February 21, 2004 The Police - RUC/PSNI - New Name, Same Force


In the very early days of the Troubles a reporter from British television, freshly arrived from `the mainland', was interviewing a woman on the Falls Road.

He was perplexed at the degree of nationalist alienation and he asked the woman what had happened to her and her neighbours' homes. The woman said, "They came down from up there with bricks and petrol bombs and burnt us out, one after the other, in the middle of the night."

"But why didn't you phone the police," asked the baffled Englishman, which to him would have been the obvious common-or-garden thing to do.

"It's the police I'm talking about," answered the woman.