Interviews of Ian Devlin aged 66

Biographical interview with Ian Devlin (aged 66) who was born in Kirkcudbright. This interview covers Ian's schooldays and professional life (as a policeman) and he also reflects on his life after leaving the police force due to ill health. Ian went to school when he was only a few months over his 4th birthday and he remembers there were only 3 pupils in his intake. The school, St Cuthbert's RC school, had only 2 teachers. Religion and discipline were central to his school experience and Ian describes how both teachers showed the class their tawse on the first day of school. These belts had the nicknames of Black Bess and Brown Bomber and the children were given the belt on a daily basis for almost anything, including getting your sand box or plasticine work wrong. Although critical of this aspect of school life, Ian says the quality of teaching was excellent and the work ethic of the staff faultless. As a Catholic family, great endeavours were made to pay the fees to allow the oldest boy to go on to St Joseph's college for senior school and Ian's elder brother was given this opportunity. Ian went instead to the academy and admits he was a bit of a handful there.

After school, he became a police cadet and worked for 3 years in Castle Douglas, before going on to train at Tulliallan. He talks about how difficult it was for Catholics to be accepted into the force and then for them to get permission to do additional professional courses. Ian worked for a number of years with the CID in London, mainly on murder cases, and he describes some of his experiences there. He was also in London at the time of the London IRA bombings and talks about surveillance work connected to this. Unfortunately, he was badly assaulted in London and was later diagnosed with Acromegaly. He talks about the implications of this diagnosis and also his role within the Pituitary Association. His lifelong interest in history has resulted in him publishing 7 books, one of which, 'A History of the Galloway Rifle Volunteers' was gifted to the project.