Sir Ronald Flanagan GBE QPM (born 25 March 1949) is a retired senior Northern Irish police officer. He was the Home Office Chief Inspector of Constabulary for the United Kingdom excluding Scotland. Sir Ronnie was previously the Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) since its creation in 2001 to 2002, and had been Chief Constable of its predecessor, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) until 2001.
Born in Belfast, Flanagan joined the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) in 1970 while studying physics at The Queen's University of Belfast. He served his first three years in the Queen Street Barracks before achieving the rank of sergeant and transferring to the Castlereagh station. [1] He was promoted to Inspector in 1976. [2] In 1982 he became a Detective Inspector in the Special Branch and was promoted the following year to Chief Inspector. [3]
In 1990 he took on the role of Chief Superintendent and transferred to the Police Staff College in Bramshil where he was the First Director of the Intermediate Command Course, progressing to the Senior Command Course. [2]
In 1992 he returned to duty with the RUC as Assistant Chief Constable of Operations, later taking on the responsibilities of Operational Commander for Belfast. He was appointed as head of Special Branch in 1994 and was promoted to Acting Deputy Chief Constable the year after. He became the Deputy Chief Constable proper in 1996, and when Chief Constable Hugh Annesley retired later that year, Flanagan succeeded him. When the PSNI was established in 2001, he served as Chief Constable until his retirement the following year. [3] He was replaced by Hugh Orde.
Since then he has served in Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and was appointed as HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary in 2005. He was tasked to review the police arrangements in Iraq in December 2005 as part of the British involvement there. Following his retirement in December 2008, Denis O'Connor succeeded him as Her Majesty's Acting Chief Inspector of Constabulary.
After leaving British policing, Flanagan took up the post of strategic adviser to the Abu Dhabi Police Force, [4] a post he held for almost two years until he succeeded Lord Condon as chairman of the International Cricket Council's Anti-Corruption & Security Unit (ACSU). [5]
On 22 January 2007 a report by the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland, Nuala O'Loan, made findings of collusion between members of the proscribed paramilitary organisation, the Ulster Volunteer Force, and officers under the command of Flanagan. [6] The reports were acknowledged by the then Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde who apologised for the wrongdoing of his officers, and by the then British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Peter Hain.
“While I appreciate that it cannot redress some of the tragic consequences visited upon the families of those touched by the incidents investigated in this report, I offer a whole-hearted apology for anything done or left undone." – Hugh Orde
Flanagan denied any wrongdoing or acting with any knowledge of the events in question. He agreed that these events had taken place. In the aftermath of the ombudsman's report, Irish nationalist politicians said he should be forced to resign from his job as Chief Inspector of Constabulary.
The Police Ombudsman had criticised Flanagan's role in the RUC inquiry into the Omagh Bombing of 1998, in a report published in 2001, to which his response was that he would "publicly commit suicide" if he believed her report was correct, though he later apologised for the form of words he used. [7]
In July 2010, Flanagan appeared before the Iraq Inquiry into the UK's role in the Iraq War. In 2005, he had conducted a review into the UK's contribution to policing reform in Iraq. [8] As he gave evidence, Flanagan had to apologise for the amount of acronyms in his report on Iraq, which was presented to the government in January 2006:
"In my view, and I would like to almost apologise for the number of acronyms in this report – but it wasn't written with a view to being read publicly. It was written for the people who invented the acronyms..." [8]
| Ribbon | Description | Notes |
 | Order of the British Empire (GBE) |
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 | Knight Bachelor |
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 | Queen's Police Medal (QPM) | |
 | Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal |
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 | Police Long Service and Good Conduct Medal | |
 | Royal Ulster Constabulary Service Medal | |
The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) was the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2001. It was founded on 1 June 1922 as a successor to the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) following the partition of Ireland. At its peak the force had around 8,500 officers, with a further 4,500 who were members of the RUC Reserve.
The Omagh bombing was a car bombing on 15 August 1998 in the town of Omagh in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It was carried out by the Real Irish Republican Army, a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) splinter group who opposed the IRA's ceasefire and the Good Friday Agreement, signed earlier in the year. The bombing killed 29 people and injured about 220 others, making it the deadliest incident of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Telephoned warnings which did not specify the location had been sent almost forty minutes beforehand but police inadvertently moved people toward the bomb.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI; Irish: Seirbhís Póilíneachta Thuaisceart Éireann; Ulster-Scots: Polis Service o Norlin Airlan), officially the Police Service of Northern Ireland (incorporating the Royal Ulster Constabulary), is the police service responsible for law enforcement and the prevention of crime within Northern Ireland.
Sir Hugh Stephen Roden Orde, is a retired British police officer who was the president of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), representing the 44 police forces of England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Between 2002 and 2009, he was the Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).
Jean McConville was a woman from Belfast, Northern Ireland, who was kidnapped and murdered by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and secretly buried in County Louth in the Republic of Ireland in 1972 after being accused by the IRA of passing information to British forces.
Patrick Finucane was an Irish lawyer who specialised in criminal defence work. Finucane came to prominence due to his successful challenge of the British government in several important human rights cases during the 1980s. He was killed by loyalist paramilitaries from the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), acting in collusion with British security services. In 2011, British Prime Minister David Cameron met with Pat Finucane's family and apologised for the collusion.
The Claudy bombing occurred on 31 July 1972, when three car bombs exploded mid-morning, two on Main Street and one on Church Street in Claudy in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. The attack killed nine civilians, injured thirty and became known as "Bloody Monday". Those who planted the bombs had attempted to send a warning before the explosions took place. The warning was delayed, however, because the telephones were out of order due to an earlier bomb attack. The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) issued an immediate denial of responsibility, and later stated that "an internal court of inquiry" had found that its local unit did not carry out the attack. On the thirtieth anniversary of the bombing, there was a review of the case and in December 2002 it was revealed that the IRA had been responsible for the bomb explosions.
His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS), formerly Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC), has statutory responsibility for the inspection of the police forces of England and Wales, and since July 2017 the fire and rescue services of England. HMICFRS is headed by the Chief Inspector of Constabulary and Chief Inspector of Fire & Rescue Services. It has taken over the responsibilities of His Majesty's Fire Service Inspectorate.
On 4 December 1971, the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), an Ulster loyalist paramilitary group, detonated a bomb at McGurk's Bar in Belfast, Northern Ireland, frequented by Irish Catholics–nationalists. The explosion caused the building to collapse, killing fifteen Catholic civilians—including two children—and wounding seventeen more. It was the deadliest attack in Belfast during the Troubles.
Nuala Patricia O'Loan, Baroness O'Loan,, is a public figure in Northern Ireland. From 1999 to 2007, she was the first Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland. In July 2009, it was announced that she was to be appointed to the House of Lords and she was so appointed in September 2009. In December 2010, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, appointed her as the chairman of its governing authority. She is a columnist with The Irish Catholic.
Sir James Bernard Flanagan,, was the only Roman Catholic Chief Constable of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC).
Brice Dickson is a barrister from Northern Ireland and Emeritus Professor of International and Comparative Law at the School of Law, Queen's University Belfast. Formerly Professor of Law at the University of Ulster, he became the first Chief Commissioner of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (NIHRC) on its establishment in 1999, serving two three-year terms. He was a key figure related to the Holy Cross dispute in which Loyalists sought to blockade a Catholic primary school in the Ardoyne area of North Belfast. After his time on the Commission Dickson worked as a Professor of International and Comparative Law at Queen's University Belfast from 2005 until his retirement in 2017.
James Gamble, is a British former police officer and head of Belfast region for the now disbanded RUC Special Branch.
Judith Kyle Gillespie, CBE is a retired senior police officer. She was the Deputy Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland between June 2009 and March 2014.
On 5 February 1992, there was a mass shooting at the Sean Graham bookmaker's shop on the Lower Ormeau Road in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Members of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), a loyalist paramilitary group, opened fire on the customers with an assault rifle and handgun, killing five civilians and wounding nine. The shop was in a Catholic and Irish nationalist area and all of the victims were local Catholics. The UDA claimed responsibility using the cover name "Ulster Freedom Fighters", saying the shooting was retaliation for the Teebane bombing, which had been carried out by the Provisional IRA less than three weeks before. A later investigation by the Police Ombudsman found that the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) had engaged in "collusive behaviour" with UDA informers involved in the attack.
Sir George Ernest Craythorne Hamilton is a Northern Ireland retired police officer. From 2014 to 2019, he served as the Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland. He was previously the Assistant Chief Constable with responsibility for rural policing.
Sir Robert Edward Graham Shillington CBE was a senior Northern Irish police officer. He served as Chief Constable of Royal Ulster Constabulary from 1970 to 1973.
The Queen Street RUC Station was a Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) station in Belfast, Northern Ireland, from 1933 to 2000. Before that, it was used as the main premises of the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children from 1878 to 1932. It has been effectively abandoned since 2000 and is visibly deteriorating. The building was granted listed status in 1979.
On 12 July 2001, major rioting and civil disorder broke out in Ardoyne, north Belfast, Northern Ireland. In some of the worst rioting in years, 113 police officers were injured in clashes which followed a July 12 parade. Police were attacked when trying clear the path for about 100 Orangemen returning from the parade to go along a main road passing the Catholic Ardoyne area.
Jeremy Andrew Harris,, is the current Commissioner of the Garda Síochána in the Republic of Ireland, having assumed office in September 2018. He previously served as Deputy Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) from 2014 to 2018.
DAVID FROST:...if indeed the ombudsman judgement was correct I would not only resign I would go and publicly commit suicide, was that a bit over the top, would you, would you use those words again? RONNIE FLANAGAN: No I certainly would not,...
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