Investigating the "Machinery of Murder": Irish Detectives and Agrarian Outrages, 1847-70

Abstract

Policemen in nineteenth-century Ireland were expected to play a variety of roles, for their duties were far more numerous and varied than those usually assigned to the police today. Writing in 1881, a former sub-inspector with seventeen years' service in the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC), whose father had also been a member of the force, claimed that: "Everything in Ireland, from the muzzling of a dog to the suppression of a rebellion, is done by the Irish constabulary." 1 A policeman could be called upon to act at least six major parts: soldier, 2 crime prevention officer, political intelligence agent, civil servant, prosecutor, and detective. Admittedly, not all policemen filled all these roles, but the Irish Constabulary was a multipurpose force, with military and civil responsibilities, as well as criminal and judicial ones. Before the 1870s, however, the role of detective was probably the least significant one in the policeman's repertoire. This may seem strange to the modern observer, especially as there was an almost constant chorus of complaint voiced throughout the century in both Ireland and England at the supposedly high levels of Irish crime. 3