Irland, The Royal Irish Constabulary, 1816-1921

The Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) was created in 1816, and initially staffed mainly by Irish-born men. However, toward the 1900s, and especially afterwards, the RIC recruited men from countries such as England, Scotland, Wales, and the United States. The records of the RIC were only indexed annually by the date of enlistment. Until this database was created, the only way to identify whether an ancestor joined the forces was an extremely time-consuming search. Some people joined for a few days or weeks, others stayed for years, and quite a few migrated. There are mentions in the index on whether a person emigrated, died, or married.

The original records go into greater details, showing where each man was stationed, where he had relatives, whether he got married, and if so the date, illnesses, conduct, promotions, cause of death if died in the force; pensioned or retired; as well as a physical description. The index shows the name of each man, a year or birth or an age on enlistment; a county of birth or a country; whether single or married, comments such as died, emigrated, etc., and the reference film number and page for fuller details. This index is an important source for Irish research, even if your ancestor didn't appear to have been in the RIC. He may have enlisted for a few days or weeks and signed out. His details are still on record. This index is a work in progress. This latest update adds another 11,074 records to the previous 58,433 records.