The Black and Tans (named for the colours of their uniforms) have been recruited into the Royal Irish Constabulary. Throughout 1920, the second yr of the Irish War for Independence, the police have been unfold skinny by their battle with the IRA. The Black and Tans, recruited from the British inhabitants, have been their reinforcements.
Harris cites the frequent perception amongst Irishmen that the Black and Tans have been criminals, “Individuals who have been in jail for homicide and rape, aggravated assault, they got uniforms and despatched to Eire.” Nonetheless, this has since been disproven. In truth, the Black and Tans have been largely World Struggle 1 veterans who had themselves unemployed at residence. No matter their origins, that does not change the brutality they inflicted as soon as they have been in these Black and Tan uniforms. They’re most notorious for violent reprisals in opposition to civilians; in the event you militarize police and ship them right into a overseas land, they’re going to naturally see everybody there because the enemy. The Black and Tans did contribute to the warfare’s finish, however not by stomping the revolt out; sentiment turned in opposition to the British a lot that they needed to come to the negotiating desk.
British atrocities in Eire return a lot additional — 800 years in actual fact. Harris mentions the colonization of Ireland, the place, underneath royal directive, British and Scottish Protestants settled within the Irish area of Ulster and gifted confiscated land. It is due to this colonization that Eire has an enduring Protestant population. Harris, who did not have many type ideas on British expats, drew on this for his efficiency as English Bob.
