ABSTRACT
With the advent of police primacy, official government policy in Northern Ireland sought to normalize what was in effect a small-scale war. Following the ceasefires, this yielded a dilemma: given the enormous lengths to which it had gone to normalize the policing of conflict, how would it now normalize the policing of peace? The theme that the RUC was a normal force – embroiled in an abnormal context, armed and trained to a high degree, equipped with considerable powers, but essentially normal nonetheless – was often difficult to sustain during the conflict (see Chapter 4). The ceasefires gave the RUC an unparalleled opportunity to re-articulate its self-understanding as a ‘normal’ police force. This chapter examines the visions of normality that underpinned RUC discourse during this period.
