Black and Tans

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This article deals with the RIC Reserve Force of the Anglo-Irish War. For the RIC Auxiliaries in the same war, see: Auxiliary Division.

For other senses, see Black and tan (disambiguation).

The term Black and Tans refers to the Royal Irish Constabulary Reserve Force, which 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.

However it should be noted that Black and Tans very often used refers to both the RIC Reserve Force and the other RIC force raised for the Anglo-Irish War, the RIC Auxiliary Division.

1 Foundation
2 In action in Ireland
3 Legacy
4 Other controversy
5 References
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] 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 eastern 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.

[edit] 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. The Black and Tans and the Auxies became known as Tudor's Toughs after the police commander, Major-General Sir Henry Hugh Tudor. They were viewed by Republicans as an army of occupation because of these duties. They soon gained a reputation for brutality<ref>Royal Irish Constabulary Reserve Force "a byword for brutality" - The Guardian, October 12 1921</ref>, 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.

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 Black and Tans were not subject to strict discipline in their early months in Ireland and as a result, the deaths of Black and Tans at the hands of the IRA in 1920 were often repaid with arbitrary 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 "besieged" Tralee in revenge for the IRA abduction and killing of two local RIC men. They 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 14 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. Finally, the Black and Tans sacked Cork city, on the night of 11 December 1920, the centre of which was burned out - destroying over 300 buildings. They also shot dead two IRA suspects in the city that night.

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 29 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, if only because reprisals were now directed from above rather than being the result of a spontaneous desire for revenge. (see also Chronology of the Irish War of Independence).

However, 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 actions of the Black and Tans alienated public opinion in Ireland and mainland Britain, with many preferring peace instead of the bitter fighting tactics the Black and Tans were using to hold onto Ireland. Edward Wood MP, a future Foreign Secretary, rejected force and urged the British government to offer the Irish an offer "conceived on the most generous lines".<ref>Lord Birkenhead, Halifax (Hamish Hamilton, 1965), p. 122.</ref> Sir John Simon MP, another future Foreign Secretary, was also horrified at the tactics being used. Lionel Curtis, writing in the imperialist journal The Round Table, wrote: "If the British Commonwealth can only be preserved by such means, it would become a negation of the principle for which it has stood".<ref>Lionel Curtis, The Round Table, Vol. XI, No. 43 (June 1921), p. 505.</ref> The King, senior Anglican bishops, MPs from the Liberal and Labour parties, Oswald Mosley, Jan Smuts, the Trades Union Congress and parts of the press were increasingly critical the actions of the Black and Tans. Mahatma Gandhi said of the British peace offer: "It is not fear of losing more lives that has compelled a reluctant offer from England but it is the shame of any further imposition of agony upon a people that loves liberty above everything else".<ref>Lawrence James, The Rise and Fall of the British Empire (Abacus, 1998), p. 384.</ref>

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 404 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. 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 <ref>The Black and Tans - Bennet, Richard - 1959, Page 222</ref>. 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.

[edit] 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 British 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: Gardaí (Irish police) who were policing a loyalist march were called "Black and Tan bastards" by the rioters.

[edit] 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.