Arrival of 'Black and
Tans'
Introduction from Chronology
The first 'Black and Tans' appear on Irish streets - they are
mostly British-born former members of the British Army who had been recruited
to the RIC.
Even though they are full members of the RIC, the first recruits
appeared in unfamiliar uniforms - which were mixtures of RIC (dark green) and
military (khaki) – due to a shortage of standard RIC uniforms.
The name ‘Black and Tans’ is said to come from the
similarity between the colours of their uniforms and the colours of a famous
pack of Tipperary hunting hounds.
More Detail on RIC Recruitment
According
to Abbott (2019, pg 16), at the beginning of 1919
there were approximately 11,000 men in the RIC. In addition, there were
approximately 1,202 men in the DMP (Abbott (2019), pg
22). [Notes on pre-1920 RIC:
Recruits got 31 shillings a week while experienced men got up to 43 shillings a
week – Abbott (2019), pg 60. All non-married
men were required to live in their barracks - Abbott (2019), pg 71. The religious composition of the RIC was close to
the religious composition of the Irish population according to 1911 census
– Abbott (1919), pg 115. In 1911, according to
the census, 74% of the Irish population was Roman Catholic.]
Due to
the ostracism of the RIC ordered by the Dáil in April 1919, and which
grew over the following years as violence escalated, quite a few RIC men
resigned. 99 RIC men resigned in
1919; 1647 in 1920 and 1,638 in 1921.
When added to the men who were pensioned, died, discharged, deserted,
etc., the number who left the RIC were 495 in 1919; 3,229 in 1920 and 3,208 in
1921. So a
total of nearly 7,000 left the force in these three years (Abbott (2019), pg 82).
(However, it should not be assumed that the almost 7,000 who resigned
were all pre-1920 members of the force.
The campaign
carried out to get RIC men to resign was not very successful. According to Lowe “63 percent of
the men who were members of the R.I.C. in January 1919 were still enrolled at
disbandment in 1922” (Lowe (2002), pg 107).)
Nevertheless,
due the British cabinet’s decision to deal with the escalating violence
in Ireland as a civil rather that military matter, additional recruits were
needed. On October 7th 1919, Chief
Secretary Macpherson got British Cabinet approval to recruit ex-service men in
Britain to the RIC and, despite objections from RIC Inspector General Byrne, as
order was issued by the RIC on the 11th November 1919 (or 27th
December 1919) giving authority to recruit non-Irishmen to the RIC.
Wages were to be increased to 10 shillings a day (Abbott (2019), pg 84)
which was a substantial increase.
These
new recruits were not maintained as an autonomous force (Abbott (2019), pg 84). “Contrary
to popular opinion, they were not ‘temporary constables’, but
recruited onto the RIC’s permanent, pensionable establishment.” This quote is from
Gannon - See Here See also Lesson (2022).
Abbott says total recruitment to
RIC for 1919 was 405; in 1920 a total of 7,869 men were recruited while 5,834 were
recruited in 1921. So over 14,000 were recruited to the RIC over these three
years giving a net increase of approximately 7,000 (Abbott (2019), pg 82). (In addition to the recruits mentioned
here, there was also the recruits to the Auxiliary Division of the RIC who were
not part of the ‘permanent,
pensionable establishment’ of the RIC. –
See Jul-27-20/2.) Note: 4,244 of the 7,869 recruits in 1920 (54%) joined in the
months October to December. This
occurred after a fairly substantial pay bonus was introduced – See
Oct-07-20/2.
According to Townshend (Appendix
1, pg 209), 341 non-Irishmen were recruited to the
RIC during January to March 1920. Another 305 were recruited during April
to June but recruitment of non-Irishmen accelerated after that time. 1648 were
recruited during July to September and 3292 recruited during October to
December 1920 - a total of 5,586 for 1920.
If both Abbott’s and Townshend’s figures are correct then,
along with the 5,586 non-Irishmen recruited to the RIC in 1920, some 2,283
Irishmen also joined the RIC in 1920. (Abbott says that as many as a third of
the recruits to the RIC in this period were Irish (Abbott (2019), pg 84)).
Because the post-1919 non-Irish
recruits to the RIC (except for the Auxiliaries – see Jul-27-20/2) were
not maintained as a separate force, in this chronology the terms
‘Tans’ and ‘Black and Tans’ will be used sparingly and
only when referring specifically to non-Irish RIC men (mostly English
ex-servicemen) who were recruited to the ‘permanent, pensionable, establishment’
of the RIC post-1919. Because all
the recruits to the RIC post-1919 (Irish and non-Irish) were formally part of
the RIC, they will simply be referred to as members of the RIC. However, using
data from Abbott’s two editions of his book on RIC casualties, when a
‘Black and Tan’ is killed, an attempt will be made to note where he
was from and how long he was in the RIC.
See August 31st 1922
for RIC figures on their disbandment - Aug-31-22/2.