Sir Ronnie Flanagan, the first Police Service of Northern Ireland Chief Constable, will retire from the force this weekend, amid claims of bungled leadership and insider security breaches.
Up until last December, the 53-year old Belfast man's legacy seemed secured.
|
|
Sir Ronnie Flanagan
|
Sir Ronnie had overseen the beginnings of the difficult transition of the Protestant-dominated Royal Ulster Constabulary into the more representative Police Service of Northern Ireland, and was regarded as a gifted leader with a world-class flair for communication.
However, late last year an independent report into the 1998 Omagh bombing castigated Sir Ronnie's handling of the investigation as seriously flawed.
Sir Ronnie’s response to Police Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan's report, was to publicly declare he would commit suicide if her conclusion - that he and his fellow officers exercised defective defective leadership and poor judgement was correct. He later apologised for his crass remark.
Controversy, however, continued to surround the father-of-three in the last few weeks of his tenure.
A break-in two weeks ago at Castlereagh Police Station led Sir Ronnie to admit it was an inside job. The St Patrick's Day break-in at Castlereagh in Belfast, believed to be the most heavily fortified police station in western Europe, has baffled police and security experts alike. It once again cast the province's Special Branch, which uses informers to gather intelligence, in a bad light.
Ironically, Sir Ronnie was an important figure within the Special Branch, at one stage serving as its chief, but was never personally identified with any of its alleged misdeeds, which critics say included collusion with loyalist terrorists.
Indeed, in contrast to the branch's legendary secrecy, Sir Ronnie gained a reputation as an outgoing, personable man. A devotee of the work of Irish poet WB Yeats, Flanagan's dead-pan wit has made him a popular after-dinner speaker.
Born and bred in Belfast, he joined the RUC in 1970 and served through most of the three decades of bloodshed in the North. When he took over as chief constable in 1996, policing was in crisis.
The 1996 battle over a Drumcree church, where hardline Orangemen had been prevented from marching down the Garvaghy Road, polarised opinion and heightened fear in both communities.
With the signing of the Good Friday peace agreement in 1998, the days of the RUC were numbered. But many officers were strongly opposed to any changes to the force.
Sir Ronnie's political touch, however, succeeded in pushing through the reforms, which included a name change for the force and getting the community more involved in policing.
The first batch of PSNI recruits start graduating from next week and for that, at least, he can be proud.
The rugby enthusiast will take up a post with the English Inspectorate of Constabulary shortly.
His deputy Colin Cramphorn will replace him as acting chief constable until a successor is appointed early this summer.
PA