February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Edward T. O’Donnell
Eighty-two years ago this week, on March 25, 1920, the first Black and Tans arrived in Ireland. Faced with mounting losses in Ireland’s War for Independence, British authorities pinned their hopes on these mercenaries whom they called upon to wage an unrelenting war both against the IRA and the Irish populace that supported it. If all went according to plan, this two-pronged strategy would crush this latest Irish uprising like all the others before it.
The story of the Black and Tans begins with the start of the Irish War for Independence in January 1919. Unlike the Easter Rising of 1916, an operation that involved a traditional military assault on strategic positions in Dublin, the War for Independence would see the outgunned IRA adopt guerilla-style hit-and-run tactics against the Royal Irish Constabulary. Led by Michael Collins and others, the IRA quickly gained the upper hand in the conflict through midnight assaults on RIC barracks, ambushes of RIC units, and assassinations of officers. By the end of 1919, dozens of RIC members and British soldiers had been killed and hundreds of RIC barracks destroyed. Worse still for the British, the ranks of the RIC were dwindling as hundreds resigned rather than face the wrath of the IRA.
To counter this offensive, in January 1920 British authorities began to recruit a special force for deployment in Ireland. Most of the volunteers were former British soldiers and sailors who’d fought in World War I. Many were unemployed and jumped at the prospect of earning 10 shillings a day. More than a few were also motivated by vengeance, remembering that while they were fighting in France in 1916, the Irish staged an uprising. After three months of nominal training, the first of thousands of Black and Tans were sent to Ireland and posted in RIC barracks.
The name “Black and Tans” derived from their mixed uniform. As a mercenary force, they lacked an official uniform. So many were given dark green RIC shirts and tan British army pants. While this rag tag ensemble was eventually replaced with a regular uniform, the name “black and tan” stuck.
The arrival of the Black and Tans immediately accelerated the level of violence. Unlike the RIC and British soldiers, they were not bound by the normal rules of engagement. They’d been recruited to fight fire with fire — to attack, brutalize, and assassinate IRA operatives and civilians suspected of assisting them. They did their work well and soon acquired a fearsome reputation for brutality and violence. For example, in September 1920 a force of 150 Black and Tans assaulted the town of Balbriggan in County Dublin, killing two and burning 49 houses. By the end of 1920, known as The Year of Terror among the Irish, some 200 civilians were killed.
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Michael Collins and the IRA met the arrival of the Black and Tans with increased force. Scattered IRA men were organized into “flying columns” — mobile guerrilla units that struck without warning against British military installations and RIC barracks. Collins also orchestrated hit squads to kill British intelligence officers.
The spiraling violence reached a crescendo on Nov. 21, 1920, a day long remembered as “Bloody Sunday.” On that day Collins’s men staged a series of spectacular assassinations, killing 13 (11 of whom were British counterintelligence officers) and wounding eight. British forces retaliated in kind. Later that afternoon, a force of Black and Tans and RIC burst into Croke Park in Dublin, where thousands were gathered to watch a Gaelic football game. They opened fire on the crowd, killing 12 and wounding 60. That evening three members IRA arrested for their possible role in the assassinations died in police custody, allegedly trying to escape.
The rising tide of violence touched off by the arrival of the Black and Tans had precisely the opposite effect hoped for by the British officials who sent them. Far from demoralizing the Irish in their drive for independence, it seemed to only steel their resolve. In addition, stories of Black and Tan atrocities led to increasing pressure on the British to reach a peaceful settlement to the conflict. Church of England clerics and foreign governments, not to mention several MPs, denounced the brutality and called for negotiations. By the time a formal peace conference was agreed to in July 1921, the recall and demobilization of the Black and Tans was well under way.
Long after the War for Independence and the establishment of the Free State, the Black and Tans loomed large in the Irish memory. They vividly symbolized the brutality of Britain’s final attempt to retain colonial dominance over Ireland. They also reminded people of the enormous cost and sacrifice that went into winning the conflict. It became a point of pride among nationalists that they’d defeated not only the RIC and the British Army, but also a specially trained army of hired killers. This last sentiment was most clearly expressed in Dominic Behan’s popular song, “Come out Ye Black and Tans,” the chorus of which went:
Come out ye black and tans come out and fight me like a man/Show your wife how you won medals down in Flanders/Tell her how the IRA made you run like hell away/From the green and lovely lanes of Killashandra.
HIBERNIAN HISTORY WEEK
March 21, 1914: British officers in Ireland stage “Curragh Mutiny” by threatening to resign if ordered to crack down on Unionist militants.
March 22, 1841: Responding to soaring immigration, Irish New Yorkers revive The Irish Emigrant Aid Society.
March 23, 1862: Union Gen. James Shields defeats Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson in the Civil War battle of Kernstown, Va.
HIBERNIAN BIRTHDATES
March 21, 1905: Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and writer Phyllis McGinley is born in Ontario, Ore.
March 24, 1855: Industrialist and banker Andrew William Mellon is born in Pittsburgh.
March 25, 1848: Nationalist Michael Davitt is born in Straide, Co. Mayo.
March 25, 1925: Novelist Flannery O’Connor is born in Savanna, Ga.
Read about Ed O’Donnell’s new book, “1001 Things Everyone Should Know About Irish American History” or contact him at www.EdwardTODonnell.com.