperary border). Prior to joining the RIC he was a farmer.

He was stationed initially in Kiltimagh, where he met my granny.

When Michael married, he was transferred to Longford, as RIC men were not stationed in either their county of origin or the county of origin of their spouse. Unusually, Michael was transferred back to Mayo, his wife's county, a year later. He remained in Mayo (mainly Ballyhaunis) until his retirement in 1911. There is a suggestion in the family that he retired because the force intended to transfer him out of Ballyhaunis. This would have been in the year following the death of his (RIC) father in law, Luke Reilly.

Michael was pensioned in 1911 so he was well retired when he went to Ballinasloe to reclaim his drowned son's body in 1922. There is no mention in any of the newspaper reports, or in his son's death notice, of the RIC connection. This was a dangerous time for former RIC men who were being taken out and shot (not always fatally) by the anti-Treaty IRA. He retired at the rank of Constable (post 1883 designation = no promotions)

Luke Reilly
Life: 1822[1829]-1910 RIC: 1853-1884 Rank: Constable Service No.:22161

Luke was my paternal granny's father.

He hailed originally from Sligo, as did his wife. He was stationed in Kiltimagh, Co. Mayo for a substantial part of his career and it was here that he raised his family. I am aware of at least four of a family, including my granny. He stayed on in Kiltimagh after his retirement and he is buried with his wife, two children and a grandchild in the local graveyard. He retired at the rank of Constable (post 1883 designation = no promotions)

Eoin MacNeill

William Dwyer
Life: 1858- ?? RIC: 1882-1887 Rank: Constable Service No.: 49205
William was an older sibling of my grandfather Michael.

He also joined the RIC in Limerick in 1882, a year after Michael.

For some reason, known only to himself he claimed to be 18½ when he was actually 24.

He had a short and not distinguished career in the force. He was fined twice, 15/- in 1884 (Galway West Riding) and 30/- in 1887 (Waterford), substantial amounts for the time. I have no idea what for.

He resigned from the force in 1887 claiming he was going to emigrate. In fact he got married in that year, two years before he would have been allowed to had he stayed in the force. He married Bridget from Co. Westmeath and they had two children, Mary (b. 1897) and William (b. 1900). Both children were born in Co. Tipperary so it's an open question whether William ever emigrated.

He ended up in Crowle, near Cloughjordan, in Co. Tipperary as a publican (1911 Census).

His grand-daughter Peig married Michael Tierney's son thereby relating us to Eoin MacNeill who was Tierney's father in law {and also to Michael and Moore McDowell, whose mother was a daughter of MacNeill).

When the 1911 census caught up with him in Crowle, he claimed to be a publican and RIC pensioner. It is hard to see how his short, and clearly not exemplary, career in the RIC would have entitled him to a pension and there is no indication in RIC records that he ever got one.


In laws


Edward Crosby
Life: 1857-?? RIC: 1879-1905 Rank: Sergeant Service No.: 45114
Edward was a farmer and originally from Kildare, where he joined the RIC in 1879. He was stationed in Kiltimagh, where he met and married my granny's sister, Jane. They moved to Ballina at some stage and Edward is recorded as living there after his retirement in 1905. In the course of his career Edward was promoted to Sergeant.

Thomas O'Brien
Life: 1844-?? RIC: 1868-1900 Rank: Constable [Sergeant?] Service No.: 34353
Thomas O'Brien is the father of Mary Kate O'Brien who married Christopher Joseph Burgess, a granduncle on my mother's side.

In 1904 he was living in St. John's Terrace, in Mountbrown, Dublin. As Dublin City was policed by the DMP (Dublin Metropolitan Police) rather than the RIC, he would not have served there and probably moved to Dublin after his retirement.

He was appointed Sub Constable and promoted Assistant Constable and Constable, at which rank he retired in 1900. As these promotions predated the reorganisation of grades he would have been subsequently designated Sargeant (which title replaced the former three chevron grade of Constable in 1883).

He was recruited in Galway/Mayo in 1868 and served initially in Co. Kildare (Celbridge) but after he married Kate Condron from Sallins in 1876 he was shifted to Co. Roscommon (Boyle - he lived in Ballyfarnon).

John Medlar
Life: 1828-?? RIC: 1847-1849 Rank: Subconstable Service No.: 8556
John Medlar is either an ancestor of the Dublin Medlars, or is closely related to their ancestors.

His RIC career was a short one. He was recruited at 19 years of age in Kilkenny in 1847. His previous trade was a blacksmith in that county. He was assigned to Co. Cavan and his career initially looked promising as he was promoted to subconstable in 1848, but he was [subsequently] fined twice and was dismissed in September 1849.


RIC Records

You can check out their individual records here. This is just the ledger entries which I consulted at DCLA in Pearse St. I suspect there may be fuller reports on some aspects of these in Kew.

While I'm at it I would like to record my gratitude to, and admiration of, Jim Herlihy who has written what I have described as the most boring book in the world. Without it, none of this record tracing would have been possible.


And Finally, in Conclusion ...

I had three blood relatives in the British Army:

Thomas Mortimer, a granduncle, who drowned in Ranikhet. India, in 1892, in an unsuccessful attempt to save a drowning colleague, who also drowned.

John Dwyer, an uncle, who was killed on the Somme in September 1916 in the successful but costly, assault on High Wood.

John Burgess, a granduncle, whose father disinherited him when he enlisted in 1914/15, but who, despite being wounded, survived WWI.

And then there's the Medlars of Paulstown, cousins of cousins by marriage a few times removed.

The whole family was what I describe as mad republicans, and they constitute many separate stories in themselves.

There is also an RIC connection here. Larry Medlar was sentenced to death for an unsuccessful attack on Gowran RIC Barracks in 1921.