Sir, - Should the Garda authorities have been involved last weekend in commemorating the RIC and 200 years of policing in Ireland (The Irish Times, September 8th)?
Most "peelers" were, no doubt, decent men immersed in day to day, uncontroversial police tasks. But the RIC was also the armed force of first resort for British rule in Ireland. As such, its work included protecting eviction parties, suppressing the Fenians (for which the force earned the "Royal" prefix) and combatting the "old" IRA.
Hokum about a 200-year-policing tradition should not be allowed to give the impression that the Garda Siochana was, or is, a successor to the RIC. The Garda was a success, in large measure, because it was a rare instance of the Irish State creating a genuinely new institution - in this case an unarmed police force which went on to earn cross-community support. That is the real Garda tradition. - Yours, etc.,
From Padraig Lenihan Dangan Upper, Galway.