Northern Ireland policing and the road yet to be travelled
Peadar Heffron’s story reveals difficulties many Catholics have had joining the PSNI
Former PSNI constable Peadar Heffron, who lost his leg in a terrorist attack, with with former GAA player and columnist Joe Brolly in Belfast during a PSNI v Garda match. Photograph: Presseye/Stephen Hamilton
The PSNI GAA crest.
Members of the Garda and PSNI GAA cluns in Croke Park after a game in 2011.
The 2006 game between the PSNI Gaelic football team, which Peadar Heffron captained, and St Brigid’s in Belfast. Photograph: Arthur Allison
Fifteen years after the creation of the Police Service of Northern Ireland a third of its officers are from a Catholic background, two-thirds from a Protestant background.
Some are religious. Most are probably not, but PSNI Deputy Chief Constable Drew Harris was keen for more Catholics to apply when he launched a recruitment drive earlier this year. The campaign to hire 300 more officers closed on Friday, though there are signs that the optimistic hopes that existed back in 2002 for a force that represented all parts of life in the North are now struggling.