Page 33 - Garda Journal Winter 2019

GARDA HISTORY | Belfast Town Police
clear the Square and adjoining streets. The Lord Lieutenant ordered an enquiry which reported in November. The report of the Commissioners was inconclusive but they criticised Orange festivals, “leading as they do to violence, outrage, religious animosities, hatred between classes and, too often, bloodshed and loss of life.”
The riots of 1864 followed a major event in Dublin to lay that foundation stone for a monument to Daniel O’Connell, the Liberator. The train bringing back the Belfast people was attacked from the Boyne Bridge. A large effigy of O’Connell was set alight. The following evening an attempt by the Sandy Row crowd to have a mock funeral to Friar’s Bush graveyard on the Stranmillis Road as foiled. From then until the end of August there was continuous attack and counter attack between Sandy Row and the Pound. Very severe rioting took place with the shipwrights raiding gunsmiths in the centre of Belfast. The Catholic mob was greatly reinforced by navvies from all over Ireland. The navvies were recruited to help develop the Belfast Docks. The severity of the Troubles can be gauged by the assembly of Government forces; Six troops of the 4th Hussars, half a battery of artillery, 89th Regiment of Infantry, 1000 Irish Constabulary, 150 Town Police and 300 Special Constables. Both the Union and General Hospitals were filled to capacity and Clifton House was asked to make its private ward available.
It was reported that 12 had been killed and 75 were admitted to hospital with gunshot wounds, fractures and other serious wounds. A further 60 suffering serious wounds refused to stay in hospital, probably for fear of detection by the authorities. The situation only calmed following very heavy rain. A parliamentary enquiry was established to enquire into ‘the causes of the rioting.’ During this enquiry it was reported that a Town Police Officer was seen to be urging
“
It was reported that a Town Police Officer was seen to be urging the Protestant mob while another was
the Protestant mob while another was arrested for stoning the Catholics.
The Commission found; “It is certainly remarkable that in this body of 160 men (Town Police) only 5 Roman Catholics are to be found, the proportion of Roman Catholics in Belfast being one third and in the class of life whence the Police is recruited considerably higher...it must be regarded as strange that in those circumstances Roman Catholics are to be found in the Belfast Police Force in the proportion of only one to 31.”
“At the inquest allegations were made that the shots were fired by police and others stating that Catholics fired the
The recommendation that the Town Police be disbanded was accepted by Government and the Irish Constabulary took over responsibility for the policing of Belfast. On the night this announcement was made rioting again took place on the Shankill and Sandy Row.
The Commission concluded; “Belfast is liable to periodic disturbances on occasions well known as the Orange Anniversaries...if these celebrations be attended with such risk we might well ask why any party should obstinately adhere to it. The above question was not answered in 1864 nor is it today. Riots continue to punctuate the intermittent peace of Belfast. Riots policed by the RIC in 1872, 1886, 1907, 1922 and continued to be policed by the RUC in 1932, 1935, 1938, 1939-45, 1964 and 1969 and still continues being polices by the PSNI from 2001 to date. The last major street disorder took place in 2005 following the Whiterock Orange Parade in West Belfast. With the establishment of a new political order we hope that major street disorders will be in our past, but history has a habit of repeating itself.
shots˝
arrested for stoning the Catholics˝
GARDA JOURNAL 39