Despite its misleading title—the book begins before 1822, ends after 1922, and leaves out the Dublin Metropolitan Police and the separate Belfast Constabulary—Malcolm's well-written and exhaustively researched “collective biography” of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) fills an important gap in the historiography of policing in Great Britain. Based largely on personal recollections, constabulary manuals, and recent research (including some important but unpublished work by scholars such as Brian Griffin and Ian Bridgeman), The Irish Policeman provides a compelling and sympathetic portrayal of the lives of the men of the RIC from 1836 until after Irish independence.

After a useful review of the historiography of policing in Britain and the Empire, Malcolm offers an admirably clear and succinct examination of the size, organization, and social and religious composition of the RIC. The Constabulary was one of the largest and most reliable employers in Ireland before independence. As such, it offered an attractive alternative to emigration for the younger sons of farmers and for those who had few other means to support themselves as “gentlemen.” Although the former tended to be Catholic and the latter Protestant, both seemed to share the belief that the RIC offered excellent opportunities for upward social mobility.

At the launch of their careers both constables and officers had to endure extended training at the Phoenix Park depot. Malcolm's vivid recreation of this prolonged “boot camp,” complete with light infantry drill, strict military discipline, and screaming sergeants certainly supports her contention that the training was intended to “create a particular type of individual with certain well-defined attitudes and values” (93). It could not have prepared the recruits for their eventual duties, which by Malcolm's authoritative account included little soldiering or even (what we now consider) police work—few constables engaged in criminal or political detective work, and fewer still enjoyed any success at it. As the most active and ubiquitous arm of the central government, the RIC was used to “observe and regulate most major aspects of Irish political, economic and social life” (128). All constables were expected to maintain “good local knowledge” (99) of the people and places in their jurisdiction, and many of their duties involved collecting and reporting information: for instance, they gathered census statistics and crop yield figures, issued dog licenses, tracked passenger lists, and inspected lodging and public houses. The resulting bureaucracy and proliferation of paper only increased over time; by 1911, the RIC Code required county inspectors to personally keep twenty-two books and compile sixty-five returns each year! Long hours of patrolling and serving as court officers filled much of the remainder of the constables’ time, though during periods of crisis they also had to take on the difficult and dangerous duty of keeping the peace.

The author's account of the persistent complaints about pay and pensions, the class-based efforts to block promotion through the ranks, and the apparent futility of airing grievances makes one marvel that so few constables resigned, even during periods of crisis such as the Land War. These complaints and the serious constraints placed on the off-duty activities of constables and their families beg the question of why so many policemen (and their wives) stayed in the force for so long. Malcolm explains their loyalty as the result of their training, their esprit de corps, and, most important, their hopes that the job's reliable pay, eventual pension, and “respectability” could lead to social advancement, if only in the next generation.

Presumably these factors also help explain how RIC constables dealt with the dilemma that arose from policing their Catholic nationalist brethren at the behest of Protestant officers and English officials, though this point requires more analysis than Malcolm gives it. She never follows through on her suggestion that the Irish police might be better understood as liminal figures caught between their Irish Catholic background and their imperial masters. Did their training and discipline succeed in imprinting middle-class English values on the RIC constables, isolating them from the community and binding them closer together? Or, are our assumptions about the widespread disapproval of the RIC skewed by nationalist propaganda and the traumatic events of the Anglo-Irish War? Because she focuses so intently on the lives of the RIC policemen while steering clear of the political content of their work, we get little sense of the public perception of the force aside from the impression that it seldom had trouble recruiting new constables. Even in the last chapter, where Malcolm examines the difficult legacy of Constabulary service for police veterans and their families, she relegates the discussion of animosity toward the RIC to the footnotes.

Although Malcolm uses an impressive number of previously undiscovered personal reminiscences, at times she relies too heavily on anecdotal accounts, particularly better-known memoirs from Constable Jeremiah Mee and Inspector Samuel Waters. Given Mee's involvement in the Listowel mutiny and Waters's role in the Special Branch, their experiences and attitudes were probably atypical. Moreover, the sheer number and variety of Constabulary stations and the changing social and political circumstances between 1836 and 1922 suggest that, aside from their training, the procedures, and certain duties, policemen lived very different lives. No portrait with so few brush strokes could adequately convey the diversity and complexity of the RIC experience, but Malcolm's impressionist study skillfully reflects the form, color, and tone of her subject. Its breadth, the wealth of its bibliography, and the clarity of its prose all make this book an essential starting point for anyone interested in the RIC and in Irish social history more generally.