Assembling a Vignette of Irish Police Masculinities through Socio-Historical Rural Crime Research

This paper assembles a vignette of Irish police masculinities from the 1940s and 1950s. Based on historical analysis of a volume of crimes compiled by members of An Garda Síochána (Ireland’s police and security service), and Irish newspaper records, this paper reveals how policing practices and masculinities converged through the detection and recording of rural crimes. An Garda Síochána was exclusively male at the time, and police officers were dominant instrumental figures in rural communities, operating within a tight culture of Catholic religiosity and state censorship. These circumstances allowed them to maintain an assemblage of masculinity that was built on authority, use of physical force, and piety.