Quote:
Originally Posted by ChrisF202
Suffolk County is 975 square miles with a population of about 1,500,000 but we also have a 2,600 member county police department dont ask why the police and sheriff are separate agencies; politics plays a very big role here) plus about 800 officers employed by 30 or so town and village police departments in addition to a mere handful of New York State Police troopers and New York State Park Police officers. I do believe though that a county to you Brits and Irish is really more like a state to us Americans.
|
That's true - Ireland is split into 32 counties, 26 of which form the Republic of Ireland and 6 of which form Northern Ireland.
They are furthermore split in to the 'Four Provinces' - Leinster (12 counties), Ulster (9), Munster (6) and Connacht (5).
County Cork is actually the largest in the country geographically, but local government is confusing to newcomers as there is a distinction made between
historic counties, which is Cork as an entirety, which many people have a great deal of pride in, especially when the All-Ireland Gaelic football cup is on! - but by local government, the county is split into 'Cork City', the metropole, and 'Cork County', the rural heartland.
Counties are actually very similar to states in many ways, and Provinces could be considered the equivalent to US regions - a great degree of local pride and quite a bit of loyalty can be found in them, as well as huge historical significance, and a certain degree of attachment to your 'patch'.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ChrisF202
I recall reading on Wikipedia that Ireland also has sheriffs, do they basically perform the same things as our sheriffs do like courthouse security, civil process, evictions, warrants, county government building security, prisoner transport to state and federal correctional facilities, etc? Do they handle any police functions or is that specifically up to the Garda?
|
Well the closest thing to that description that we have are the Sergeants, who are slightly more qualified and of a higher command than a regular Garda - Much of the duties above would be carried out by Gardai (the plural) under the
command of a Sergeant, or at a Sergeant's approval.
They also get 'right in the frontlines' over police work, alongside detectives, and the State Pathologist's office (currently lead by Dr Moira Cassidey, a Scot), who's primary task is the same as the US' CSI (not sure if that's the proper term, the show's great though
).
Quote:
Originally Posted by ChrisF202
One of my great great grandfathers served in the RIC before immigrating to the US so I do have some connection to the Garda and the Garda is the successor agency to the RIC.
|
That's quite a good tradition - during it's existence however the RIC was hated due to the perception of it being a collaberator's force with the British occupiers - 'Castle Catholics', ie Middle class, mild, mostly Catholic Unionists would make up the bulk of it's officers in the 26, which earned it the utter loathing of Irish Republicans and Nationalists (who formed maybe 85%-90% of the population) everywhere.
It's proper successor would be the
RUC (Royal Ulster Constabuletery), which was the Police in NI from 1922 to 1998 - It suffered alot of the same problems (it was a vehicle for Protestants and was blatantly one-sided during the Troubles), and eventually for community compromise became the PSNI (very simple, Police Service of Northern Ireland).