National newspaper's apology for labelling RUC 'discredited' welcomed by RUC GC Foundation

Last week, in response to a report highly critical of the Met Police, the Daily Mirror published an editorial demanding a radical shake-up of policing in the capital.

It said: “Either the tarnished force is radically and permanently reformed or it must be replaced. There is precedent for this, when the Police Service of Northern Ireland succeeded the discredited Royal Ulster Constabulary.”

Those comments provoked a backlash from former RUC officers, the wider police family and some political representatives.

The chair of the RUC GC Foundation, Professor Stephen White, immediately wrote to the paper’s editor, saying: “As someone who served in all ranks up to and including Assistant Chief Constable in the Royal Ulster Constabulary GC and continued service in the renamed Police Service of Northern Ireland, l am dismayed and angry at the inaccurate comment in the editorial that states the PSNI succeeded the ‘discredited RUC.’

The letter concludes: “Many point to the RUC and its stand against terrorism as a key factor that led to the defeat of extremists. Your comments insult all those RUC officers who gave their lives in the line of duty, their bereaved families and their brave colleagues.”

One week later, on March 28, the Daily Mirror has published an apology for the slur and also published Mr White’s letter of complaint in full.

Welcoming the development, Mr White told the News Letter: "The most important thing in all of this is how the widows, the bereaved families and injured officers look at it.

"I feel that the Daily Mirror has learned a lesson, and that they will not be so blasé about labelling the whole organisation as discredited. Of course there were bad police in the RUC, and there were bad policing decisions made over the years, but what human organisations wouldn't make mistakes.”

Tuesday’s Daily Mirror editorial states: “We should not have described the RUC as ‘discredited’ and we apologise, particularly to former members and their families. We accept the RUC evolved to become the PSNI."

It goes adds: “We recognised the service of individual RUC officers who served during the Troubles and were collectively awarded the George Cross.”