Find your ancestors in Ireland, Royal Irish Constabulary Pensions 1826-1925

In each result, you will find an image of the original document and a transcript recording the vital information found in that document. The detail in each transcript can vary depending on the nature of the source. This collection includes pension registers, registers of deceased pensioners, pension rolls upon disbandment (1922), and registers of widows and children. The transcript will include a combination of the following details.

• Name – this may be the name of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) pensioner, RIC member’s widow or in some cases, the name of the child of an RIC member if he/she was an orphan and received the pension.
• Birth year
• Pension year – the year can either refer to superannuation year, the year the individual started to pay into his pension, or commencement year, the year the pension payments to the individual started.
• RIC number
• Rank
• Discharge date
• Where paid
• Children’s names and birthdates
• County

Images

An image will reveal further information about your ancestor and add context to the details found in the transcript.

• Pension per annum
• Pension payments
• Whether the person paid into the Constabulary Force Fund

Discover more about these records

This unique collection of Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) records comes from The National Archives in Kew, England. The collection consists of the records for pensions and allowances given to officers, men and staff of the RIC and their widows and children. In the records, you will find registers of pensions along with registers of deceased pensioners and pensions paid when the RIC was disbanded in August 1922. Many of the records show whether the individual paid into the Constabulary Force Fund. This fund, which was formerly called the Reward Fund, was used to reward RIC members monetarily after acts of achievement and/or bravery. For example, in July 1875, Constable John Daly was awarded £6 for gathering evidence by visiting infected houses and families. The evidence gathered was sufficient to arrest a swindler doctor.

The Irish Constabulary was created in 1836. Between 1916 and 1922, there were 549 casualties within the Royal Irish Constabulary. Of these casualties, 457 were caused by acts of political violence in Ireland. From 1916 to 1922, Ireland was engaged in a War of Independence, which started with the Easter Rising in 1916 and ended with the Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1922. During the War of Independence, many RIC barracks and constables were targeted by militant nationalists.