Relatives of RIC members say police force deserves recognition
AFTER a week of controversy surrounding the Government’s ill-conceived plans to commemorate the RIC, the grandson of an RIC sergeant told the Sunday Independent that he wanted to defend the vast majority of RIC officers whose reputations were badly damaged by “a bad element” in the force.
Michael Guilfoyle, whose grandfather and namesake was the last RIC sergeant in history to serve in Belmullet, County Mayo, called for “a less simplistic” view of the disbanded force.
His remarks follow the “deferral” of plans for a State commemoration of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) and the Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP).
Mr Guilfoyle was among relatives of members of the RIC and the DMP who expressed disappointment at the Government decision not to proceed with a commemoration at Dublin Castle on Friday.
Atrocities committed by the Black and Tans were among the factors that prevent an appreciation of the community policing role of the force in the previous 80 years, he said. His grandfather, born in Enniscrone, Co Sligo, grew up in Ballina, Co Mayo as the son of an RIC member.
He joined the force in 1909 and was transferred to Belmullet prior to the outbreak of the War of Independence.
Sgt Guilfoyle emigrated to New York after the force was disbanded in 1922 and returned to Ireland 10 years later when he chose to live in retirement in Warrenpoint, Northern Ireland instead of the Free State because he must have felt it was “safer”, said his grandson. His brother was an RIC officer based in the North, who continued to serve as a policeman in the newly formed RUC. His younger brother Martin joined the Garda Siochana and was stationed in Co Donegal.
Mr Guilfoyle, who created a Facebook page for relatives of RIC members, said he was “extraordinarily disappointed” that the Dublin Castle commemoration was not going ahead on Friday.
He said “very emotive language” was used by some people who criticised the commemoration plan by saying Germany did not commemorate the Nazis. He recognised there was “a bad element” among the Black and Tans who joined the RIC. He acknowledged some ‘Tans’ were Irish.
Brendan Rohan, a retired Irish army commandant who lives Co Donegal, said he was proud his great-grandfather was a sergeant in the Dublin Metropolitan Police. This DMP sergeant had a brother in the IRA, who was awarded a
War of Independence combat medal and two other brothers joined the British army and the Royal Navy, he said.
“I’m proud to wear all their medals,” said Mr Rohan.
“I feel terrible that people have associated the commemoration of the RIC and my grandfather’s DMP with the atrocities that the Black and Tans committed. We fail to recognise that ordinary Irish people served their communities for years in police uniform. Then a political decision was made to put, virtually, terrorists into a mixture of uniforms. It was a terror tactic.
“Under no circumstances would I be associated with anything commemorating the Black and Tans,” he said.
Retired garda Jim Herlihy, spokesperson for the Historical And Reconciliation
Police (HARP) Society, said his society has been holding an annual ecumenical prayer service for members of the two former police forces in recent years at Mount Argus Church in Dublin.
Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan had attended the most recent one. There will be a commemoration in London, 2022 marking the centenary of the disbandment of the two police forces.
He would be in favour of an Irish event commemorating Irish members of the force which could be organised by the society with an imput from the Government.
Richard Abbott, author of ‘Police Casualties in Ireland 1919-1922,’ said families all over Ireland wrote to thank him for recording the deaths of their relatives.