Guaranteed original. Complete & intact. This is an original Royal Irish / Ulster Constabulary RIC RUC Police collar badge for sale. In good condition. Please see our other items for more original WW1, WW2 & post war British military badges for sale including other Royal Irish Ulster Constabulary RUC Police collar badges.
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The Royal Ulster Constabulary was the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2001. Under section 60 of the Government of Ireland Act 1920, Northern Ireland was placed under the jurisdiction of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC). On 31 January 1921, Richard Dawson Bates, the first Minister of Home Affairs for Northern Ireland, appointed a committee of inquiry on police organisation in Northern Ireland. It was asked to advise on any alterations to the existing police necessary for the formation of a new force (i.e. recruitment and conditions of service, composition, strength and cost). An interim report was published on 28 March 1922, the first official report of the new Parliament of Northern Ireland, and it was subsequently accepted by the Northern Ireland Government. On 29 April 1922, King George V granted to the force the name Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC). In May, the Parliament of Northern Ireland passed the Constabulary Act 1922 and the RUC officially came into existence on 1 June. The headquarters of the force was established at Atlantic Buildings, Waring Street, in Belfast, and became the first Inspector General.
The uniform remained essentially the same as that of the RIC – a dark green, as opposed to the dark blue worn by the other British police forces and the Garda Sochna. A new badge of the Red Hand of Ulster on a St George’s Cross surrounded by a chain was designed but proved unpopular and was never uniformly adopted. Eventually the Harp & Crown insignia of the Order of St Patrick as worn by the RIC was readopted. From the beginning it had a dual role, unique among British police forces, of providing a normal law enforcement police service while enforcing the new Northern Ireland polity in the face of considerable opposition (often armed). To this end, its members were armed as the RIC had been. The RUC was limited by statute to a 3,000-strong force. Initially, a third of positions within the force were reserved for Roman Catholics, a reflection of the proportions of the population of Northern Ireland at that time. The first two thousand places were filled quickly and those reserved for Catholics were filled mainly by ex-RIC men fleeing north. Due to reluctance by the political establishment to employ too many Catholics (who were seen as potentially disloyal to the Protestant and Unionist ethos of the new government), the force abandoned this policy. As a result, representation of Catholics in the RUC never exceeded 20% and, by the 1960s, it had sank to 12%. The RUC were supported by the Ulster Special Constabulary, a volunteer body of part-time auxiliary police established before the Northern Ireland government was set up, who had already been given uniforms and training. The RUC’s senior officer, the Inspector General, was appointed by the Governor of Northern Ireland and was responsible to the Minister of Home Affairs in the Northern Ireland government for the maintenance of law and order.
Please see our other items for more original WW1, WW2 & post war British military badges for sale including other Royal Irish Ulster Constabulary RUC Police collar badges.
