Strong support for decision to postpone RIC/DMP commemoration

Nearly 70 per cent of voters believe the Government was right to postpone the proposed commemoration for the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) and the Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP).

The event, instigated by Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan, was due to have taken place at Dublin Castle on January 17th, but was postponed after objections from those who believed that it would also remember the Black and Tans and Auxiliaries who were drafted in to help both police forces during the War of Independence.

In the latest Irish Times/IPSOS MRBI poll, 68 per cent of voters stated the Government was right to postpone the commemoration. Just 13 per cent of voters thought it should have gone ahead with it, 9 per cent said they were not aware of the controversy, and 10 per cent said they had no opinion.

When the unaware and the don’t knows are excluded, voters believe by a margin of 84 per cent to 16 per cent that the Government was right to postpone the commemoration.

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There was a remarkable level of uniformity among party supporters about the decision. Some 68 per cent of Fine Gael supporters approved of the postponement, just two percentage points less than Sinn Féin (70 per cent).

Fianna Fáil supporters were most strongly in favour of the postponement (77 per cent) and the Green Party supporters (66 per cent) the least in favour.

Fine Gael supporters recorded the highest number of those who wanted the commemoration to go ahead, but even then only 20 per cent approved.

The young were the least in favour of going ahead with the commemoration. Just 8 per cent of 18-24 years olds approved of such a move, but there was also a high degree of unawareness about the controversy (22 per cent) in that age cohort.

Some 20 per cent of those over the age of 65 wished the commemoration to go ahead and only 3 per cent were not aware of it.