Andersontown News, 5. November 2001, http://www.irelandclick.com/
Nationalist pickets greet end to RUC
Nationalists bid slán to the RUC
A lengthy and shameful chapter in the annals of policing drew to a long-overdue
close at the weekend as the RUC, in name at least, were consigned to the dustbin
of history.
But as the picket-lines outside barracks across Belfast bore testimony not
everyone was sure that midnight Saturday marked the real end of a sordid and
shameful force which, since its inception on June 1 1922, has been viewed by
many nationalists as the oppressive and armed wing of unionism.
This week the name of the RUC will disappear for ever to be replaced by the
title Police Service for Northern Ireland.
Despite nationalists having serious reservations about the implementationof
Patten and Sinn Féin still refusing to take their place on the Policing Board
the date was set and yesterday, Sunday Nov 4 2001, was D-day.
By midnight Saturday, the RUC insignia was removed and the name associated with
so much pain and terror in homes all over the north was consigned to the history
books.
Many serving RUC men have reportedly requested permission to keep items of the
uniform - set to be changed later this year - as mementoes. It is a move,
however, that has horrified and outraged families of those who have been victims
of the force over the worst years of the troubles.
Jim McCabe. whose wife Nora was murdered by the RUC has said the request was
“ghoulish” and was akin to allowing SS men to keep mementoes of the
concentration camps”
Nora, a 33 year-old mother-of-three died after being struck on the head by an
RUC plastic bullet.
Her death was one of the most controversial of the sixteen plastic bullet
killings given that it was captured on film by a Canadian TV crew
Despite their having submitting the film as evidence of the event, proving that
there was no petrol bombing in the area as the RUC had claimed, the then
director of public prosecutions, decided there should be no prosecutions. In
fact the commader in charge of the patrol which fired the bullet, James
Crutchley was promoted and decorated.
Nora’s husband, Jim said at the time he was, “Disgusted that no one had been
brought to book for her death.”
He added:
“I want justice. I want the person who pulled the trigger brought before a
court to state on oath a reason for doing what they did to my wife.”
No one ever has been brought to book for the murder of Nora McCabe and as the
RUC is set to become a chapter in the history books forever, it is unlikely that
anyone ever will face justice for her killing or for that of any of the RUC’s
other victims.
The name of the RUC may be gone and the new more normal Police sign may have
appeared on landrovers but many nationalists still remain to be convinced that a
truly new beginning to policing has arrived.
During the troubles the RUC were directly responsible for 52 killings while over
the same period thousands of confidential files made their way into the hands of
loyalist terror gangs, questions have also long persisted over allegations of
collusion, most notably in the Finucane and Nelson cases.