I recall Seamus Mallon say when we would know that a policing career enjoyed the wholehearted approval of the nationalist community in this part of Ireland.
That would be when a police recruit donned the Crossmaglen Rangers GAA jersey with pride in the dressing room, in the certain knowledge that they knew that they were regarded as being no less Irish for embracing the noble vocation of policing.
Mallon, who once wore that jersey himself, knew all about its totemic potency and as a great nationalist leader he spoke with authority.
Sadly, we appear a long way from when a PSNI recruit might pass “The Crossmaglen Jersey Test”.
However, many would wonder – almost 20 years after the abolition of the GAA’s Rule 21 that banned British forces including police from the association’s membership - why we have not progressed to a place where, for example, we could acquiesce if not delight in the distribution of policing promotional material and the presence of PSNI display stands at big GAA games. We shouldn’t be waiting for the new Casement for that to happen.
We should not fail to celebrate the remarkable yet fragile progress that has been made, thanks to the heroic and successful efforts of Seamus Mallon and others to prevent then secretary of state Peter Mandelson caving in to unionist demands to emasculate Patten’s recommendations.
But, nor should we flinch from saying how disappointing and potentially dangerous is the still unacceptably low representation of officers from a Catholic background in the PSNI and the failure of political and other leaders from the nationalist side to play their part in wholeheartedly advocating a career in policing, while fiercely challenging the PSNI where it needs to be held accountable, as it does.
Michelle O’Neill, then our freshly-minted deputy first minister, turned up at a PSNI recruitment launch in February 2020 and that was very welcome. But we haven’t heard from Sinn Féin or for that matter from the SDLP advocating a policing career since. Ok, there has been a pandemic, but you get my point. There wasn’t much advocacy before Covid struck.
PSNI composition seriously fails to reflect the society that it serves.
None of us should be complacent about that. The PSNI-commissioned Deloitte Report of 2015 showed that the 2011 Census had the community background breakdown for the working age population for 16–34-year-olds to be 45 pc Catholic, 55pc Protestant (and other) and the new 2021 Census will likely show a larger culturally Catholic population.
So, to be community reflective, the PSNI should have around 45 pc of its members coming from a Catholic background.
The facts are – and I am grateful to the PSNI’s helpful communications and engagement office for answering this column’s queries at short notice – that Catholic representation stood at 32.09 pc 16 days ago, on September 1, up from 8.28 pc in 2001.
That figure looks and is a dramatic rise but of course it does not tell the whole story.
That 30pc plus result was delivered largely by 50/50 recruitment, a crucial Patten recommendation that was to remain for “at least” 10 years. Under unionist pressure secretary of state Owen Paterson abolished it at the earliest opportunity in 2011. That was a huge mistake. Since then, Catholic recruitment has remained more or less stuck at just over 30 pc.
Pressure to heed Archbishop Eamon Martin’s call two years ago to have 50/50 reinstated may become difficult to resist if Catholic recruitment continues to stall or even falls below the psychologically important 30 pc mark.
The PSNI is launching a new Student Officer recruitment campaign this autumn, details at joinpsni.co.uk. There are other under-represented groups including women and working class loyalists but the Catholic shortfall remains the most glaring and the most worrying. An opportunity, surely, for Michelle O’Neill, Colum Eastwood, Archbishop Martin, Ulster’s GAA leaders, the Irish News, and others to buckle down and advocate policing as a career.
