Black and Tans - Foundation

Foundation

The late 19th and early 20th centuries in Ireland were dominated by Irish nationalists' pursuit of Home Rule (or even independence) from the United Kingdom. Legislation introducing Home Rule, i.e. limited self-government for Ireland within the United Kingdom, was passed by the British parliament in 1914, but its implementation was immediately postponed because of the outbreak of the First World War. Irish Republicans, who sought full independence for Ireland rather than just Home Rule, staged the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin against British rule. The Rising initially lacked wide public support within Ireland, and was suppressed by the British military authorities within a week. However, public outrage against large-scale arrests by the British, and the courts martial and executions of the rising's leaders, helped radicalise mainstream Irish nationalism. As the implementation of Home Rule continued to be postponed due to the ongoing war, and the British threatened to impose conscription in Ireland to aid the war effort, nationalist support rapidly came to be channeled into the revolutionary Sinn Féin movement. Sinn Féin won 73 out of 105 seats in Ireland at the general election held in December 1918, and in January 1919 organised themselves as the First Dáil, which then declared an independent Irish Republic. In the same month the Irish Republican Army began the Irish War of Independence, a guerrilla campaign against British rule; in 1919 this consisted of attacks on the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC).

Attacks against the RIC escalated during 1919, and in September the British administration outlawed the Dáil. Starting work on its next Home Rule Act, it had to plan for a growing loss of morale in the RIC with an interim solution until the Act was ready.

In January 1920, the British government started advertising in British cities for men willing to "face a rough and dangerous task", helping to boost the ranks of the RIC in policing an increasingly anti-British Ireland. There was no shortage of recruits, many of them unemployed First World War army veterans, and by November 1921 about 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. These uniforms differentiated them from the Army and the Regular RIC, and gave rise to the force's nickname: Christopher O'Sullivan wrote in the Limerick Echo on 25 March 1920 that, meeting a group of recruits on a train at Limerick Junction, the attire of one reminded him of the Scarteen Hunt, whose "Black and Tans" nickname derived from the coloration of its Kerry Beagles. Ennis comedian Mike Nono elaborated the joke in Limerick's Theatre Royal, and the nickname soon took hold, persisting 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.