Word: northerner
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...These people are criminal psychopaths," said Sir Hugh Orde, Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland at a quickly convened press conference on Monday night. "They are determined to wreck what 99% of the people in Northern Ireland want." Orde acknowledged his officers face a serious threat but said "We will continue unrelenting in our job to protect the community...
...Northern Ireland's police force was a primary target for the Provisional IRA during the Troubles. Overwhelmingly Protestant in its membership, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) was detested by many Catholics, with the staunchest republican neighborhoods effectively becoming no-go areas for RUC officers. Over 300 policemen and women were murdered during Northern Ireland's 30-year conflict. (See pictures of new hope for Belfast...
...Although policing still remains a divisive issue in Northern Ireland, the rebranding of the RUC into the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) in 2001 changed the image of law enforcement dramatically. A policy of positive discrimination has seen the number of Catholic officers jump from less than 3% to over 20% in five years. The force has also launched recruitment drives to attract more women and ethnic minorities. Members of Sinn Fein, the republican political party with close links to the IRA, now sit on Northern Ireland's Policing Board. Monday's shooting, therefore, was both an attack...
...those monitoring Northern Ireland's security situation in recent times, this spate of attacks had a depressing sense of inevitability. Earlier this month, MI5 - the United Kingdom's intelligence service - raised the security threat posed by dissident republicans to "severe," meaning an attack was regarded as highly likely. Furthermore, the murder in Craigavon wasn't the first time dissidents have tried to kill police officers. An off-duty policeman was shot by the Real IRA in County Tyrone in November 2007, but survived. Security forces in Northern Ireland also say they have foiled major terrorist attacks by dissidents, including defusing...
...Hugh Orde to request the support of the British Army's Special Reconnaissance Regiment (SRR) in the PSNI's intelligence-gathering operations. Sinn Fein - traditionally hostile to any ramp-up of British security forces - reacted with anger. Less than a week before the murder of the soldiers in Antrim, Northern Ireland's Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness described the use of these special forces as "a major threat...