Black and Tans - Instructions To Listowel RIC, 19 June 1920

Instructions To Listowel RIC, 19 June 1920

On 19 June 1920 Lieutenant-Colonel Gerald Smyth made a speech to the ranks of the Listowel RIC in which he was reported as having said:

Now, men, Sinn Fein have had all the sport up to the present, and we are going to have the sport now. The police are not in sufficient strength to do anything to hold their barracks. This is not enough for as long as we remain on the defensive, so long will Sinn Fein have the whip hand. We must take the offensive and beat Sinn Fein at its own tactics...If a police barracks is burned or if the barracks already occupied is not suitable, then the best house in the locality is to be commandeered, the occupants thrown into the gutter. Let them die there—the more the merrier. Should the order ("Hands Up") not be immediately obeyed, shoot and shoot with effect. If the persons approaching (a patrol) carry their hands in their pockets, or are in any way suspicious-looking, shoot them down. You may make mistakes occasionally and innocent persons may be shot, but that cannot be helped, and you are bound to get the right parties some time. The more you shoot, the better I will like you, and I assure you no policeman will get into trouble for shooting any man.

The report in the Irish Bulletin noted that the content of the speech proved too much for many of the RIC men who refused to carry out the order and one officer, Constable Jeremiah Mee, put his gun on the table and called Smyth a murderer. He and 13 others resigned, actively changing sides in the conflict with many joining or assisting the Irish Republican Army. Mee became a confidant and ally of Michael Collins.

Less than a month after his controversial instruction to the unit, Smyth was shot dead by an IRA party led by Dan "Sandow" O'Donovan.