The RUC policed Northern Ireland during the aftermath of the Irish War of Independence, the Second World War, the Irish Republican Army's (IRA) Northern Campaign (1942–44) and Border Campaign (1956–62), and throughout the Troubles (1960s–1990s). Due to the threat from the IRA, who saw the RUC as enforcing British rule, the RUC was an armed and militarised police force. Officers routinely carried submachine guns and assault rifles, travelled in armoured Land Rovers, and were based in heavily-fortified police stations. It was the first police force to use rubber and plastic bullets for riot control. The RUC's membership was overwhelmingly Protestant and it was accused by sections of the Catholic and Irish nationalist minority of one-sided policing and sectarianism. Officers were also accused of police brutality as well as collusion with loyalist paramilitaries. Conversely, it was praised as one of the most professional police forces in the world by British security forces.