Workers Solidarity Movement

These texts are written and edited by the Garda Research Institute which is composed of residents, community workers and educators who have both personally experienced Garda violence and have heard countless negative stories about the gardaí.  They came together to examine the role of the gardaí and in particular to spark debate and discussion about who gets targeted by the police and why.

The text is structured in the following way. Following the introduction and a piece on the making of the gardaí, the pamphlet is divided into three sections, the first of which looks at the experience of the policed.  The next section looks at the policing of protest by the gardaí.  The final section looks at responses to policing and examines how grassroots activists and movements have attempted to make the police more accountable.

For ease of reading you can download a PDF of the entire text in A4 format or fold over A5 format.

Introductory

• Why we put this pamphlet together: secrets, lies and unaccountable policing
• How the gardaí were made

On the receiving end: experiences of being policed

• Working-class experiences of the Gardaí
• Terence Wheelock: looking for justice
• The prisoner who disappeared… for a while

Political policing: the gardaí and democracy

• I still remember my first time
• Reclaim the Streets 2002: a police riot and the aftermath
• Resisting Shell in Mayo and the experience of policing in Erris: an eyewitness account
• Policing the anti-war movement
• When do the police get away with violence, and why?
• From force to fencing: political policing in the Republic of Ireland

Responding to abusive policing: practical resources

• Challenging the gardaí: a personal experience
• The Prisoners’ Rights Organisation: a historical case study in grassroots organising, “history from below” and police accountability
• Challenging targeted policing: my experience in the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty
• Making policing history: different ways of resisting

Appendix

• Policing Ireland: some useful resources

Reders experiences & comments

• Add your experiences or comments to this text

For ease of reading you can download a PDF of the entire text in A4 format or fold over A5 format.

Return to the index page of Make Policing History

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