Dublin talks to pose loyalty test for Ulster’s new knight

Press, 14 January 1982, Page 13

Dublin talks to pose loyalty test for Ulster’s new knight

By

CHRIS RYDER.

‘‘Sunday Times," London

Few public figures, even in divided Ulster, have attracted such controversy as the Chief Constable of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, Jack Hermon, who has just completed two years in the post and was rewarded with a knighthood in the New Year’s honours list. At least one Unionist M.P. regards Hermon as a man whose inclinations would lead him to back the Rev lan Paisley, were that diehard to declare U.D.I. in Ulster. Yet to Paisley himself Hermon is ranked with Margaret Thatcher and James Prior as part of the conspiracy with Dublin to “sell Ulster out into a united Ireland.”

Hermons image among Catholics is equally contradictory. Some believe he is the best, most sensitive, police chief the province has had. Others see him as the latest in a long line of repressive Protestant bigots — ’ deliberately turning a blind eye to Paisley and his “third force.”

Among his 12.000 men there are the same bewildering discrepancies. Some say his ambition is to be the first all Ireland police chief. Some expect his police career to lead him into politics. There are men in the force who dislike him.

According to one senior officer, the Police Federation’s recent vote of confidence in him. which passed by only one vote, was evidence of “men who dislike the chief putting their hands up against him.” Some colleagues resent Hermon’s occasional obsessiveness or his lapses into impetuosity.

Hermon is unmoved by such talk. “Popularity is not my business. Command is,” he told me recently. “The R.U.C. and the chief constable are not fighting anybody. We are dealing with people fighting - the law. Order is their enemy. Civilised behaviour is their enemy. I’m not, and we’re not in conflict with anybody. We are peace officers.”

But his problems remain essentially the same as when he took office. There is still not full public acceptance of the force by the Catholic community, although the level of R.U.C. activity in Catholic areas has steadily increased, and there is more backing for the R.U.C. from influential Catholics.

The hunger strikes, the election of Bobby Sands to Parliament, the polarising of Catholic and Protestant opinion, have frustrated his hopes that the police might win the support of both communities to the point where reasonable political discussion would become possible. Nevertheless. Hermon remains cool, apparently untroubled both by the scale of the problems and by the heat he has engendered. On the night Sands died. Hermon told his duty officer: “Well, you know what to do, I'm going back to sleep.”

Hermon, a married man of 53 with a teen-age son and daughter, lives under constant threat of assassination. But he is frequently out with his men, travelling in their armoured Land Rovers to get a direct taste of their duties.

Socially, he has to be discreet about his acttiviies, although he manages a certain amount of walking and sailing — to the exhaustion of his bodyguards. He uses a number of clubs, and drops in unannounced for lunch or dinner, frequently with, the head of the army, Lieutenant General Sir Richard Lawson.

one of his best friends He has been an R.U.C. man for 32 vears. He joined the force after Larne Grammar School and a spell studying accountancy. He ran into trouble soon after leaving the R.U.C. training school. Old hands were annoved by his zeal — he sometimes walked 10-mile mountain beats in remote parts of County Londonderry inaccessible to vehicles or even cycles, serving summonses over dog licences. His first big challenge came in 1957 when he was sent to replace a sergeant killed in an I.R.A. booby-trap explosion. Promotions followed rapidly until, in 1966, at Hastings Street, Belfast, fie found himself in charge of police trying' to quelf election-time trouble which involved the then little-known Rev lan Paisley. He is chiefly remembered from that stage of his career as “Blue Streak" because of his boundless energy, enthusiasm and high standards of discipline. In 1966. Hermon was appointed deputy head of the R.U.C. training centre and became commandant in 1969, the troubled year when British troops assumed their peace-keeping role. Since then, he has been a decisive figure in moulding the R.U.C.. first as the man resonsible for the great re-

cruiting intake of the early 19705, and later as assistant chief constable, when he built up a large community relations branch with the aims of healing the CatholicProtestant divide and bringing the R.U.C. into closer contact with both communities. In the fight against terrorism. no end is in sight. One of Hermon’s frequent duties is to march behind the coffin of a policeman murdered by the Provisional I.R.A. He has done that 30 times since taking office. And the R.U.C.S anti-terrorist drive is in something of a stall. The Bennet Report, winch introduced interrogation safeguards two years ago. is now regarded in police and political circles as having swung the pendulum too far in the terrorists' favour. Although almost 1000 people were charged with terrorist type offences in 1981, twice the 1980 total, the number of charges for the most serious offences — murder, shooting, and bombing — has remained static. There is also increasing turbulence in the Protestant community, with fears about the talks encouraging the Paisley-outcome of the An-glo-Irish "third force." If these talks make progress. Hermon could face a major test of loyalty within his ranks this year.