Debate contribution: Sectarian Murder of Robert Hamill: Failure of the RUC
Debate contribution by Mr Alan Chambers on .
- MLA
- Mr Alan Chambers
- Party at the time
- Ulster Unionist Party
- Date
- 15 September 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Matter of the Day
- Heading
- Sectarian Murder of Robert Hamill: Failure of the RUC
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5705440
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I was not planning to speak on the Matter of the Day, but I have heard a lot of criticism — general, broad-brush criticism — of the RUC. The impression that I get is that it is a criticism that is borne from pure hatred for those who served in the RUC during what we call the Troubles.
I was proud to wear the uniform of the RUC. I may be the only one in the Chamber today who did that; I do not know. I served for 15 years in the RUC Reserve. It affected my whole life. For my business, there were places that I could not go. I slept with a loaded firearm at the side of my bed every night. There were children in the house, but it was something that I had to do. I answered the front door at night with the gun in my hand, maybe covered with a copy of the 'Belfast Telegraph'. What happened to Robert Hamill was disgraceful. The police officer who made that phone call was a disgrace to the uniform that I wore and that every other member of the RUC wore. He served time in jail for doing what he did. He was more than a rotten apple, but people seem to feel that everybody who was in the RUC was a rotten apple. I did not know any police officer who came into work in the morning with the intention of colluding to organise the murder of someone; they came in to protect the public. They held the line for 30 years, yet I never hear one word of credit given in the Chamber to the RUC for that fact. It protected people from bombers whose bombs did not discriminate in whom they killed. Police officers put their lives on the line to protect us. They suffered mental health issues and family health issues, and 300 of my colleagues died serving and protecting the public. Just like Robert Hamill, who was out for a quiet night, two of my direct friends in the RUC were out for a quiet night, and a gunman crept up behind them and put bullets through the backs of their heads. That gunman did not care about how many children or what family those two police officers had. Disgraceful. Let us therefore not use such a broad brush —
— to demonise the RUC, which protected —
— us for 30 years.
411 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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