This book provides an account and analysis of policing in Northern Ireland, following the RUC (Royal Ulster Constabulary) from the start of 'the troubles' in the 1960s up to 1999. It focuses on three key aspects of the police legitimation process: reform measures which are implemented to redress a legitimacy crisis; representational strategies which are invoked to offer positive images of policing; and public responses to these various strategies. The book also makes a powerful contribution to wider current debates about police legitimacy, police-community relations, community resistance, and conflict resolution.

Part 1: Introduction and Context 1. Introduction: the 'Policing Question' in Northern Ireland 2. The police legitimation process: reform, representation, response Part 2: Policing the Conflict 3. Rehabilitation and normalisation: reform and professionalisation of the RUC 4. Policing history: the organised memory of the RUC 5. Simultaneous surfeit and dearth: oppositional discourses on the RUC Part 3: Policing the Peace 6. Police reform as peace dividend: debating the future of the RUC 7. Visions of normality: peace and the reconstruction of policing in Northern Ireland 8. Living memory: past and present in police reform debates Part 4: Police Reform and Political Transition 9. A new beginning? The Patten Report on Policing in Northern Ireland 10. A new force? The Police Service of Northern Ireland Part 5: Conclusions Conclusions: policing, legitimacy and social conflict

Aogán Mulcay is Senior Lecturer in the School of Sociology, University College Dublin. His research interests span policing and social change, police reform, crime and social control, law and society, youth and marginalisation, political violence and conflict resolution.