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115-600: 1980s 1990s The Warrenpoint ambush , also known as the Narrow Water ambush , the Warrenpoint massacre or the Narrow Water massacre , was a guerrilla attack by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) on 27 August 1979. The IRA's South Armagh Brigade ambushed a British Army convoy with two large roadside bombs at Narrow Water Castle outside Warrenpoint , Northern Ireland . The first bomb

230-502: A guerrillera ( [geriˈʎeɾa] ) if female. Arthur Wellesley adopted the term "guerrilla" into English from Spanish usage in 1809, to refer to the individual fighters (e.g., "I have recommended to set the Guerrillas to work"), and also (as in Spanish) to denote a group or band of such fighters. However, in most languages guerrilla still denotes a specific style of warfare. The use of

345-465: A detailed report, alleging RUC and paramilitary violations against children's rights during the Troubles . Both Catholic and Protestant children alleged regular and severe physical assault and mental harassment at the hands of RUC officers, usually conducted to force a false confession of a crime. In an accompanying statement, HRW cited allegations that: Police officers and soldiers harass young people on

460-589: A leaked internal RUC document which reported that a third of all Catholic RUC officers had reported suffering religious discrimination and/or harassment from Protestant fellow officers. According to The Thin Green Line – The History of the Royal Ulster Constabulary GC , written by RUC reservist Richard Doherty , 314 officers were killed and over 9,000 were injured during the existence of the RUC. All but 12 of

575-556: A military advisor. The RUC was to be 3,000-strong, recruiting 2,000 ex-RIC and 1,000 "A Specials". It was intended that half of the RIC men recruited were to be Catholic, making up a third of positions within the force. However, fewer than half the expected number of Catholics came forward and the balance was made up with more A Specials, who continued to exist as a separate force. Throughout its existence, republican political leaders and most Roman Catholic clerics discouraged Catholics from joining

690-477: A pattern. At 16:40, as the convoy was driving past Narrow Water Castle , an 800-pound (360 kg) fertiliser bomb , hidden among strawbales on a parked flatbed trailer , was detonated by remote control by IRA members watching from across the border in County Louth. The explosion caught the last lorry in the convoy, hurling it on its side and instantly killing six paratroopers, whose bodies were scattered across

805-523: A range of crimes including giving weapons, information and transport to loyalist paramilitaries as well as carrying out shooting and bombing attacks of their own. Weir alleged that senior officers, including Chief Superintendent Harry Breen , were aware of and approved of their activity. On 18 April 2003 as part of the third report into collusion between Ulster loyalist paramilitaries, RUC, and British Army, Sir John Stevens published an Overview and Recommendations document (Stevens 3). Stevens' intention

920-466: A reflection of the denominational 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 members 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)

1035-645: A report released on 22 January 2007, the Police Ombudsman Dame Nuala O'Loan stated Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) informers committed serious crimes, including murder, with the full knowledge of their handlers. The report stated that RUC Special Branch officers created false statements, blocked evidence searches and "baby-sat" suspects during interviews. Awards for gallantry for individual officers since 1969 included 16 George Medals , 103 Queen's Gallantry Medals , 111 Queen's Commendations for Bravery and 69 Queen's Police Medals . On 12 April 2000,

1150-511: A target and then disappeared into civilian crowds frustrated the British enemy. The best example of this occurred on Bloody Sunday (21 November 1920), when Collins's assassination unit, known as "The Squad" , wiped out a group of British intelligence agents ("the Cairo Gang ") early in the morning (14 were killed, six were wounded) – some regular officers were also killed in the purge. That afternoon,

1265-566: A variety of reasons, including the treatment of Catholic civilians by the Ulster Special Constabulary during the recent conflict and the mistaken belief that Northern Ireland would be ceded to the Free State in the not too distant future. Protestant fears of strategically important government services being infiltrated by Catholics disloyal to the new state polarised society and made most Catholics unwilling and/or unable to join either

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1380-472: A wholesale reorganisation of inter-community, governmental and policing systems, including a power-sharing executive. The bias, and the under-representation of Catholics and nationalists in the RUC led to, as part of the Good Friday Agreement, a fundamental policing review, headed by Chris Patten , a former British Governor of Hong Kong and Conservative Minister under Margaret Thatcher . The review

1495-576: Is also a type of irregular warfare : that is, it aims not simply to defeat an invading enemy, but to win popular support and political influence, to the enemy's cost. Accordingly, guerrilla strategy aims to magnify the impact of a small, mobile force on a larger, more cumbersome one. If successful, guerrillas weaken their enemy by attrition , eventually forcing them to withdraw. Tactically, guerrillas usually avoid confrontation with large units and formations of enemy troops but seek and attack small groups of enemy personnel and resources to gradually deplete

1610-422: Is also often regarded as the inventor of guerrilla warfare. Guerrilla warfare has been used by various factions throughout history and is particularly associated with revolutionary movements and popular resistance against invading or occupying armies. Guerrilla tactics focus on avoiding head-on confrontations with enemy armies, typically due to inferior arms or forces, and instead engage in limited skirmishes with

1725-436: Is often used as political propaganda by belligerents (most often by governments in power) to denounce opponents whose status as terrorists is disputed. While the primary concern of guerrillas is the enemy's active military units, actual terrorists largely are concerned with non-military agents and target mostly civilians. Attribution: Royal Ulster Constabulary The Royal Ulster Constabulary ( RUC )

1840-454: Is that vanguardism by cadres of small, fast-moving paramilitary groups can provide a focus for popular discontent against a sitting regime, and thereby lead a general insurrection . Although the original approach was to mobilize and launch attacks from rural areas, many foco ideas were adapted into urban guerrilla warfare movements. Guerrilla warfare is a type of asymmetric warfare : competition between opponents of unequal strength. It

1955-581: The Anglo-Irish Agreement led to loyalist assaults on more than 500 homes belonging to Catholics and RUC officers during the mid-1980s. At least 150 RUC families were forced to move as a result. In 1998 Chief Constable Ronnie Flanagan stated in an interview on television that he was unhappy with any RUC officers belonging to the Orange Order or any of the other loyal orders . While the RUC refused to give any details on how many officers were members of

2070-664: The Anglo-Irish War largely precluded them from remaining in territory now controlled by their enemies. The percentage of Catholics in the RUC dropped as these men retired over time. Notable Catholics in the RUC include RUC Chief Constable Sir James Flanagan , who survived an IRA assassination attempt; Deputy Chief Constable Michael McAtamney; Assistant Chief Constable Cathal Ramsey; Chief Superintendent Frank Lagan, and Superintendents Kevin Benedict Sheehy and Brendan McGuigan. In December 1997, The Independent (London) published

2185-618: The City of London Police , to be seconded for a year. Young's appointment began the long process of turning the RUC into a British police service. The RUC Reserve was formed as an auxiliary police force, and all military-style duties were handed over to the newly formed Ulster Defence Regiment , which was under military command and replaced the B Specials. Callaghan selected Young, a career policeman, because no other British policeman could match his direct experience of policing acutely unstable societies and of reforming gendarmeries . from 1943 to 1945, he

2300-581: The Crossbarry Ambush in March 1921 are the most famous examples of Barry's flying columns causing large casualties to enemy forces. The Algerian Revolution of 1954 started with a handful of Algerian guerrillas. Primitively armed, the guerrillas fought the French for over eight years. This remains a prototype for modern insurgency and counterinsurgency, terrorism, torture, and asymmetric warfare prevalent throughout

2415-498: The Dungiven Orange Hall following a police baton charge against a crowd who had been throwing stones at the hall. Witnesses later said they had seen police batoning a figure in the doorway where McCloskey was found, although police claimed that he had been unconscious before the baton charge and may have been hit with a stone. He was taken to hospital and died the following day. On 11 October 1969, Constable Victor Arbuckle

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2530-814: The Maratha Kingdom , pioneered the Shiva sutra or Ganimi Kava (Guerrilla Tactics) to defeat the many times larger and more powerful armies of the Mughal Empire . Kerala Varma (Pazhassi Raja) (1753–1805) used guerrilla techniques chiefly centred in mountain forests in the Cotiote War against the British East India Company in India between 1793 and 1806. Arthur Wellesley (in India 1797–1805) had commanded forces assigned to defeat Pazhassi's techniques but failed. It

2645-653: The McMahon killings on 26 March 1922, in which six Catholics were killed; and the Arnon Street killings several days later on 1 April 1922, in which six more Catholics were shot dead in retaliation for the IRA killing of a policeman. By the mid-1920s the situation had calmed down; for the next forty-five years the murder rate in Northern Ireland would be lower than in the rest of the UK and

2760-527: The Provisional Irish Republican Army campaign . This campaign involved the targeting of police officers, and continued until the final ceasefire in 1997, as the peace process gained momentum. The last RUC officer killed, Constable Francis O'Reilly (a Catholic), was also killed by loyalists, in a September 1998 bombing during the Drumcree conflict . In March 1972, the Government of Northern Ireland resigned and

2875-777: The Rif War in 1920. For the first time in history, tunnel warfare was used alongside modern guerrilla tactics, which caused considerable damage to both the colonial armies in Morocco. In the early 20th century Michael Collins and Tom Barry both developed many tactical features of guerrilla warfare during the guerrilla phase of the 1919–1921 Irish War of Independence . Collins developed mainly urban guerrilla warfare tactics in Dublin City (the Irish capital). Operations in which small Irish Republican Army (IRA) units (3 to 6 guerrillas) quickly attacked

2990-874: The Royal Irish Constabulary force consisting of both regular RIC personnel and the Auxiliary Division took revenge, shooting into a crowd at a football match in Croke Park , killing fourteen civilians and injuring 60 others. In West County Cork , Tom Barry was the commander of the IRA West Cork brigade . Fighting in west Cork was rural, and the IRA fought in much larger units than their fellows in urban areas. These units, called " flying columns ", engaged British forces in large battles, usually for between 10 – 30 minutes. The Kilmichael Ambush in November 1920 and

3105-425: The diminutive evokes the differences in number, scale, and scope between the guerrilla army and the formal, professional army of the state. Prehistoric tribal warriors presumably employed guerrilla-style tactics against enemy tribes: Primitive (and guerrilla) warfare consists of war stripped to its essentials: the murder of enemies; the theft or destruction of their sustenance, wealth, and essential resources; and

3220-603: The government of Northern Ireland . The Ulster Special Constabulary were controversial, with the unit seen by some nationalists as more anti-Catholic and anti-nationalist than the RUC, which, unlike the B Specials, did attract some Catholic recruits. The severe pressure on the RUC and the perceived partiality of the B-Specials led, during the Northern Ireland riots of August 1969 , to the British Army being called in to support

3335-555: The 19th century, the tactical methods of guerrilla warfare have long been in use. In the 6th century BC , Sun Tzu proposed the use of guerrilla-style tactics in The Art of War . The 3rd century BC Roman general Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus is also credited with inventing many of the tactics of guerrilla warfare through what is today called the Fabian strategy , and in China Peng Yue

3450-532: The 19th century: ...our troops should...fight while protected by the terrain...using small, mobile guerrilla units to exhaust the enemy...denying them rest so that they only control the terrain under their feet. More recently, Mao Zedong's On Guerrilla Warfare , Che Guevara 's Guerrilla Warfare , and Lenin's Guerrilla warfare , were all written after the successful revolutions carried out by them in China, Cuba and Russia, respectively. Those texts characterized

3565-407: The 21st century and played a major role in the Troubles between the 1960s and the 1990s. Due to the threat from the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), who saw the RUC as enforcing British rule, the force was heavily armed and militarised . Officers routinely carried submachine guns and assault rifles , travelled in armoured vehicles, and were based in heavily fortified police stations. It

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3680-682: The Bangladesh Forces, was the guerrilla resistance movement consisting of the Bangladeshi military, paramilitary and civilians during the Bangladesh Liberation War that transformed East Pakistan into Bangladesh in 1971. An earlier name Mukti Fauj was also used. The growth of guerrilla warfare was inspired in part by theoretical works on guerrilla warfare, starting with the Manual de Guerra de Guerrillas by Matías Ramón Mella written in

3795-774: The British Army and his cousin Barry Hudson, a 25-year-old native of Dingle , was wounded when shots were fired across the Newry River into the Republic of Ireland about 3 km from the village of Omeath , County Louth. The pair were partners in 'Hudson Amusements' and had been operating their amusements in Omeath for the duration of the Omeath Gala. When the first explosion was heard across the Lough,

3910-457: The British Army behaved after a bombing and correctly predicted that they would set up an incident command point (ICP) at the stone gateway on the other side of the road. At 17:12, thirty-two minutes after the first explosion, another 800-pound (360 kg) bomb hidden in milk pails exploded at the gateway, destroying it and hurling lumps of granite through the air. It detonated as the Wessex helicopter

4025-547: The Cooley Peninsula on the other side of the border, and this view was supported by two part-time firefighters assisting the wounded, who were "sure they had been fired on from the Omeath side of the water". Shortly afterwards, the two IRA members arrested by the Garda Síochána (the Republic of Ireland's police force) and suspected of being behind the ambush, were found to have traces of gunsmoke residue on their hands and on

4140-563: The Fabian choice. The Roman general Quintus Sertorius is also noted for his skillful use of guerrilla warfare during his revolt against the Roman Senate . In China, Han dynasty general Peng Yue is often regarded as the inventor of guerrilla warfare due to his use of irregular warfare in the Chu-Han contention to attack Chu convoys and supplies. In the medieval Roman Empire , guerrilla warfare

4255-704: The IRA launched its Sabotage Campaign in England, which would end a few days before the outbreak of the Second World War . The war brought additional responsibilities for the police: the security of the land border with the Republic of Ireland , which remained neutral during the war, was one important consideration; smuggling greatly increased due to rationing , to the point where police virtually became revenue officers; and many wartime regulations had to be enforced, including " black-out " requirements on house and vehicle lights,

4370-577: 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. The polarised political climate in Northern Ireland resulted in violence from both sides of

4485-639: The Order, thirty-nine RUC officers are listed on the Order's Roll of Honour (of 'Orangemen' killed in the conflict). The size of the RUC was increased on several occasions. At its height, there were 8,500 regular police officers supported by about 5,000 full-time and part-time reserve officers, making it the second largest force in the United Kingdom after the Metropolitan Police in London. The direction and control of

4600-677: The Parachute Regiment shot dead 13 unarmed civilians during a protest march in Derry . Graffiti appeared in republican areas declaring "13 gone and not forgotten, we got 18 and Mountbatten". The day after the Mountbatten and Warrenpoint attacks, the Ulster Volunteer Force retaliated by shooting dead John Patrick Hardy (43), a Catholic civilian, at his home in Belfast's New Lodge estate. Hardy

4715-530: The RUC Chief Constable, claimed instead that the British Army practice, since 1975, of supplying their garrisons in South County Armagh by helicopter gave too much freedom of movement to the IRA. One result was the appointment of Sir Maurice Oldfield to a new position of Coordinator of Security Intelligence in Northern Ireland. His role was to coordinate intelligence between the military, MI5 and

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4830-491: The RUC Traffic Branch was formed on 1 January 1930. In 1936 the police depot at Enniskillen was formally opened and an £800,000 scheme to create a network of 196 police barracks throughout Northern Ireland by rationalizing or repairing the 224 premises inherited from the RIC was underway. In May 1937 a new white glass lamp with the RUC crest went up for the first time to replace the RIC crest still on many stations. About

4945-417: The RUC has been charged or convicted of any criminal acts as a result of these inquiries. O'Loan stated in her conclusions that there was no reason to believe the findings of the investigation were isolated incidents. 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 ,

5060-566: The RUC was awarded the George Cross for bravery, a rare honour which had been awarded collectively only once before, to the island nation of Malta . The Award stated: For the past 30 years, the Royal Ulster Constabulary has been the bulwark against, and the main target of, a sustained and brutal terrorism campaign. The Force has suffered heavily in protecting both sides of the community from danger – 302 officers have been killed in

5175-560: The RUC was in the hands in the Chief Constable, who was assisted by two Deputy Chief Constables and nine Assistant Chief Constables. For operational purposes, Northern Ireland was divided into twelve Divisions and thirty-nine Sub-Divisions. RUC ranks, duties, conditions of service and pay were generally in line with those of police forces in Great Britain. Policing Northern Ireland 's divided society proved to be difficult, as each of

5290-468: The RUC. Seamus Mallon , Social Democratic and Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP) and critic of the force, who later served as Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland , stated that the RUC was "97% Protestant and 100% unionist" . The RUC did attract some Roman Catholics , mostly former members of the RIC, who came north from the Irish Free State after the bitterness of the fighting during

5405-462: The RUC. Another was the expansion of the RUC by 1,000 members. Tim Pat Coogan asserts that the deaths of the 18 soldiers hastened the move towards Ulsterisation . Lieutenant-Colonel Blair is remembered on a memorial at Radley College , Oxfordshire . [REDACTED] Category Guerrilla warfare Although the term "guerrilla warfare" was coined in the context of the Peninsular War in

5520-473: The RUC. In April 1923 he spoke at its first reunion. In 1924 John William Nixon , a District Inspector suspected of involvement in the murder of Catholic civilians, would be dismissed after widespread complaints that he had made a "fiercely Unionist" speech at an Orange Order function. An inquiry by the British National Council for Civil Liberties in 1936 concluded that: [I]t is difficult to escape

5635-550: The RUC. This led to accusations of a shoot-to-kill policy by the RUC. In September 1983, four officers were charged with murder in connection with the deaths. Although all were subsequently found not guilty, the British government set up the Stalker Inquiry to investigate further. In May 1986, Sir John Hermon , then Chief Constable , publicly accused unionist politicians of "consorting with paramilitary elements" . Anger over

5750-423: The Royal Ulster Constabulary and who have accepted the danger and stress this has brought to them and to their families. The chief officer of the Royal Irish Constabulary was its Inspector-General (the last of whom, Sir Thomas J. Smith served from 11 March 1920 until partition in 1922). Between 1922 and 1969 the position of Inspector-General of the RUC was held by five officers, the last being Sir Arthur Young, who

5865-423: The Warrenpoint ambush. No one has ever been criminally charged. According to Toby Harnden , the attack "drove a wedge" between the British Army and the RUC. Lieutenant-General Sir Timothy Creasey , General Officer Commanding Northern Ireland , suggested to Margaret Thatcher that internment should be brought back and that liaison with the Gardaí should be left in the hands of the military. Sir Kenneth Newman ,

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5980-474: The ambushers, and the river border prevented British forces giving chase. On the afternoon of 27 August, a British Army convoy of one Land Rover and two four-tonne lorries—carrying soldiers of the 2nd Battalion, Parachute Regiment —was driving from Ballykinler Barracks to Newry . The British Army were aware of the dangers of using the stretch of road along the Newry River and often declared it out of bounds. However, they would sometimes use it to avoid setting

6095-443: The arrest of striking workers, port security, and restrictions on the movement of vehicles and use of petrol. The RUC was a "reserved occupation", i.e. the police force was deemed essential to the domestic war effort and its members were forbidden to leave to join the other services. The wartime situation gave a new urgency to discussions regarding the appointment of women police. The Ministry of Home Affairs finally gave approval to

6210-432: The beginning the RUC had a dual role, unique among British police forces, of providing a normal law enforcement service while enforcing the new Northern Ireland entity in the face of considerable opposition, both armed and unarmed. 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 Catholics ,

6325-405: The blast. The epaulette was taken from the scene by Brigadier David Thorne to a security briefing with prime minister Margaret Thatcher to "illustrate the human factor" of the attack. Mike Jackson , then a major in the Parachute Regiment, was at the scene soon after the second explosion and later described seeing human remains scattered over the road, in the water and hanging from the trees. He

6440-482: The civil administration under Operation Banner . Catholics largely turned away from the British Army, who they saw as treating Protestants differently, especially after the Falls Curfew . The high level of civil unrest led to an exhaustive inquiry into the disturbances in Northern Ireland carried out by Lord Scarman , which produced a report in 1972. James Callaghan , Home Secretary in 1969, called on Brigadier John Hunt (Lord Hunt) to assess, advise and report on

6555-445: The conclusion that the attitude of the government renders the police chary of interference with the activities of the Orange Order and its sympathisers. On 4 April 1922, the RIC was disbanded. Three days later, the Civil Authorities (Special Powers) Act (Northern Ireland) 1922 came into force, and the Belfast government, although prohibited from raising or controlling a military force, appointed Major General Frederick Solly-Flood as

6670-404: The crime detection rate higher. The 1920s and 1930s were years of economic austerity . Many of Northern Ireland's traditional industries, notably linen and shipbuilding, were in recession , which contributed to the already high level of unemployment. Serious rioting broke out in 1932 in Belfast in protest at inadequate relief for the unemployed. In response to the growth of motorised transport,

6785-475: The crown, harp, and shamrock, an attempt at representation of the major ideologies. The Special Patrol Group was formed in the late 1960s as the Police Reserve Force. The name was changed to avoid confusion with the newly formed part-time Police Reserve in 1970, and was renamed " Divisional Mobile Support Unit " in 1980 after two of its members were convicted of kidnap and murder. The two, John Weir and Billy McCaughey , implicated some of their colleagues in

6900-425: The dead were killed during the Troubles (1969 to 1998), of whom 277 were killed in attacks by Irish republicans . According to the CAIN project at the University of Ulster , however, 301 RUC officers and 18 former or retired RUC officers were killed, totaling 319 fatalities. The Newry mortar attack by the Provisional IRA on an RUC station in 1985, which killed nine officers (including two Catholics), resulted in

7015-437: The deadliest attack on the British Army during the Troubles . An English civilian was also killed and an Irish civilian wounded, both by British soldiers firing across the border after the first blast. The attack happened on the same day that the IRA assassinated Lord Louis Mountbatten , a close relative of the British royal family . The ambush took place on the A2 road at Narrow Water Castle , just outside Warrenpoint , in

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7130-440: The defeat of their regular armies, the Spanish and Portuguese people successfully rose against the Napoleonic troops and defeated a highly superior army using the guerrilla strategy in combination with a scorched earth policy and people's war (see also attrition warfare against Napoleon ). In correct Spanish usage, a person who is a member of a guerrilla unit is a guerrillero ( [geriˈʎeɾo] ) if male, or

7245-480: The earliest to propose the use of guerrilla warfare. This inspired developments in modern guerrilla warfare. In the 3rd century BC, Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus , used elements of guerrilla warfare, such as the evasion of battle, the attempt to wear down the enemy, to attack small detachments in an ambush and devised the Fabian strategy , which the Roman Republic used to great effect against Hannibal 's army, see also His Excellency : George Washington :

7360-502: The enemy retreats, we pursue." At least one author credits the ancient Chinese work The Art of War with inspiring Mao's tactics. In the 20th century, other communist leaders, including North Vietnamese Ho Chi Minh , often used and developed guerrilla warfare tactics, which provided a model for their use elsewhere, leading to the Cuban " foco " theory and the anti- Soviet Mujahadeen in Afghanistan . Guerrilla groups may use improvised explosive devices and logistical support by

7475-422: The enrolment of women as members of the RUC on 16 April 1943, with the first six recruits starting on 15 November, headed by Marion Paterson Macmillan , who transferred from the Metropolitan Police . Post-war policies brought about a gradual improvement in the lot of the RUC, interrupted only by a return to hostilities by the IRA border campaign from 1957 to 1962, in which seven RUC officers were killed. The force

7590-443: The first Minister of Home Affairs for Northern Ireland , appointed a committee of inquiry on police organisation in the region. 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

7705-455: The force abandoned this policy. As a result, representation of Catholics in the RUC never exceeded 20%. In addition, many Catholics who joined the force, particularly during the Troubles, were targeted for murder or ostracised by their own community. By the 1960s, representation of Catholics in the RUC had fallen to 12%. The RUC were supported by the Ulster Special Constabulary , a volunteer body of part-time auxiliary police established before

7820-448: The future. The Normans often made many forays into Wales, where the Welsh used the mountainous region, which the Normans were unfamiliar with, to spring surprise attacks upon them. Since the Enlightenment , ideologies such as nationalism , liberalism , socialism , and religious fundamentalism have played an important role in shaping insurgencies and guerrilla warfare. In the 17th century, Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj , founder of

7935-437: The goal of exhausting adversaries and forcing them to withdraw (see also attrition warfare ). Organized guerrilla groups often depend on the support of either the local population or foreign backers who sympathize with the guerrilla group's efforts. The Spanish word guerrilla is the diminutive form of guerra ("war"); hence, "little war". The term became popular during the early-19th century Peninsular War , when, after

8050-441: The highest number of deaths inflicted on the RUC in one incident. The two highest-ranking RUC officers to be killed during "the Troubles" were Chief Superintendent Harry Breen and Superintendent Robert Buchanan , who were ambushed by the Provisional IRA South Armagh Brigade outside Jonesborough, County Armagh, on 20 March 1989. On 4 December 2013, in a report by judge Peter Smithwick in the Smithwick Tribunal (a public inquiry), it

8165-476: The inducement in them of insecurity and terror. It conducts the basic business of war without recourse to ponderous formations or equipment, complicated maneuvers, strict chains of command, calculated strategies, timetables, or other civilized embellishments. Evidence of conventional warfare , on the other hand, did not emerge until 3100 BC in Egypt and Mesopotamia. The Chinese general and strategist Sun Tzu , in his The Art of War (6th century BC), became one of

8280-505: The killings in which collusion was alleged; that of Brian Adam Lambert in 1987 and of Pat Finucane in 1989. Stevens used the following criteria as a definition of collusion while conducting his investigation: On 12 December 2012 the British Prime minister David Cameron admitted a statement to the House of Commons that "shocking levels of collusion occurred in the murder of Finucane." In

8395-571: The latter of which had recolonized the country 17 years after its independence. The war resulted in the withdrawal of Spanish forces and the establishment of a second republic in the Dominican Republic. The Moroccan military leader Abd el-Krim ( c.  1883 – 1963) and his father unified the Moroccan tribes under their control and took up arms against the Spanish and French occupiers during

8510-404: The line of duty and thousands more injured, many seriously. Many officers have been ostracised by their own community and others have been forced to leave their homes in the face of threats to them and their families. As Northern Ireland reaches a turning point in its political development this award is made to recognise the collective courage and dedication to duty of all of those who have served in

8625-593: The local population. The opposing army may come at last to suspect all civilians as potential guerrilla backers. The guerrillas might get political support from foreign backers and many guerrilla groups are adept at public persuasion through propaganda and use of force. Some guerrilla movements today also rely heavily on children as combatants, scouts, porters, spies, informants, and in other roles. Many governments and states also recruit children within their armed forces. No commonly accepted definition of "terrorism" has attained clear consensus. The term "terrorism"

8740-511: The main religious blocs (Protestant and Roman Catholic) had different attitudes towards the institutions of the state. To most Ulster Protestants , the state had full legitimacy, as did its institutions, its parliament, its police force and the Crown. Many of Northern Ireland's Catholics, along with their political leaders, believed that partition would only be temporary. Many abstained from and/or refused to take part Northern Ireland's institutions for

8855-399: The most professional police forces in the world by British security forces. During the Troubles, 319 RUC officers were killed and almost 9,000 injured in paramilitary assassinations or attacks, mostly by the IRA, which made the RUC the most dangerous police force in the world in which to serve by 1983. In the same period, the RUC killed 55 people, 28 of whom were civilians. In 2000, the RUC

8970-486: The motorbike they were riding. The IRA's first statement on the incident, however, denied that any shots had been fired at the troops, and according to Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) researchers, the soldiers might have mistaken the sound of ammunition cooking off for enemy gunfire. Nevertheless, at the official inquiry the soldiers declared on oath that they had been fired on. The surviving paratroopers radioed for urgent assistance, and reinforcements were dispatched to

9085-468: The opposing force while minimizing their own losses. The guerrilla prizes mobility, secrecy, and surprise, organizing in small units and taking advantage of terrain that is difficult for larger units to use. For example, Mao Zedong summarized basic guerrilla tactics at the beginning of the Chinese Civil War as: "The enemy advances, we retreat; the enemy camps, we harass; the enemy tires, we attack;

9200-414: The other police forces in the UK. This meant the introduction of the British rank and promotion structure , the creation of 12 Police Divisions and 39 Sub-Divisions, the disbandment of the Ulster Special Constabulary, and the creation of a Police Authority designed to be representative of all segments of the community. Callaghan, later elected Prime Minister, asked Sir Arthur Young , Commissioner of

9315-431: The pair went down to the shore to see what was unfolding. The pair made their way to Narrow Water on the southern side of the border to get a better view of what was happening on the northern side. Barry Hudson was shot in the arm and as he fell to the ground he saw his cousin, who was the son of a coachman at Buckingham Palace , fall to the ground, shot in the head. He died almost immediately. The IRA had been studying how

9430-476: The parliament was prorogued . Northern Ireland subsequently came under direct rule from Westminster with its own Secretary of State , who had overall responsibility for security policy. From the mid-1970s onward, the British policy of Ulsterisation meant RUC officers taking a more prominent role in the conflict than previously, which increased their casualty rate. Starting in late 1982, a number of IRA and Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) men were shot dead by

9545-512: The people against their oppressors, and that he fights in order to change the social system that keeps all his unarmed brothers in ignominy and misery. In the 1960s, the Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara developed the foco (Spanish: foquismo ) theory of revolution in his book Guerrilla Warfare , based on his experiences during the 1959 Cuban Revolution . This theory was later formalized as "focal-ism" by Régis Debray . Its central principle

9660-438: The police efforts were practically nullified. They were quite unable to rely on the restraint of one party while they dealt with the other. About ninety police officers were killed between 1920 and 1922 in what would become Northern Ireland (see The Troubles in Northern Ireland (1920–1922) ). The security forces were implicated in reprisal killings of Catholics but no convictions ever rendered. Most notable of these incidents were

9775-438: The police or the civil service. This mindset was referenced by David Trimble : Ulster Unionists, fearful of being isolated on the island, built a solid house, but it was a cold house for Catholics. And northern nationalists, although they had a roof over their heads, seemed to us as if they meant to burn the house down In August 1922, Dawson Bates gave the Orange Order special permission for an Orange Lodge to be formed in

9890-506: The policing situation. He was assisted in this task by Sir Robert Mark , who later became Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service , and Sir James Robertson, then- Chief Constable of Glasgow . The Hunt Report was published on 3 October 1969, and most of its recommendations were subsequently accepted and implemented. The aim was to completely reorganise the RUC, both modernizing the force and bringing it into line with

10005-451: The political and sectarian divide. The lawlessness that affected the region during the early 1920s, and the problems it caused for the RUC, are indicated in a police report drawn up by District Inspector R.R. Spears in February 1923. Referring to the situation in Belfast after July 1921 he stated: For twelve months after that, the city was in a state of turmoil. The IRA ( Irish Republican Army )

10120-400: The road. There were only two survivors amongst the soldiers travelling in the lorry; they both received serious injuries. The lorry's driver, Anthony Wood (aged 19), was one of those killed. All that remained of Wood's body was his pelvis, welded to the seat by the fierce heat of the blast. According to the soldiers, immediately after the blast they were targeted by rifle fire from the woods on

10235-558: 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 Síochána . 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 and crown insignia of the Order of St Patrick , as worn by the RIC, was adopted. From

10350-533: The same time the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in Belfast was significantly expanded, with a detective head constable being appointed to head the CID force in each of the five Belfast police districts. There was sporadic IRA activity in the 1930s. In 1937, on the occasion of the visit of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth to the province, the IRA blew up a number of customs posts. In 1939

10465-456: The scene by road. A rapid reaction unit was sent by Gazelle helicopter, consisting of Lieutenant-Colonel David Blair, commanding officer of the Queen's Own Highlanders , his signaller Lance Corporal Victor MacLeod, and army medics. Another helicopter, a Wessex , landed to pick up the wounded. Colonel Blair assumed command once at the site. William Hudson, a 29-year-old from London, was killed by

10580-621: The south of County Down in Northern Ireland . The road and castle are on the northern bank of the Newry River (also known as the Clanrye River), which marks the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland . The Republic's side of the river, the Cooley Peninsula in County Louth , was an ideal spot from which to launch an ambush: it was thickly wooded, which gave cover to

10695-647: The street hitting, kicking and insulting them. Police officers in interrogation centres insult, trick and threaten youngsters and sometimes physically assault them. Children are locked up in adult detention centres and prisons in shameful conditions. Helsinki Watch heard dozens of stories from children, their parents, lawyers, youth workers and political leaders of children being stopped on the street and hit, kicked and abused again and again by police and soldiers. And seventeen-year-olds told Human Rights Watch Helsinki of severe beatings in detention during interrogations by police. The Good Friday Agreement (GFA) of 1998 produced

10810-406: The tactic of guerrilla warfare as, according to Che Guevara 's text, being "used by the side which is supported by a majority but which possesses a much smaller number of arms for use in defense against oppression". Why does the guerrilla fighter fight? We must come to the inevitable conclusion that the guerrilla fighter is a social reformer, that he takes up arms responding to the angry protest of

10925-550: The world today. In South Africa , African National Congress (ANC) members studied the Algerian War, prior to the release and apotheosis of Nelson Mandela ; in their intifada against Israel, Palestinian fighters have sought to emulate it. Additionally, the tactics of Al-Qaeda closely resemble those of the Algerians. The Mukti Bahini (Bengali: মুক্তিবাহিনী, translates as "freedom fighters", or liberation army), also known as

11040-500: The wounded. The soldier was tackled by his comrades. Molloy said, "I was shouted at and called all sorts of things but I understood why. I had trespassed on the worst day of these fellas' lives and taken pictures of it." The Warrenpoint ambush was the deadliest attack on the British Army during the Troubles and the Parachute Regiment's biggest loss since World War II, with sixteen paratroopers killed. General Sir James Glover , Commander of British forces in Northern Ireland, later said it

11155-416: Was "arguably the most successful and certainly one of the best planned IRA attacks of the whole campaign". The ambush happened on the same day that Lord Mountbatten , a prominent relative and close confidant of the British royal family , was assassinated by an IRA bomb aboard his boat at Mullaghmore , along with three others. Republicans portrayed the attack as retaliation for Bloody Sunday in 1972 when

11270-651: Was Director of Public Safety and Director of Security in the military government of Allied-occupied Italy. Later, he had been seconded to the Federation of Malaya at the height of the Malayan Emergency (1952–53) and to the crown colony of Kenya during the Mau Mau rebellion (1954). The first deaths of the Troubles occurred in July 1969. Francis McCloskey, a 67-year-old Catholic civilian, had been found unconscious on 13 July near

11385-472: Was aimed at the convoy itself, and the second targeted the incoming reinforcements and the incident command point (ICP) set up to deal with the incident. IRA volunteers hidden in nearby woodland also allegedly fired on the troops, who returned fire. The castle is on the banks of the Newry River , which marks the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland . Eighteen British soldiers were killed and over twenty were seriously injured, making it

11500-481: Was alleged that members of the Republic's police force (Garda Síochána) had colluded in the killing of the two policemen. The last RUC officer killed as a direct result of the conflict, Francis O'Reilly (a Catholic constable), died on 6 October 1998, a month after he had been injured in a Red Hand Defenders pipe-bomb attack in Portadown during the Drumcree conflict . On 1 July 1992, Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued

11615-542: Was allegedly targeted due to the mistaken belief that he was an IRA member. Very shortly after the ambush, IRA volunteers Brendan Burns and Joe Brennan were arrested by the Gardaí . They were stopped while riding a motorbike on a road opposite Narrow Water Castle. They were later released on bail due to lack of evidence. Burns died in 1988 when a bomb he was handling exploded prematurely. In 1998, former IRA member Eamon Collins claimed that Burns had been one of those who carried out

11730-484: Was asked to identify the face of his friend, Major Peter Fursman, still recognisable after it had been ripped from his head by the explosion and recovered from the water by divers from the Royal Engineers . Press photographer Peter Molloy, who arrived at the scene after the first explosion, came close to being shot by an angry paratrooper who saw him taking photographs of the dead and dying instead of offering to help

11845-565: Was awarded the George Cross for bravery. The RUC was superseded by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) in 2001, as mandated by the final version of the Police (Northern Ireland) Act 2000 . Allegations regarding collusion prompted several inquiries, the most recent of which was authored by Police Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan in 2007. The report identified police, CID and Special Branch collusion with loyalist terrorists, but no member of

11960-565: Was frequently practiced between the eighth through tenth centuries along the eastern frontier with the Umayyad and then Abbasid caliphates. Tactics involved a heavy emphasis on reconnaissance and intelligence, shadowing the enemy, evacuating threatened population centres, and attacking when the enemy dispersed to raid. In the later tenth century this form of warfare was codified in a military manual known by its later Latin name as De velitatione bellica ('On Skirmishing') so it would not be forgotten in

12075-473: Was published in September 1999. It recommended a wholesale reorganisation of policing, with the Royal Ulster Constabulary being replaced by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), and a drive to recruit Catholics and the adoption of a new crest and cap badge. The PSNI was introduced in November 2001. As part of the change, the police service dropped the word "Royal" from and adopted a new badge that included

12190-463: Was responsible for an enormous number of murders, bombings, shootings and incendiary fires. The work of the police against them was, however, greatly hampered by the fact that the rough element on the Protestant side entered thoroughly into the disturbances, met murder with murder and adopted in many respects the tactics of the rebel gunmen. In the endeavour to cope simultaneously with the warring factions

12305-511: Was seconded for a year from the City of London Police to implement the Hunt Report. Under Young, the title was changed to Chief Constable in line with the recommendations of the Hunt Report. Young and six others held the job until the RUC was incorporated to the PSNI. The final incumbent, Sir Ronnie Flanagan , became the first Chief Constable of the PSNI. The Royal Ulster Constabulary GC Foundation

12420-405: Was shot dead by loyalists on Belfast's Shankill Road during serious rioting in protest at the recommendations of the Hunt Report. Arbuckle was the first police fatality of the Troubles. In August 1970, two young constables, Donaldson and Millar, died when an abandoned car they were examining near the strongly republican town of Crossmaglen exploded. They became the first security forces victims of

12535-521: Was streamlined in the 1960s, a new headquarters was opened at Knock, Belfast and a number of rural barracks were closed. The civil rights protests during the 1960s, and the reaction to them, marked the beginning of the conflict that became known as " the Troubles ". The RUC found itself confronting marchers protesting against gerrymandering of local electoral wards and discrimination in local housing allocation. Many of these Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association protests were banned or truncated by

12650-601: 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, Belfast . The uniform remained essentially

12765-540: Was taking off carrying wounded soldiers. The helicopter was damaged by the blast but did not crash. The second explosion killed twelve soldiers: ten from the Parachute Regiment and two from the Queen's Own Highlanders. Lt.Colonel Blair was the second Lt.Colonel to be killed in the Troubles up until then, following Lt.Colonel Corden-Lloyd of the 2nd Battalion Royal Green Jackets in 1978. Only one of Colonel Blair's epaulettes remained to identify him as his body had been vaporised in

12880-513: Was the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2001. It was founded on 1 June 1922 as a successor to the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) following the partition of Ireland . At its peak the force had around 8,500 officers, with a further 4,500 who were members of the RUC Reserve. The RUC policed Northern Ireland from the aftermath of the Irish War of Independence until after the turn of

12995-458: Was the first police force to use rubber and plastic bullets for riot control. The RUC's membership was overwhelmingly Protestant , leading to accusations by sections of the Catholic and Irish nationalist minority of one-sided policing and sectarianism . Officers were also accused of police brutality as well as collusion with loyalist paramilitaries. Conversely, it was praised as one of

13110-541: Was the longest war waged by East India Company during their military campaigns on the Indian subcontinent. It was one of the bloodiest and hardest wars waged by East India Company in India with Presidency army regiments that suffered losses as high as eighty percent in 10 years of warfare. The Dominican Restoration War was a guerrilla war between 1863 and 1865 in the Dominican Republic between nationalists and Spain ,

13225-485: Was to make recommendations which arose from serious shortcomings he had identified in all three Inquiries. In his autobiography, Stevens was at pains to point out the high regard in which he held many RUC officers, including Detective Superintendent Maurice Neilly, who was killed in the 1994 Chinook air crash . The third Stevens Inquiry began in 1999, and referred to his previous reports when making his recommendations. Stevens' third inquiry focused in detail on only two of

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