Stray Bullets

Just a few more RUC memories stirred by recent news.Food delivery driver allegedly threatened and racially abused before footage appeared on TikTok, court hears  Click here if you’d like to send me a comment or question. Thank you.Support the showMédecins Sans Frontières Unicef

Continuing my look at the experience of catholic officers within policing in Northern Ireland. In this episode I begin to look at issues which may affect recruitment from the Nationalist / Republican community.In the following episode I will continue this topic (and most likely conclude same), but with a more in-depth look at some of the selection processes involved when applying to become a PSNI recruit, as well as  a few more anecdotes about the job.          Click here if you’d like to send me a comment or question. Thank you.Support the showMédecins Sans Frontières Unicef

The recent 'Hoover-Gate' news report brought back some old memories, as well as a look at the ongoing strategy used to delay and (sometimes) derail being disciplined or summoned to court as a defendant.I should mention also, though, that it's a strategy found in other police service's too.Top police officer facing possible sack retires before misconduct hearing Click here if you’d like to send me a comment or question. Thank you.Support the showMédecins Sans Frontières Unicef

Cursory thoughts about some of the rot affecting youth culture in working-class protestant areas of Belfast and the cinema of adoration through hate. Upon reflection there's probably more I could have put into - and further expanded upon - in this episode, but time was against me and I didn't want it to run on too long. My early episodes about Belfast look more at territorial spaces and the episode about Loyalist communities may also be of interest.    TikTok bans Belfast vigilante group’s videos as PSNI labels its actions ‘racism, pure and simple’Vigilante groups targeting migrants in street patrols in Belfast ‘greatly concerning’BibliographyTaylor, S. Responding to Racist Incidents and Racist Crimes in Ireland: An Issue Paper for the Equality Authority, Dublin, Equality Authority, 2011Ramsey, P. and Waterhouse-Bradley, B. Cultural Policy in Northern Ireland: making cultural policy for a divided society, in The Routledge Handbook of Global Cultural Policy, Abingdon: Routledge, 2018  Click here if you’d like to send me a comment or question. Thank you.Support the showMédecins Sans Frontières Unicef

Listen to the Catholic Police Officers in the RIC, RUC and PSNI Part IV episode prior to this - I just wanted to expand upon an anecdote I spoke (briefly) about in the above episode.   Click here if you’d like to send me a comment or question. Thank you.Support the showMédecins Sans Frontières Unicef

The fourth instalment in which I discuss the experiences of Catholic Police Officers in the RIC, RUC and PSNI.Click on the link below - it'll make more sense after listening to this episode. Many thanks!  Isolation    Click here if you’d like to send me a comment or question. Thank you.Support the showMédecins Sans Frontières Unicef

A brief preamble.  Catholic Police Officers in the RIC, RUC and PSNI Part III will follow in the next Stray Bullets instalment, due very soon!Click here if you’d like to send me a comment or question. Thank you.Support the showMédecins Sans Frontières Unicef

An unexpected interlude. I had planned to bridge episode II and III of 'Catholic Police Officers in the RIC, RUC and PSNI' with a trailer, but unplanned events look set to overtake me and, as such, I'm unsure now of the possible duration between II and III.In the meantime - time of mean-spiritedness - I couldn't ignore the latest disgrace in our ignoble history, that of Goldsprings of Comber LOL opposition to a local cross-community event hosting children from ten different cultural backgrounds, one being from a GAA sporting background.Below are some links illuminating the debacle to date:This was about Sport – for KidsCricket bodies 'dismayed' over halted summer campLittle-Pengelly ‘saddened and disappointed’ by cancellation of sport summer campThe GAA wolf may wrap itself in the sheep of children, but it is still a wolf       Click here if you’d like to send me a comment or question. Thank you.Support the showMédecins Sans Frontières Unicef

The second episode in which I look at the experience of catholic officers within the Royal Ulster Constabulary and the Police Service of Northern Ireland. A glimpse of how catholic officers are exposed to isolation, sectarianism and even racism and matters of faith, both external to the job and within it. Click here if you’d like to send me a comment or question. Thank you.Support the showMédecins Sans Frontières Unicef

The first of two episodes in which I examine the experience and prospects of catholic police officers in Northern Ireland's RIC, RUC and PSNI. As ever I'll stray from organisational mythology (RUC) and may go off tangent now and again. Thanks for your patience.   BibliographyArthur, P. Government and Politics of Northern Ireland, Longman, London, 1984Boyce, D.G. Nationalism in Ireland, Croom Helm, London, 1982Brady, C. Guardians of the Peace, Gill and Macmillan, Dublin, 1974Brewer, J.D. The Royal Irish Constabulary: An Oral History, Institute of Irish Studies, Queen's University, Belfast, 1990McNiffe, L. A History of the Garda Siochana: A Social History of the Force 1922-52, with an Overview for the years 1952-97, Wolfhound Press, Dublin, 1997Shaw, Fr Francis, The Canon of Irish History: A Challenge, Studies LXI, Summer, 1972My novel (for those who expressed an interest) Many thanks!The Bitter End of Dreams Click here if you’d like to send me a comment or question. Thank you.Support the showMédecins Sans Frontières Unicef