Rural Disorder and Police Reform in Ireland, 1812-36 (Routledge Library Editions: The History of Crime and Punishment)

In this book which was first published in 1970, author Galen Broeker traces the events of a crucial period in the struggle of the British government to bring law and order to rural Ireland. He demonstrates that throughout the forty years following the union a major challenge to government in Ireland was the sporadic violence that seemed endemic to the rural south and west. Organizations of Irish peasants terrorized the countryside in protest against a political and economic system that seemed to threaten their very existence. The formation in 1814 of the Peace Preservation Force is examined. This was the first in a long series of experiments aimed at an efficient and impartial system of law enforcement. This title will be of interest to student of history and criminology.