REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MARY McALEESE AT THE INAUGURAL MEETING OF THE PSNI WOMEN’S NETWORK
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MARY McALEESE AT THE INAUGURAL MEETING OF THE PSNI WOMEN’S NETWORK SLIEVE DONARD HOTEL, NEWCASTLE, CO. DOWN
Ladies and gentlemen. But, in the circumstances, ladies especially!
Thank you for giving me the chance to return to my beloved County Down and especially to Newcastle. For that I have to thank Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde, DCC Leighton and ACC Gillespie and the organisers of today’s event, Karen Baxter, Barbara Gray and Maura Muldoon.
When the great Spike Milligan set his brilliant satirical novel Pookoon in a small village spanning the border, he probably thought that the most outlandish thing in it was the member of the Garda Síochána from China. I remember my own small brother’s squeal of surprise forty years ago when he had his first sight of what he described as “a lady policeman”. Neither seems strange today, in fact to a new generation it seems strange that there was ever a generation which thought these things strange. I prefer these times when we take it for granted that every human being should have the chance to become whatever they desire uninhibited by crass and false impediments of gender, class, race, religion or all the other obstacles that led in the past to so much waste of human talent, so much frustration and so much needless delay in revealing the fullest potential of human society. We are in many ways fortunate to be living in these heady times of change when all sorts of new partnerships are being forged and are showcasing the power of collaboration, of networking as you are doing.
We only have to think of the new political partnership here in Northern Ireland which is already unlocking so much pent up goodwill and restless creative energy. We are living a new chapter of history, utterly different from every preceding chapter and loud with the noise of doors opening and of novel ideas taking shape. For the PSNI these changes are especially momentous and while the task of policing is never easy, today’s police officers face a future that holds considerably more promise and less threat than that experienced throughout the decades of the Troubles.
So the P.S.N.I. Women’s Network has picked its time well, for the omens for new endeavours could not be better and the mood of the moment is all about collaboration, partnership and problem solving through dialogue. This is a forum where women police officers can meet, share experiences and insight and support one another. You know that when you share knowledge and support it isn’t like sharing a bar of chocolate - in fact the mathematics are the opposite. The more information you share the more effective and powerful that information becomes. The more support you give to one another the stronger you all become. That investment in sharing brings benefits not only to each of you as individuals, but to the PSNI as a whole and the entire community of Northern Ireland. Police officers working in Northern Ireland are dealing with an environment which has, on the one hand, characteristics that are unique to this place and its history and, on the other, characteristics that are readily familiar to police officers in many other jurisdictions. There is a repository of experience, skill and insight here, in each of you as individuals and it is a repository that gathers momentum when pooled into a collective distilled wisdom. Shared with each other and with others, it can become a very efficient problem solving, advocacy and issue-driving tool.
It is good to see members of police forces from other jurisdictions here, including many members of An Garda Síochana. Sharing a tiny island as we do with two separate police forces operating in separate jurisdictions with distinctive legal frameworks, the vulnerability of citizens on both sides of the border is greatly diminished where there is an easy, spontaneous flow of information and cooperation between police in both jurisdictions. In fact police officers know better than most just how essential it is in the local, national and international fight against crime that there is ready access to the good networks, good contacts and good friendships that help keep vital information flowing freely.
Female police officers have come a long way from the days when physical competency tests for recruitment to police forces were calibrated in ways that were, to put it mildly, hostile to women. We have come a long way from the days when I started Law School and the first book on the reading list by an eminent jurist stated emphatically that women should not contemplate careers as barristers because their voices did not carry as far as male voices. Professor Glanville Williams clearly never met my mother whose voice could silence her five sons, in fact her eyebrows, only minimally raised could silence any one of her nine children.
Yes we have come a long way from all those theories that crudely limited women’s opportunities and ambitions. But we shouldn’t delude ourselves that the journey is over for there are still a lot of very nice men (and even women, too sad to say) who are at times overly anxious to protect us from the full rigours of our chosen careers and who would, if they could, limit the range and scope of our work, naturally to keep us safe or to keep us exclusively within spheres that women are perceived to be particularly suited to. They exist within organisations and among the public and no matter how well intentioned, they have to be told and told again that equal opportunities means precisely that - that each new recruit to any profession is entitled to expect access to the full range of opportunities and responsibilities regardless of gender.
There may seem a paradox here, on the one hand insisting on gender neutral cultures within our professions and at the same time supporting the creation of a consciously gender specific network. It is a false paradox precisely because the historic cultural backdrop for women has been very different from men and precisely because the practices, attitudes and perceptions it gave rise to have not yet been fully dismantled. The truth is that the experience of professional women will, for many, for the foreseeable future, continue to differ in important detail from the experience of men. It is women who will carry the brunt of advocacy on childcare, maternity leave and payment and flexible work practices. It is women who will continue to experience both the effects of what have been described as the double whammy of the glass ceiling and the sticky floor.
Education and equality legislation have transformed the career prospects of women in recent decades. The Patten Report concluded that the police service should be more representative of the society it polices, and made it clear that this included increasing the proportion of women police officers. Great strides are being made in this direction and it is marvellous to see the recruitment percentages for women growing exponentially both North and South of the border, with the PSNI having a clear statistical lead! Why that should be so is a topic you could usefully discuss with the members of the Garda Síochana present.
It seems to me particularly important that through this new Network, police officers just starting out in their careers can now make contact with, and draw inspiration from, more experienced colleagues. At the same time it will provide a support mechanism to those already breaking through to the upper echelons of policing. And it will provide a valuable forum through which female PSNI and Garda officers can contribute to the advancement of women and of policing and the common good on the whole island of Ireland. The personal friendships that a network and a conference such as this help to create, should never be under-estimated. In the words of John Hewitt - we build to fill the centuries arrears. And there are a lot of arrears, trust being one of the biggest casualties of all. Yet in this moment hugely important civic institutions like the police have an unparalleled opportunity to make a lasting and leading contribution to these hope filled times. Already it is evident that the two police forces have been giving imaginative leadership. The Agreement on Police Co-operation signed between the two Governments provides a framework for police exchanges between the PSNI and Garda Síochána.
Exchanges are taking place as we speak, a number of them involving female officers, and secondments between the two forces are set to follow. Ultimately, provisions which will allow members of the PSNI to apply for certain posts in the Garda Síochána, and vice versa, are planned. The net that criminals rely on being able to find holes in, gets stronger, more robust with every passing day.
With politicians from all sides of the community now working respectfully and good humouredly together in government, the policing context has changed considerably and for the better. The vexed question of Northern Ireland’s constitutional status is now comprehensively dealt with by the Good Friday Agreement and now there is space to deal with the many other pressing issues like children’s education, health services, the environment, job opportunities, regional and rural regeneration, and economic development. The driving will of the people for peace, for reconciliation and for a shared future even in the teeth of dreadful suffering, has underpinned this new era of success and they are entitled to great credit that such a deeply intractable situation has been turned around so comprehensively.
Everyone here knows well that the road that has brought us to these breakthroughs was neither short nor easy and indeed this audience needs no reminding that the peace process faced some of the most emotive and divisive problems - policing being one of the most important. Today Northern Ireland has a police service, supported by the entire community and all the stronger for its diversity and its increased representation of men and women from both communities.
I hope that in this new reality there is some comfort for those left to cope with loss, disability or injury in the reassurance that what they went through will not have to be endured by another generation. Change has been a hard road for many of them. It is a process, in need of sensitivity and consideration. Changed attitudes to the police within the nationalist community have helped move things forward and these too are part of an evolving relationship being actively built between nationalist communities and the police. In all these human dynamics we see work to be done, work of care and compassion, work of courage, work of confidence building, work of community building.
When Dr. Paisley came to Dublin just over a month ago to meet the Taoiseach, they greeted each other with a firm handshake. Dr. Paisley spoke of old suspicions and discord being buried forever under the prospect of mutual and respectful co-operation. He spoke of his justified pride in being an Ulsterman and his pride in his Irish roots and heritage.
On behalf of the Government, the Taoiseach undertook to work with the new Executive in sincere friendship and assured co-operation. He said the future of this island has never been brighter. I can assure you that south of the border there is a desire to be good neighbours, to fill the centuries arrears with all the humanly uplifting and enhancing things that this, the best educated generation this island has ever known, can grow and nurture and generate. We have never before had the privilege of living with a confluence of peace, prosperity and partnership. We are a problem solving generation which has at last solved one of the world’s most longstanding and fraught sets of relationships. The relationship between Ireland and Britain has never been better, the relationship between North and South has thawed to a remarkable degree and the relationships within Northern Ireland have set themselves an agenda of working together for the good of all and of arguing out their differences in Parliament and not on the street.
We are at last a blessed generation. We have a strong memory of what all this has cost and so we know its value, its hard earned, awful value. In back of it all there is a truth worth remarking on - we are emerging from a largely macho culture, a shape-throwing culture, steeped in the politics of conflict and until recently relatively untutored in the politics of consensus building. It was not an easy world for the genius of women to comprehensively flourish in, but as the old ways give way to new, there could not be a better time for women to seize the moment and the momentum as you are doing.
We are privileged that we will be part of fresh and fruitful times and I am privileged to have been able to come here today and see the commitment and optimism of the women who will police that future.
Thank you.