Black and Tans

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

A member of the Auxiliary Division of the RIC in Dublin, smoking and carrying a Lewis gun, February 1921

The Black and Tans (Irish: Dúchrónaigh) were constables recruited into the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) as reinforcements during the Irish War of Independence.[1][2] Recruitment began in Great Britain in January 1920, and about 10,000 men enlisted during the conflict. The majority were unemployed former British soldiers from England, Scotland and Wales who had fought in the First World War. Some sources count Irish recruits to the RIC from 1920 as 'Black and Tans'.[3][4][5][6][7]

The Black and Tans had a reputation for brutality; they committed murder, arson and looting and became notorious for reprisal attacks on civilians and civilian property. Their actions further swayed Irish public opinion against British rule and drew condemnation in Britain. The Black and Tans were sometimes confused with the Auxiliary Division, a counterinsurgency unit of the RIC, also recruited during the conflict and made up of former British officers.[8] At the time, "Black and Tans" was sometimes used for both groups.[3][9] Another force, the Ulster Special Constabulary, was founded to reinforce the RIC in Northern Ireland.

The British administration in Ireland promoted the idea of bolstering the RIC with British recruits. They were to help the overstretched RIC maintain control and suppress the Irish Republican Army (IRA), although they were less well trained in ordinary police methods. The nickname "Black and Tans" arose from the colours of the improvised uniforms they initially wore, a mixture of dark green RIC (which appeared black) and khaki British Army. They served in all parts of Ireland, but most were sent to southern and western regions where fighting was heaviest. By 1921, for example the Black and Tans made up almost half of the RIC in County Tipperary.

  1. ^ "tearma.ie – Dictionary of Irish Terms – Foclóir Téarmaíochta". Retrieved 6 May 2018.
  2. ^ Improving the law Enforcement-Intelligence Community Relationship Archived 27 March 2009 at the Wayback Machine. National Defense Intelligence College, Washington, D.C. June 2007. p. 120
  3. ^ a b Robert Gerwarth; John Horne, eds. (2013), War in Peace: Paramilitary Violence in Europe After the Great War, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 202, The Black and Tans were the ex-servicemen recruited as RIC constables throughout Britain in late 1919 and constituted a force of approximately 9,000 men before the war's end. However, 'Black and Tans' also came to refer to the temporary cadets of the Auxiliary Division of the RIC, a force of some 2,200 ex-officers, formed in July 1920, and in practice virtually independent of military and policy control. Both forces were made up of veterans from all services. ... Both Auxiliaries and Black and Tans had Irish members.
  4. ^ Padraig Og O Ruairc, Blood on the Banner, The Republican Struggle in Clare, pp. 332–333; ISBN 9781856356138
  5. ^ Lowe, W.J. (2004). "Who were the Black and Tans?". History Ireland. 12 (3). Archived from the original on 24 January 2021. Retrieved 9 March 2021. The Black-and-Tans and Auxiliaries were overwhelmingly British (78.6 per cent of the sample). Almost two-thirds were English, fourteen per cent were Scottish, and fewer than five per cent came from Wales and outside the UK. An unexpected finding that is at odds with popular memory is that nearly nineteen per cent of the sampled recruits (514) were Irish-born, twenty per cent of Black-and-Tans and about ten per cent of Auxiliaries. [...]Fifty-five per cent of the Irish recruits were Catholic, mostly concentrated among the Black–and-Tans.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference irishtimes jan 2020 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ O'Connell, T. Interrogation and Treatment of republican suspects by the British Auxiliary Forces, 'Black and Tans', January 1921, Irish Historical Documents since 1800, edited by Alan O'Day. Gill and MacMillan. p. 169.
  9. ^ Lowe, W.J. (2002). "The War Against the R.I.C., 1919–21". Éire-Ireland. 37 (3): 79–117. doi:10.1353/eir.2002.0019. ISSN 1550-5162.