Was the change of our police’s title from RUC to PSNI a good thing? Almost certainly. For a start, dozens, even hundreds of people here had suffered at the hands of the RUC, in small and sometimes very big ways. The name-change along with new recruitment arrangements made for a strong indication of fresh beginnings. It stressed that the police are there to serve us, not intimidate us. And it ended the use of an adjective which contained one geographical error (‘Ulster’), and another (‘Royal’) which made clear which side of a divided community the Force was aligned with.
In a recent Irish Times article, Marion McEnroe Higgins points to the several bodies in the south which retain “obsolete royal identities”: the Royal Irish Academy (RIA) (Yes, there are opportunities for mix-up there, Virginia), the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA), Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (RCPI), Royal Dublin Society (RDS) and the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland (RIAI).
There is a case – not made by the author of the article – that the retention of the ‘Royal’ would be reassuring to northern unionists and encourage them to see a reunited Ireland as a place where they would feel at home. I don’t think it does anything of the sort but the case might be made.
The writer of the article points out that the bodies in question, when founded, sought the recognition of their constitutions from the ruling authority of the day, the British monarchy. Sticking with these titles in an independent republic, she believes,”threatens to perpetuate the optics of Irish academies as elitist, outmoded institutions”.
I can already here the baying of those who, for reasons best known to themselves, revere the Royals. But if a state can’t get around, after a hundred years, to naming its major institutions in line with its history over the last one hundred years, doesn’t that tell us something about the royalty-worshipping residue that continues to play a major role in the south’s life? And doesn’t the plethora of Royal names here in the north, for bridge, halls, streets and buildings reflect a past when this state was overwhelmingly unionist and royalty-worshipping? Will we have to wait another hundred years before the powers-that-be notice how the pattern of loyalties has shifted massively in this sad little northern state?
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