This is a description of law enforcement in
Northern Ireland and the
Republic of Ireland. Before the Republic (then called the
Irish Free State) left the
union in 1922, one police force — the
Royal Irish Constabulary — policed almost the whole island (aside from
Dublin, where the
Dublin Metropolitan Police were the main force; Belfast, where the
Belfast Borough Police
The Belfast Borough Police was the police force for Belfast from 1800 to 1865, when it was abolished and replaced by the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC). Its members, nicknamed the Bulkies, had authority within the Belfast Police District.
Histor ...
were the main force; and the borough of Londonderry, where the
Londonderry Borough Police
The Londonderry Borough Police was the police force in the city of Derry, County Londonderry, Ireland, from 1848 to 1870, nicknamed the Horney Dicks after the bones used in their helmets. They replaced the earlier town watch and were in turn rep ...
were the main force before merging with the RIC. See
List of defunct law enforcement agencies in the United Kingdom
Due to various Parliamentary Acts the numbers of law enforcement agencies in the United Kingdom has varied drastically since the Metropolitan Police Act of 1829 set up the first modern police force in London.
There are currently over 60 law enf ...
an
Irish Police recordsand als
Royal Irish Constabulary Forumfor other forces in Ireland that have been disbanded.).
The
Royal Ulster Constabulary
The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) 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)Richard Doherty, ''The Thin Green Line – The History of the Royal ...
(RUC), renamed the
Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) in 2001, is the direct descendants of that force, while a new police force — the
Garda Síochána
(; meaning "the Guardian(s) of the Peace"), more commonly referred to as the Gardaí (; "Guardians") or "the Guards", is the national police service of Ireland. The service is headed by the Garda Commissioner who is appointed by the Irish Gover ...
— was set up in the
Irish Free State (Republic of Ireland since 1949). Today, due to the sharing of a land border and legislation introduced to both countries after the
Belfast Agreement of 1998, there is cooperation between the main police forces of jurisdictions.
Republic of Ireland
The
Republic of Ireland has a single national civilian police force,
Garda Síochána na hÉireann (''Guardians of the Peace of Ireland''). This force is responsible for all aspects of territorial civil policing. The Garda Síochána have been the only territorial police force in the Republic since the disbandment of the Civic Guard gendarmery in 1922, and the incorporation of the Dublin Metropolitan Police in 1925 (unlike the UK, excluding Northern Ireland and Scotland, where each county and certain cities have distinctly separate forces, such as Essex Police, Nottinghamshire Police or London's Metropolitan Police).
In addition to the Gardaí, other policing bodies include the
*
Póilíní Airm
The Military Police Corps (MP) ( ga, Cór Póiliní an Airm, ''PA'') is the corps of the Irish Defence Forces responsible for the provision of policing service personnel and providing a military police presence to forces while on exercise and ...
, the
military police corps of the
Irish Army,
*
Airport Police Service who perform aviation policing functions at Dublin, Cork & Shannon airports.
*Harbour Police which perform harbour policing functions at
Dublin Port &
Dún Laoghaire Harbour.
Northern Ireland
Law enforcement in
Northern Ireland follows a similar model to that of the rest of the
United Kingdom in that it is the responsibility of the local territorial police force. However unlike England and Wales, which have police forces divided by local areas such as ceremonial counties or local council areas, Northern Ireland (like Scotland) has a single territorial police force, the
Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), formerly known as the
Royal Ulster Constabulary
The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) 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)Richard Doherty, ''The Thin Green Line – The History of the Royal ...
(RUC). This force, one of the largest geographically in the UK, is responsible for all local policing in the province.
In addition to the PSNI, there are other agencies which have responsibility for specific parts of Northern Ireland's transport infrastructure:
*
Belfast Harbour Police
*
Belfast International Airport Constabulary
The Belfast International Airport Constabulary (BIAC) is a small, specialised police force responsible for providing policing to the Belfast International Airport in Aldergrove, Northern Ireland. Officers employed by the force as empowered to ac ...
Officers of these forces have full
constabulary powers within one mile of the specific locations they police, which come from specific pieces of legislation relating to them.
A further civilian police force with powers in Northern Ireland is the
Ministry of Defence Police, which has responsibility for policing all MOD property; they are assisted in this by the
Northern Ireland Security Guard Service. Additionally, the
Royal Military Police has a presence in
British Army barracks.
{{Europe topic, Law enforcement in