Catholics exhorted to join Police Service

The Northern Secretary, Mr Peter Mandelson, has appealed to young Catholics to join the new Police Service of Northern Ireland. He expressed the hope that their parents and community leaders would encourage them to do so.

Writing in the current issue of the Irish Catholic, he points out that the Patten Commission had said such encouragement was "the key to the successful implementation of nearly everything in the report."

He said he had been condemned by all sides for the way he had tried "to steer the Patten ship through the political rocks and quicksand," but he was happy to do so if it meant a successful implementation of the Patten recommendations.

What was proposed was a police service in Northern Ireland which had "the most rigorous system of independent civilian oversight in the world."

He welcomed the concert last week in which policemen and women from north and south of the Border joined together to play music in the National Concert Hall in Dublin.