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The Black and Tans , or more properly known as the Royal Irish Constabulary Reserve Force, was just one of the paramilitary forces employed by the Royal Irish Constabulary from 1920 to 1921, to deal with supporters of Sinn Féin and its military wing the IRA.Following the Easter Rising in Dublin in 1916, when Irish nationalists occupied the main post office building in protest against British rule of Ireland, the Sinn Féin home rule party won a series of election victories. Unionists in Ulster obtained a concession from the British Prime Minister, Lloyd George, that Ulster's six north-eastern counties would remain apart from any home rule settlement. In 1919, the Irish Volunteers, now known as the Irish Republican Army, or IRA, began the "War of Independence", and Sinn Féin proclaimed an independent Ireland.
In JanuaryJanuary is the first month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, and has 31 days. It is named for Janus, the Roman god of doors and gateways. The original Roman calendar consisted of 10 months (304 days). The Romans originally considered winter a monthle 1920, the British government started advertising for men willing to "face a rough and dangerous task", helping to boost the ranks of the Royal Irish Constabulary in policing the increasingly hostile Irish population. There was no shortage of recruits, many of them World War One army veterans, and by NovemberNovember is also the letter N in the NATO phonetic alphabet. November is the eleventh month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 30 days. From the Latin novem for " nine". It was originally the ninth month of the year in the early Roman calendar, w 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 khakiKhaki in British or European parlance, is a type of green tinged brown fabric, or the color of such fabric. Traditionally pronounced "KAR-kee" it is today more often called "KAH-kee" in Britain and "KAA-kee" in North America. The name comes from the Persi army trousers and dark green RIC or UK police surplus blue 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 and sub-standard training, and were rapidly posted to RIC barracks, mostly in Dublin, Munster and west Connaught. 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. The Black and Tans acted with the Auxiliaries in the government's attempts to break the IRA.
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 counterinsurgency 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 Fein was stepped up and police reprisals for terrorist acts were condoned by the government. This reputation may not have been entirely justified, since full RIC uniforms were actually issued remarkably quickly and it became virtually impossible to tell apart Irish-born and British-born policemen, but the Black and Tans nevertheless came to symbolise British repression of the Irish. Many of the atrocities attributed to the Black and Tans were probably actually committed by the far more brutal Auxies, but most Republicans did not make a distinction. 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. The Black and Tans and the Auxies became known as Tudor's Toughs after the police commander, Major-General Sir Henry Hugh Tudor .
On the first Bloody Sunday on 21 November 1920, after the IRA killed fourteen British undercover officers, the Black and Tans (or, more likely, the Auxies) surrounded a Gaelic football match in Croke Park, Dublin. Shooting broke out and twelve spectators and players were killed and sixty wounded. Republicans also remember atrocities carried out by the Black and Tans in Cork city, which was heavily burned, and Balbriggan. The Mayor of Cork died after a 78-day hunger strike in Brixton Prison , London. The IRA and other Irish Nationalists suggest that the Black and Tans had adopted a shoot-to-kill policy, describing their tactics as "state-supported terrorism". However there are many documented cases of the paramilitaries stopping the RIC and the Army from committing acts of atrocity. There is no doubt as to the ferocity of the fighting and atrocities committed by both sides, and feelings continue to run high regarding their actions.
