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Black and Tans

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Black and Tans
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Black and Tans

For other senses, see Black and tan (disambiguation).
The Black and Tans, more properly known as the Royal Irish Constabulary Reserve Force, was one of two paramilitary forces employed by the Royal Irish Constabulary from 1920 to 1921, to suppress revolution in Ireland by targeting the IRA and Sinn Féin.

Contents

Foundation

The late 19th and early 20th centuries in Ireland were dominated by the Irish pursuit of Home Rule or independence from Britain. Home Rule - limited self government - was passed by the British Parliament in 1912, but postponed because of the outbreak of the First World War. Some radical Irish republicans saw Home Rule as being too limited a form of independence however. Following the Easter Rising in Dublin in 1916, however, when armed Irish nationalists staged a rebellion against British rule of Ireland, Irish nationalism was greatly radicalised and after public outrage at the execution of the rising's leaders and the threatened imposition of conscription on Ireland for the First World War, it was channelled into the revolutionary Sinn Féin movement. Sinn Féin won over 80% of seats in Ireland at the 1918 general election and declared an independent Irish Republic. Violence broke out over British attempts to suppress this movement and in 1919, the Irish Volunteers,or Irish Republican Army, began the guerrilla campaign known as Irish War of Independence with attacks on the Royal Irish Constabulary.

In January 1920, the British government started advertising in cities in Great Britain for men willing to "face a rough and dangerous task", helping to boost the ranks of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) in policing an increasingly anti-British Ireland. There was no shortage of recruits, many of them World War I army veterans, and by November 1921 around 9,500 men had joined. This sudden influx of men led to a shortage of RIC uniforms, and the new recruits were issued with khaki army uniforms (usually only trousers) and dark green RIC or blue British police surplus tunics, caps and belts. This mixture gave rise to their nickname, the Black and Tans (in Irish, na Dúchrónaigh), from the name of a famous pack of foxhounds from Limerick. The name stuck even after the men received full RIC uniforms.

The new recruits received three months hurried training, and were rapidly posted to RIC barracks, mostly in Dublin, Munster and western Connacht. The first men arrived on 25 March 1920. The government also raised another unit, the Auxiliary Division of the Constabulary, known as the Auxiliaries or Auxies. This group was made up of ex-army officers. The Black and Tans acted with the Auxiliaries in the government's attempts to break the IRA.

In action in Ireland

Members of the Black and Tans were paid the relatively good wage of ten shillings a day plus full board and lodging. With minimal police training, their main role was to strengthen the military might of police posts, where they functioned as sentries, guards, escorts for government agents, reinforcement to the regular police, and crowd control, and mounted a determined counter-insurgency campaign. Because of these duties they were viewed by Republicans as an army of occupation. They soon gained a reputation for brutality, as the RIC campaign against the IRA and Sinn Féin members was stepped up and police reprisals for IRA attacks were condoned by the government. Many of the atrocities popularly attributed to the Black and Tans were probably in fact committed by the far more brutal Auxiliaries and some were committed by Irish RIC men. For instance, Thomas MacCurtain the mayor of Cork was assassinated in March 1920 by local RIC men and the massacre of 13 civilians at Croke Park on Bloody Sunday (1920) was carried out by the auxiliaries. Moreover, the regular British army also committed atrocities, burning the towns of Mallow and Fermoy for example. However most Republicans did not make a distinction, and "Black and Tans" was often used as a catch-all term for all Police and army groups. The Black and Tans and the Auxies became known as Tudor's Toughs after the police commander, Major-General Sir Henry Hugh Tudor.

Alexander Will, from Forfar in Scotland, was the first Black and Tan to die in the conflict, during an IRA attack on the RIC barracks in Rathmore, County Kerry, on 11 July 1920.

The deaths of Black and Tans in 1920 were often repaid with arbritrary reprisals against the civilian population. In the summer of 1920, the Black and Tans burned and sacked many small towns and villages in Ireland, beginning with Tuam in county Galway in July 1920 and also including Trim, Balbriggan, Thurles and Templemore amongst many others. In November 1920, the Tans "besiged" Tralee in revenge for the IRA abduction and killing of two RIC men. The Tans closed all the businesses in the town and did not let any food in for a week. In addition they shot dead three local people. On the 14th of November, the Tans abducted and murdered a Catholic priest, Fr. Michael Griffin, in Galway. His body was found in a bog in Barna a week later. Most spectacularly of all, the Black and Tans sacked Cork city, on the night 11th of December 1920, the centre of which was burned out - destroying over 300 buildings. The Tans also shot dead five civilians and two IRA suspects.

In January of 1921, the British Labour Commission produced a report on the situation in Ireland which was highly critical of the government's security policy. It stated that, in forming the Black and Tans, the government had "liberated forces which it is not at present able to dominate." However since the 29th of December 1920, the British government had sanctioned "official reprisals" in Ireland -usually meaning burning of houses and property of IRA men and suspected sympathisers. Taken together with an increased emphasis on discipline in the RIC, this helped to curb the random atrocities the Black and Tans committed since March 1920 for the remainder of the war (see also Chronology of the Irish War of Independence).

The Black and Tans' campaign was ultimately counter-productive for the British as it was seen by many as little more than state-sponsored terrorism, with very little pretence being made at promoting law and order and great emphasis on crushing Irish separatism, whether violent or peaceful. This alienated many Irish people from the British government in Ireland, some of whom were previously critical of IRA violence. Some British politicians (including Oswald Mosley) and the King made no secret of their horror at the behaviour of Crown forces which made international headlines, damaging British credibility.

Around 7,000 Black and Tans served in Ireland in 1920-22. Over one-third of the Black and Tans died or left the service before they were disbanded along with the rest of the RIC in 1922, an extremely high wastage rate and well over half received government pensions. A total of 363 members of the Royal Irish Constabulary died in the conflict and over 600 were wounded, but it is not clear how many of these were pre-war RIC men and how many were Black and Tans or Auxiliaries.

Some of the Black and Tans joined the British police force in Palestine and one of them became its commanding officer. Those who returned to civilian life sometimes had problems re-integrating into it. British historian Richard Bennet notes in The Black and Tans(1959) that at least two former Black and Tans were later hanged for murder in Britain and another wanted for murder committed suicide before the police could arrest him (Bennett p222). This could indicate either that there was some truth in the Irish assertion that the Tans were the "sweepings of British jails", or alternatively that their experience in the First World War and Ireland profoundly traumatised and brutalised many veterans.

Legacy

Due to the ferocity of the Tan's behaviour in Ireland and the atrocities which they committed, feelings continue to run high regarding their actions. "Black and Tan" or "Tan" remains a pejorative term for Englishmen in Ireland. One of the most famous Irish Republican songs is Dominic Behan's Come Out Ye Black And Tans. The Irish War of Independence is often referred to by Irish republicans as the "Tan War" or "Black-and-Tan War". This term was preferred by those who had fought on the losing side in the Irish Civil War as they believed that Ireland had not yet won its full independence. That the term still has currency in Ireland was shown during riots in Dublin in February 2006: Gardai (Irish police) who were policing a loyalist march were called "Black and Tan bastards" by the rioters.

Other controversy

In April of 2006, ice cream makers Ben & Jerry's caused controversy by releasing a new flavour of ice cream in the United States called "Black & Tan", named after a drink of the same name. Ben & Jerry's released a statement commenting that: "Any reference on our part to the British Army unit was absolutely unintentional and no ill-will was ever intended," and has since apologised.

See also

External links

 

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