The RUC was once described as a mighty oak which would continue to thrive however many branches it lost. The words were uttered by Sir John Hermon, chief constable from 1980-89, to underline the professionalism and integrity of his officers in the violent aftermath of the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement when they were coming under an unprecedented level of loyalist attack, both on the streets and in their homes, as the long-running IRA campaign against them continued.

If ever the beleaguered RUC, nine out of 10 of its 13,000 officers drawn from the majority unionist community, was going to mutiny, it was then. But it did not. Every man and woman in the RUC uniform remained steadfast, as they have in the years since, carrying out their duty to serve impartially and protect the entire community in Northern Ireland. With only a handful of rogue exceptions, it is to their lasting credit that they have continued to do so despite the murder of 302 of their colleagues since 1969 - 277 by the hands of the IRA, 12 by the INLA/IPLO and eight by loyalists. Some 9,000 have been injured.

It is a telling footnote to this litany of death and injury, and the terrible pressures it imposed on the RUC, that 70 officers took their own lives, many with the handgun issued to them for their own protection.

Now, however, 77 years after it was established, the mighty oak is to be felled and replaced by a new growth. The imminent Patten Commission report on the future of policing, an inherent part of the Belfast Agreement, is set to recommend that the RUC be renamed the Police Service for Northern Ireland, that its ceremonial trappings (largely inherited in 1922 from the Royal Irish Constabulary) be replaced and that it becomes a routinely unarmed, high-technology, community-based, close-contact constabulary working in partnership with the people it will serve and protect. Its conduct and effectiveness will be scrutinised by a Police Board, a series of linked local boards and a Police Ombudsman.

There will be a huge investment in training to produce an internal police culture far removed from the one so vividly described by the Chief Constable, Sir Ronnie Flanagan, as "white, male and Protestant".

"As in every large organisation, there are people who will grumble about the change but will grudgingly accept it because they have mortgages and bills to pay," admitted one senior commander from a town outside Belfast. "However, the vast majority are more highly motivated than that. They have a sense of vocation and are committed to serving the community. They cannot wait to be re-trained and to get out among the people, of all races and creeds, to help them and to make the place safer from burglars and drug dealers and the like, who are the greatest source of unease, according to our research."

As ever in Northern Ireland, especially where policing issues are concerned, the report will not be greeted with any meaningful consensus or even an informed, intelligent response.

Instead, the RUC will be used as a political football, against the backdrop of the Mitchell review of the deadlocked agreement. Republicans will condemn it for failing to disband the RUC and replace it with a series of locally-recruited community militias, which they aspired to direct and control.

Similarly, unionists, who have generally adopted a "hands off the RUC" position, will not welcome it for the radical nature of what are said to be its several hundred detailed recommendations.

Already those on the hardline fringe have announced a campaign to "save" the RUC and are planning a rally at Belfast City Hall.

However, inside the RUC the publication of the report next Thursday morning will, above all, be greeted with a huge sigh of relief for finally bringing to an end a period of morale-sapping uncertainty, swirling rumour and organisational paralysis. "At last we will be able to get on with the job we have to do and make the necessary changes to do it more sensitively and effectively," said one senior man last week. "Everything from the modernising of buildings to the reprinting of stationery has been waiting for Patten."

Ever since the 1994 ceasefires the RUC has recognised that after years of policing conflict from inside heavily fortified stations and armoured vehicles, it would have to develop a new, more open style. It set up its own fundamental review in 1995 to do so but postponed implementing it to avoid being accused of pre-empting Patten.

"We have to get away from the remote Land-Rover style of patrolling and get out among the people to listen to their fears and anxieties and respond to them," said a constable who joined the force in 1970 as the whirlwind of the Troubles was gathering full force.

"I joined just after the Hunt report outlined the vision of a civilianised, unarmed police force, but that had to be abandoned virtually before we got started on that road because of the growing violence. I hope this time that peace really does take hold and that the young officers who have just come into the job and others, who will join over the next few years, do not have to live through what we went through."

He is one of many officers who will probably benefit from what are said to be generous severance payments. The commission told one of the RUC staff associations that it did not want anybody made redundant and harbouring a grievance.

But how willingly the British treasury responds to the cost of cutting the RUC from 13,000 to some 7,000 over the next few years remains to be seen.

The down-sizing is essential in over-policed Northern Ireland as it will make room for new recruits, especially from the nationalist community, who should make up 40 per cent of police strength.

"But we cannot go too quickly unless there is a stable and lasting peace," said one senior officer at headquarters in Belfast. "And we will have to avoid a stampede of our most skilled and experienced officers until we can recruit and train replacements. A young, inexperienced constable is as much a potential liability as a trainee doctor or an unskilled nurse."

Like the overwhelming majority of his colleagues, he regrets the proposed renaming of the force but is resigned to the change in the interests of making a new beginning.

"Whatever might have been the case in the past, nobody in this force has joined up to fight the IRA, defend the constitution or promote any political cause. When we put on our uniforms and go out on duty we leave our private beliefs and opinions behind. We uphold the law and deal with people impartially and we don't want to serve with anyone who doesn't ," he said.

Inevitably in such a large organisation, drawn so overwhelmingly from the majority community, there will be strong and mixed feelings, especially about the name, uniform and badges. "Many of us feel hurt that the great sacrifice that was made and the tremendous courage that was shown in dangerous times is being written off, forgotten about. There's not a station entrance without a roll of honour plaque and we will never forget our colleagues who gave their lives," said one woman officer.

But if the Patten recommendations are to change the style of policing in Northern Ireland and successfully pull it from the jaws of political controversy, the community, as well as the rejigged police service, will have to play its part.

"We can do without the proprietorial attitude unionists take to us and we want to see the SDLP coming off the fence and giving us their full consent and co-operation," said one long-serving detective in Belfast. "This community has a new political opportunity because of the sacrifice of the RUC and the way it thwarted so much of the intended violence. We will embrace change but the mindset of the entire community must change too."

Chris Ryder, a former member of the Police Authority of Northern Ireland, is the author of The RUC: A Force Under Fire.