Folk memory has not been kind to the men of Royal Irish Constabulary. A picture has emerged down the years depicting ther as a traitorous native police force ruthlessly enforcing English law on sullen and hostile populationPopular folklore remembers their conduct at evictions and of their sometimes ruthlessness in carrying out the wishes of heartless landlords. Many stories can be recounted of their wholehearted support for an alien government.
The reality is much more complex. For most of their existence they performed the duties of any national police force. Those duties consisted mostly of keeping the peace, especially at fairs; quelling faction fights and riots; enforcing licensing laws and dealing with drunkenness and rows about rights of way between neighbours
Later on, during the Land War and for a decade prior to Independence their image changed radically. They were seen as the enforcers of an alien law, a law which protected and sided with the establishment in the person of the landed gentry. During the War of Independence they formed part of, and were associated with, the Crown Forces and as such became targets for Republican forces. This perception of themselves led many of them to resign from the force rather than carry out what they saw as a war against their own people.