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Podcast: The BelTel
Episode: Allison Morris: The origins of the PSNI and the challenge of recruiting Catholics
Description: 23 years after its emergence, the PSNI is still less than one third Catholic and the numbers attempting to join are according to the Chief Constable "below what's needed". Its latest recruitment campaign attracted a total of 3,500 applications but only 27% are perceived to be Catholic. The PSNI was born out of the Patten reforms of the old RUC but the changes which reforms brought about were painful for many who saw them as a betrayal. The controversial 50/50, Catholic / Protestant recruitment policy was seen as discrimination against Protestants. Allison Morris joins Ciarán Dunbar to explain the background of...