The Belfast Borough Police was the police force for

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...

from 1800 to 1865, when it was abolished and replaced by the

Royal Irish Constabulary The Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC, ga, Constáblacht Ríoga na hÉireann; simply called the Irish Constabulary 1836–67) was the police force in Ireland from 1822 until 1922, when all of the country was part of the United Kingdom. A separate ...

(RIC). Its members, nicknamed the Bulkies, had authority within the Belfast Police District.

History

A town watch was authorised under several acts of the

Parliament of Ireland The Parliament of Ireland ( ga, Parlaimint na hÉireann) was the legislature of the Lordship of Ireland, and later the Kingdom of Ireland, from 1297 until 1800. It was modelled on the Parliament of England and from 1537 comprised two cham ...

, the last (the Belfast Police Act) in 1800, which also established

town commissioners Town commissioners were elected local government bodies that existed in urban areas in Ireland from the 19th century until 2002. Larger towns with commissioners were converted to urban districts by the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898, with ...

for lighting and paving. The police and commissioners gained greater powers in 1816 under a local act of the

UK Parliament The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...

. The police area of jurisdiction, whose residents were liable for the police tax to fund the force, was not defined in the 1816 act; at first the police area was taken to be the same as the lighting and paving area, but later it was extended. The parliamentary borough and

municipal borough Municipal boroughs were a type of local government district which existed in England and Wales between 1835 and 1974, in Northern Ireland from 1840 to 1973 and in the Republic of Ireland from 1840 to 2002. Broadly similar structures existed in S ...

had differing limits again.Comm Mun Corp 1835, p,697 §§1,5 By the time the force was abolished, its jurisdiction remained confined to

County Antrim County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, ) is one of six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and has a population o ...

, excluding

Ballymacarrett Ballymacarrett or Ballymacarret () is the name of both a townland and electoral ward in Belfast. The townland is in County Down and the electoral ward is part of the Titanic district electoral area of Belfast City Council. The ward was create ...

, the County Down portion of the borough of Belfast.Belfast Commission ''Report'' 1869, p.4 It then had 160 men. The RIC had 70 men stationed in Belfast at the beginning of the August 1864 riots, with 800 reinforcements arriving over the next two weeks.Belfast Commission ''Report'' 1869, p.362, Table C. By the 1800 act, the police commissioners were the thirteen members of the

municipal corporation A municipal corporation is the legal term for a local governing body, including (but not necessarily limited to) cities, counties, towns, townships, charter townships, villages, and boroughs. The term can also be used to describe municipally ...

together with twelve town commissioners for lighting and paving. Although the borough sovereign was authorised to act as police

magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judic ...

, in 1816 he appointed a substitute at a salary of £200 per annum, which the 1835 municipal corporation commission considered one of several abuses concerning the police. After the Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840 reformed the corporation, the Belfast Improvement Act 1845 replaced the 1800 and 1816 acts. Most of the Belfast Borough Police force were Protestants, and many local Roman Catholics regarded it as sectarian. An 1864 royal commission of inquiry examined the Belfast

and police district, after serious communal rioting that year. The commission noted that most of the senior members of the force were members of the Orange Order and recommended abolishing the force, which was effected by the Constabulary (Ireland) Amendment Act 1865.

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Citations

1800 establishments in Ireland 1865 disestablishments in Ireland Organisations based in Belfast History of Belfast Defunct law enforcement agencies of Ireland Defunct police forces of the United Kingdom {{law-enforcement-agency-stub

History

See also

Footnotes

References

Sources

Citations