The truth about the Black and Tans

What's the background to Loach's film?

Who are the protagonists of the film?

And who were the Black and Tans?

What sort of things did they do?

Was the IRA campaign successful?

And was the Treaty a sell-out?

What was the result of the rift within Republicanism?

Is Ken Loach's film an "anti-British" distortion of history?

1. The Black and Tans were every bit as brutal as Loach depicts them. “If a police barracks is burned," one commander told his force, “then the best house in the locality is to be commandeered, the occupants thrown into the into the gutter. Let them die there; the more the merrier… The more you shoot the better I will like you. No policeman will ever get into trouble for shooting any man."

2. Loach’s critics can’t forgive him for exploding the myth that Britain was always more civilised than the tribes it sought to rule.

1. No one denies the brutality of the Black and Tans whose behaviour appalled British public opinion and prompted Westminster to pull them out. But incidents of wanton brutality were relatively uncommon and Loach entirely fails to show that the IRA, whom he depicts as romantic idealists, were equally sadistic.

2. A Trotskyite with an avowed hatred for the British empire, Loach is an unreliable witness - a point well illustrated by his selective attention to historical detail and evident lack of balance.

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The truth about the Black and Tans Ken Loach's new film about the Irish War of Independence, paints the British - and the Black and Tans in particular - as savage repressors. The Wind that Shakes the Barley has now won the Palme d'Or at Cannes; but are its criticisms fair? What's the background to Loach's film? The long campaign for Irish independence from Britain that began in the late 19th century. It appeared to be reaching a peaceful conclusion when Britain decided to introduce limited self-government in 1914, but with the outbreak of the First World War, "Home Rule" was inevitably suspended. Moderate nationalists accepted the compromises involved but not the radical Irish nationalists who staged a rebellion in Dublin in 1916 (the "Easter Rising"). It was ruthlessly put down. Public outrage at the execution of rebel leader James Connolly, and the fear that Irishmen would be conscripted for the War, created huge support for the revolutionary Sinn Fein movement, which won 70% of seats at the 1918 general election and declared an independent Irish Republic. When Britain tried to quash this, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) began their guerrilla campaign - the Irish War of Independence - with attacks on the Royal Irish Constabulary. Who are the protagonists of the film? Damian and Teddy; two brothers in rural Ireland in 1920. Teddy is a committed member of the IRA. Damian intends to leave Ireland to take up his medical studies in London, but abandons his plans when he witnesses the brutal violence of Black and Tan troops in his village and joins the War of Independence. And who were the Black and Tans? After a series of attacks and murders of policemen, the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) were finding it difficult to recruit. So in 1919-1920 the British Government advertised on the British mainland for men willing to "face a rough and dangerous task": helping to police an increasingly anti-British Ireland. Attracted by the promise of ten shillings pay a day, a decent wage for the time, there was no shortage of volunteers. Many were veterans of the trenches; not a few were criminals. By November 1921, some 10,000 men had joined. This sudden influx led to a shortage of RIC uniforms, so the new recruits were issued with khaki army uniforms (usually only trousers) and dark green RIC surplus tunics, caps and belts. Hence their nickname, the Black and Tans (commemorating a famous pack of foxhounds from Limerick). The name stuck even after the men received full RIC uniforms. What sort of things did they do? Nominally under RIC control, they tended to operate independently and soon gained a reputation for drunkenness, indiscipline and brutality. Untrained for guerrilla warfare and knowing little of Ireland, some units all but terrorised local communities, though many atrocities popularly attributed to them were in fact committed by the far more brutal Auxiliaries another group recruited to break the IRA, composed entirely of British officers) or by Irish RIC men. It was the "Auxies", for example, who massacred 13 spectators at a football match at Croke Park on Bloody Sunday (1920) - in retaliation for the IRA murder of 14 undercover detectives. However most Republicans did not make a distinction between the various units and "Black and Tans" was used as a catch-all for all police and army groups. Was the IRA campaign successful? It resulted in Winston Churchill coming to the negotiating table with Sinn Fein's Michael Collins. The resulting Anglo-Irish Treaty of 6 December 1921 brought the Irish War of Independence to an end and the Irish Free State into being. But it also caused a major rift within Irish Republicanism. For the anti-Treatyites - and for Damian in Loach's film - the treaty was a sell-out. Although providing for a fully self governing "free state" it still cited the British monarch as head of state; even worse in the antis' eyes, six northeastern counties were to stay part of the United Kingdom as Northern Ireland. And was the Treaty a sell-out? Loach clearly regards the anti-Treatyites, from whom the modern IRA claims direct descent, as the good guys, and their opponents, who in the film don ex-British Army uniforms and start behaving like their erstwhile enemies, as social reactionaries and traitors. Yet the truth, not then generally appreciated, is that by the time the British came to the negotiating table, the Republicans were in serious trouble. The IRA had little ammunition left; the Sinn Fein leadership was pressing for negotiations, doubting the capacity of the Irish to endure any more fighting. They couldn't believe their luck when they heard Britain had called a truce. As for Britain, it had desired home rule for the whole of Ireland since 1914, but Parliament felt it couldn't possibly give complete independence to all of Ireland in 1921 without provoking a massacre of Ulster Catholics at the hands of the heavily armed Protestant Unionists. What was the result of the rift within Republicanism? The Irish Civil War (June 1922 to May 1923), which pitted brother against brother (Damian v Teddy in Loach's film), cost more lives than the War of Independence and degenerated into a set of atrocities that has left a lasting legacy of bitterness in Irish politics. Anti-Treaty men led (nominally) by Eamon de Valera, argued that the Treaty could never deliver full Irish independence. But the war was won by the other side, and Collins's view that the treaty he negotiated would eventually lead to full independence was largely vindicated: its provisions relating to Ireland's dominion status were all deleted from the Constitution of the Irish Free State in 1932. De Valera, who ended his career as President of Ireland, was asked toward the end of his life what had been his biggest mistake. His reply was blunt: "Not accepting the Treaty." Is Ken Loach's film an "anti-British" distortion of history? NO 1. The Black and Tans were every bit as brutal as Loach depicts them. “If a police barracks is burned," one commander told his force, “then the best house in the locality is to be commandeered, the occupants thrown into the into the gutter. Let them die there; the more the merrier… The more you shoot the better I will like you. No policeman will ever get into trouble for shooting any man." 2. Loach’s critics can’t forgive him for exploding the myth that Britain was always more civilised than the tribes it sought to rule. YES 1. No one denies the brutality of the Black and Tans whose behaviour appalled British public opinion and prompted Westminster to pull them out. But incidents of wanton brutality were relatively uncommon and Loach entirely fails to show that the IRA, whom he depicts as romantic idealists, were equally sadistic. 2. A Trotskyite with an avowed hatred for the British empire, Loach is an unreliable witness - a point well illustrated by his selective attention to historical detail and evident lack of balance. See also Fighting Irish On the dismantling of 'Ulster's Home Guard' On the Irish Republican Army Easter Rising The Lesson of the Easter Rising The Economy of the Republic of Ireland
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