Editorial: Remembering the sacrifice our brave police officers made for peace in Northern Ireland

​​The 25th anniversary of the formation of the Police Service of Northern Ireland is both a time to assess where the force is at now, and what it and its predecessor did for peace.

With a constant focus on the actions of the state during the Troubles, it is perhaps easy to lose perspective on the vastly different role played by the forces of law and order, and that of the terrorists.

Ordinary men and women put on the uniform of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, and later the PSNI, and did a job in which their primary function was to protect life and property.

They did so in the face of a threat that for many people now, particularly those who don’t remember the darkest days, is unimaginable. Over three hundred lost their lives doing their job. Thousands were injured.

Their enemy was almost invisible. Not people who donned a uniform and played by any sort of code or rules. They hid in the shadows, placed bombs in ditches or under cars, shot from a distance or executed people at close range without warning.

Whatever the faults of the RUC and security services during the darkest years of the Troubles, they were not organisations who set out with murder on their minds.

The reforms to policing were a bitter pill to swallow for those who had served communities with bravery and decency in the face of violence from ideological extremists in republicanism and loyalism.

However, they did eventually create conditions whereby police had political support from across both communities, albeit often half-hearted from Sinn Féin.

The PSNI as a service is utterly different from the RUC, and operates not just in a changed Northern Ireland but a changed world. What has remained constant, however, is the bravery of the ordinary men and women who put on a uniform and stand between us all and danger.