The arrival of the Black and Tans

THE passing of a Home Rule Bill in Westminster did nothing to calm the situation in Ireland in the years following the 1916 Rebellion.
The Irish Republican Army began to agitate for freedom and their early targets were the Royal Irish Constabulary. It is generally accepted that the first event in the War of Independence was an attack on the RIC at Soloheadbeg but there had been an earlier attack on a barracks outside Castleisland. By mid-1920, 55 members of the RIC had been killed, 16 barracks had been destroyed and hundreds of them abandoned.
As a result, its numbers and morale dropped and they did not control great parts of the country. The Government would not recognise the campaign as war but rather as terrorism and so continued to rely on the RIC, even though there were plenty of army bases in the country. They equipped the RIC with arms and transport but by early 1920, it was obvious that it was not enough. Further steps were necessary.
Following the end of World War I, unemployment among former soldiers was high in England. The Government needed more manpower in Ireland so they launched a recruitment drive among ex-soldiers. Their task was to augment the RIC and they were offered pay of ten shillings per day. Their numbers soon reached over 10,000. Even they were not enough and they were followed by another round of recruitment, this time among former army officers They were better paid than the first group, numbered about 2,000 and were referred to as auxiliaries.
When the first group were recruited, the main focus was on the urgent need for manpower. Numbers rather than quality was the order of the day. Many had suffered during the Great War and most of them knew little about Ireland. They were given very poor training and then sent to Ireland where they were attached to scattered RIC barracks where they quickly achieved a reputation for brutality. They were, in fact, let loose on the countryside. They had no concept of the policeman’s role in the community and were a paramilitary group of occupation and intimidation.
The first of them to arrive here looked anything but soldiers or policemen. There were not enough uniforms for them all so they were dressed in a mix of what was available between army and police uniforms. They wore a mixture of khaki and dark green or black. These uniforms got them the name the Black and Tans, so called after the name of a famous pack of hunting hounds in Munster. Their conduct got much worse with the arrival of the auxiliaries. Together, their activities ranged from assaults and murder of IRA suspects to rampaging around the countryside, burning villages, towns and cities and the indiscriminate killing of the crowd at a football match in Croke Park on November 21.
Their efforts was not only wasted but counter-productive. They hardened the resolve of the people of this country to resist and news of their atrocities caused revulsion in England. This lead to the British Government realising that they could not have a military solution but would have to talk with the Irish leaders.
The first of those Black and Tans arrived on March 25, 1920 – 90 years ago this week.