Official and Unofficial Reprisals

OFFICIAL & UNOFFICIAL REPRISALS

By Stanley C.Jenkins MA

The officially-sanctioned British policy of carrying out ‘reprisals’, usually in the form of house-burning, remains one of the most controversial aspects of the Irish War of Independence. It is sometimes assumed that all reprisals were unofficial actions carried out by poorly-disciplined RIC Conatsbles, Black and Tans or RIC Auxiliary Policemen, but the records show that soldiers were sometimes ordered to burn rebel houses as part of a wider and more systematic campaign against the IRA. In this context, it may be worth looking briefly at the Boer War, which provided a template for military action against elusive guerrilla forces.

Farm-Burning in South Africa

The outbreak of the Anglo-Boer War in 1899 had resulted in a series of Boer victories but, as British and Empire troops flooded into South Africa, the Boers were defeated in open battle and reduced to waging ‘guerrilla’ warfare. In response to this situation, the British army commenced a programme of farm-burning in an attempt to prevent the Boer ‘commandos’ from finding food and shelter. At the same time, refugee camps (which were known by the unfortunate name of ‘concentration camps’), were set up to accommodate the displaced Boer woman and children, while 8,000 blockhouses and 3,700 miles of wire fencing were employed to ‘block’ the countryside and impede the movement of the enemy across the open veldt.

In addition to the blockhouse system, the British initiated a series of mounted patrols and great ‘drives’ across open country in an attempt to round-up the remaining Boers and confiscate their farms and livestock. Farm-burning, internment and ‘driving the countryside’ thereby formed part of a coherent policy for use against the insurgents. This same policy was adopted, albeit on a much smaller scale, in the disaffected districts of Ireland during the latter stages of the War of Independence – the idea being that the rebels would be driven into inhospitable mountain areas from which they could be ‘mopped-up’ in a series of systematic ‘ Drives’.

‘Driving’ & House-Burning Around Limerick & Tulla

The records of the 1st Battalion, Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry (also known as The 43rd Light Infantry), reveal that the policy of house-burning and ‘driving’ the countryside was well under way by 1921. The regiment, which was at that time stationed in Limerick and Tulla, carried out two official reprisals and eleven drives or round-ups during the first half of that year. These activities are described in the following extracts from the regimental Chronicle: It will be noted that, whenever the homes of alleged ‘rebels’ were burned, the operations were unambiguously described as ‘official reprisals’. The high number of officer resignations should also be noted, although one of these individuals left the army as a result of wounds.

8th January – Five officers and 80 other ranks engaged in blocking a large tract of country south of Limerick, which was driven for rebels. All men of military age were collected, but no dangerous characters discovered. A patrol of ‘A’ Company, under Lieutenant Packe, searched houses near Cratloe and found two or three wanted men.

17th January – Lieutenant J.L.Choate admitted to hospital with a view to being invalided, owing to wounds.

20th January – An escort of sixteen men, under Lieutenant Herbage, RFA, and Lieutenant L.R.Randall, proceeded to England on board HMS Leamington and HMS Mistley in charge of 58 rebel prisoners.

4th February – Six officers and 60 other ranks were engaged in burning houses as an official reprisal for a very serious ambush of police at Dromkeen.

13th February – Six officers and 110 other ranks were employed in driving a large tract of country near Bruree. Eleven wanted rebels were captured.

15th February – Nine officers and 20 other ranks from Limerick and two officers and twenty other ranks from Tulla were employed on rounding up Cratloe Woods. Result, nil.

17th February – Three officers and 28 other ranks searched Glenstall Woods, south-east of Newport for rebels; nothing was discovered.

22nd February – Private Williams (5373002) Private Walker (5374675) and Private Morgan found murdered by Sinn Feiners at Woodford Co.Galway.

7th March 7 – Area patrols ordered to be out in the streets between 4 pm and curfew to protect men walking out. It was presumed that, after the murder of the Lord Mayor of Limerick, rebels would ascribe the murder to Crown Forces and commit reprisals.

8th March – A party of 90 other ranks, under Major J.T.Weatherby DSO, surrounded and cut off part of Limerick, which was searched without avail.

9th March – Captain D.Murphy and 50 other ranks, ‘B’ and ‘D’ Companies, proceeded to Tulla to hold the workhouse during the absence of ‘C’ Company, detailed for a drive on the 10th. This party returned the following day.

19th March – ‘D’ Company took over detachment at Newport from ‘B’ Company.

22nd March – ‘B’ Company relieved ‘C’ Company on detachment at Tulla.

6th April – Information received that Lieutenant J.L.Choate had been placed on half-pay (from 1st April 1921).

9th April – In consequence of a rebel bomb attack on John Street Police Barracks, official reprisals were carried out, several houses being burnt. One hundred other ranks of the regiment furnished patrols and piquets for this area.

16th April – Lieutenant J.S.Fenwick resigned his commission.

18th April – ‘C’ Company took over Newport detachment from ‘D’ Company; the garrison of the Gaol (one platoon) taken over by Royal Warwickshire Regiment.

19th April – Seventy other ranks, under Captain J.Blagrove, carried out a round-up and drive near Bunratty, on the main Ennis Road. Nothing of importance found.

27th April – Lieutenant J.L.Choate resigned his commission.

15th May – Lieutenant W.T.Trengrouse in an ambush near Newport. District Inspector Biggs RIC, and a lady in the car were killed.

24th May – Captain D.Murphy resigned his commission.

31st May – Lieutenant W.T.Trengrouse left the regiment on resignation (effective from 1st June 1921).

3rd June – Fifty other ranks ‘D’ Company under Lieutenant B.Burt-Smith MC, proceeded to Tulla to garrison the workhouse during absence of ‘B’ Company, carrying out a large drive under orders of Galway Brigade from 5th June 5 until 10th June.

8th June – Major G.E.Whittall MC, seconded for duty with Special Elements, Turkish Forces. ‘B’ Company carried out a minor operation in connection with Galway Brigade operations at Goolreagh Bog, rounding up 150 men, six of whom were known bad rebels.

13th June – Party of ‘D’ Company returned from Tulla.

14th June – Lieutenant E.A.Packe DFC, and 50 other ranks surrounded and searched country south-west of Newmarket-on-Fergus, without result. Captain C.B.Crawford was posted to the Battalion on promotion.

21st June – Lieutenant D.J.L.Lethbridge resigned his commission. Lieutenant H.E.F.Smyth MC was promoted Captain (5th March 1921).

28th June – A patrol of the Regiment, under Lieutenant R.C.Warren MC, was ambushed at Fortaine Cross, near Tulla, Co. Clare, at 02.30 hours on return from lying up for rebels damaging roads. Lieutenant Warren was dangerously wounded in the stomach, and Private Conway (5375228) and Private Hoare (5374290) both wounded in the 1eg. They were brought into Limerick Hospital. Assistance was sent out from Tulla workhouse and the neighbouring country searched immediately af the ambush, but no sign of the rebels could found. Lieutenant Warren died of his wounds at 21.30 hours.

1st July – The body of Lieutenant R.C.Warren MC, was despatched to England for burial, being taken to the station by a large party of the Battalion and from the garrison.

2nd July – Round up and search of Park Village and east end of Limerick for arms by a party of the Battalion under Captain Blagrove. Nothing discovered.

3rd July – One platoon, ‘D’ Company, under 2nd Lieutenant J.L.Stebbing, proceeded to Tulla in relief of ‘B’ Company, which returned to Limerick in the evening. The remainder of ‘D’ Company to proceed by march route tomorrow.

8th July – Strong parties of the Battalion employed on protecting the railway line between Sixmilebridge and Limerick while Auxiliary Police were moving from Killaloe to Ennis.

11th July – ‘D’ Company left Tulla by march route for Limerick at 02.00 hours on being relieved by one company of 3rd Royal Fusiliers. A Truce between the Government and Sinn Féin commenced at 12.00 hours. During this Truce all searches and other military activities of an offensive nature were in abeyance.

As far as the 43rd Light Infantry was concerned, the reprisals appear to have been carried out between 4th February and the Truce in response to the worsening situation in Munster. There are no officially-recorded instances of the regiment carrying out official house-burning prior to that date – the implication being that these surprisingly ruthless tactics had been introduced as a direct response to the Kilmichael Ambush of 28th November 1920 and the Dromkeen Ambush on 3rd February 1921, which had resulted in the deaths of twenty-eight members of the Royal Irish Constabulary.

Unofficial Reprisals in 1920

Turning now to what can only be described as ‘unofficial reprisals’, it must be said that these appear to have started shortly after the appearance of the ‘Black & Tans’ and Auxiliaries as emergency members of the RIC; indeed, the words ‘reprisals’, and ‘Black & Tans’ seem to have become almost synonymous in popular imagination. Having said that, it could be argued that the history of these highly-controversial police units has yet to be fully explored – personal diaries, for example, must surely have been kept, while the RIC archives in London may yet reveal new evidence to diligent researchers.

In the meantime, contemporary newspapers provide a glimpse of the Black & Tans in action, The Times being a particularly useful source, insofar as it was generally regarded as an organ of the British establishment and, as such, its reporters and correspondents are unlikely to have been Sinn Féin supporters. Thus, if The Times printed a story about RIC brutality, it must surely be taken as compelling evidence. In fact, The Times was replete with stories of police violence – emotive terms such as ‘Police Terrorism’ being employed without compunction. The following reports, dated 28th September 1920, are typical examples.

Armed Raiders at Trim: Many Houses Burned

‘DUBLIN SEPTEMBER 27th 1920 – Early this morning the town of Trim, where the police barracks was burned yesterday and the head constable was shot, was partially wrecked by armed men. Some hours after the burning of the barracks, a party of soldiers took possession of the town and remained on duty until 10 o’clock at night, when they were withdrawn. The town was then quiet, and it remained so until 3 o’clock this morning, when a number of armed men who are said to have been Auxiliary Policemen, arrived in motor lorries and went through the streets shouting and firing their rifles.

The occupants of Higgins’ Hotel got three minutes to leave the place, and soon afterwards it was found to be on fire. A number of business houses in the main street were soon blazing, and this afternoon it was reported that most of the houses on both sides of Market Street, the principal thoroughfare, are burning. Two lads, named Kelly and Griffin, have been taken to hospital suffering from gunshot wounds. The damage to house property is estimated at £50,000. Trim, which is the assize town of County Meath, is within 30 miles of Dublin on the Midland Great Western Railway, and has a population of 1,500. It was ascertained tonight at Dublin Castle that a report will be issued regarding the outbreak at Trim. Full details of the occurrence have been telegraphed for and special officers have been sent to the town to make inquiries.

The whole question of reprisals has been engaging the earnest attention of the Chief Secretary since his return from London. Conferences have been held and definite steps are under consideration for dealing with the matter expeditiously and effectively. The Standing Committee of the Irish Peace Conference has passed a resolution recording its solemn conviction that the reprisals practised by the armed forces of the Government, and especially the new Auxiliary Police, including wanton and wilful destruction of human life and property, for which no accountability has been enforced and no redress given, constitute an almost insuperable barrier to the success of its efforts in the cause of peace’.

Large Force of Invaders

‘A Navan correspondent telegraphed yesterday: – Two hundred of the Black & Tans entered the little town of Trim early this morning, singled out the shops and business establishments of those residents alleged to be in sympathy with Sinn Féin, and ransacked, pillaged, and burned all. At noon today when I visited the town it had all the appearance of a bombarded town in the war zone of France. Furniture is piled on the main street, houses are still smouldering, and the people are panic stricken. Two young men are lying in the local hospital, having been shot by the military. Head Constable White, who was also wounded, is not yet out of danger.

It appears that on Sunday evening military motor cars full of armed men dashed into Trim on the way to the police barracks which had been burned by raiders that morning. Shots were discharged at a group of boys playing hurley on the green, and one lad of 16, George Griffin, was shot through the groin, while another lad named James Kelly was shot in the leg. The priests sought out some of the officers, gave them an assurance that the town would be quiet, and that all would be indoors by eight o’clock. The military then departed.

At 3 o’clock this morning a force of Black & Tans entered the town. They visited the Town Hall in Castle Street, a licensed premises in Market Street, a drapery establishment in High Street and a mineral water factory and premises in Market Street. The doors were smashed-in. Petrol was commandeered and poured over the shops, and soon all were on fire. Today, nothing remains but the charred walls.

The proprietor of the mineral water factory, who is also Chairman of Trim Urban Council, estimates his loss at £20,000. He added that at 3.45 the door was broken in. His assistants heard the noise and fled. The uniformed men called for the Chairman of the Council, and he hid in the kitchen. Then the Black & Tans went through the place setting the premises on fire. In the drapery establishment, £8,000 worth of damaged goods and property is the measure of the reprisals. One of the two brothers owning the business is a member of the Urban Council.

In Castle Street the residents slept in the gardens. In this street is the Town Hall. A tailor living opposite whose family were in bed, was taken into the street and asked where his Sinn Féin sons were. He replied he did not know. A bayonet, it is stated, was placed against his breast and a Black & Tan is alleged to have said “put it through the beggar”. A postman appealed to the men to spare the old man. Then they smashed the door of his house, went through every room and destroyed every article in the place. All the residents in this street fled from their houses. The Town Hall was afterwards completely destroyed and all the town records burned. At 5 o’clock the Black & Tans left, threatening to return tonight to complete their work’.

More Reprisal Threats

‘Captain Lendrum, the resident magistrate in County Clare, who has been missing since last week, and is believed to have been kidnapped, has not yet been found. Yesterday notices were posted in Kilkee stating that if he was not returned within 48 hours from 12 o’clock today, Kilkee, Kilrush, Carrigaholt, Doonbeg, Kilmihill, and other towns in the west, would be burned.

The following typewritten notice was posted yesterday throughout the City of Galway: – In some districts loyalists and members at his Majesty’s forces have received notices threatening the destruction of houses in certain eventualities. Under these circumstances it has been decided that, for every loyalist’s house so destroyed, the house of a Republican leader will be similarly dealt with. It is naturally to be hoped that the necessity for such action will not arise and, therefore, this warning of reprisal which will follow the destruction of loyalists’ property, is being widely circulated.

On Sunday evening a lorry carrying RIC Auxiliaries and trailing the republican tricolour after it visited Moycollan in County Galway as the congregation left Mass. Eight of the Auxiliary force at revolvers point separated the men from the women and herded the former into an adjoining field. Then they were addressed by a member of the force, who told them that they were about to restore to his home an agent on a local property, and if a hair of his head was touched, six republicans would fall in his stead. The agent had been residing at Galway since the withdrawal of a squadron of Dragoon Guards, under whose protection he had been. Following an ambush of the police at Ardrahan, the Sinn Féin Hall was burned down’.

A few days later, on 21st October 1920, the newspaper published further example of police ‘frightfulness’ in the remote west of Ireland. These reports, which have the ring of truth, were said to be ‘From our Special Correspondent in Galway’.

Police Terrorism in Galway

‘For three weeks past reprisals on the scale of those at Balbriggan and Tubbercurry have ceased, but the authorities still hope, by maintaining what is called systematic pressure, to stamp out the more violent section of the Sinn Féin movement. Reports which appear daily in the Irish newspapers suggest that this systematic pressure takes the form of wrecking with bombs the houses of suspected men and the terrorizing of suspected individuals. Today’s newspapers contain accounts of proceedings in Galway which, if true, would constitute a monstrous example of frightfulness. They were stories of men being stripped and flogged and sent home without clothes. I determined to come to Galway to test the truth of these accounts for myself. These stories come from remote country villages and have grown in the telling, but the facts, as I have been able to ascertain them, show that many young men in the countryside have been subjected to calculated rough usage and indignity.

The first story, which relates to four men named Feeney, seems to be substantially accurate. I visited the Feeneys’ house this afternoon. It is a farmhouse standing in a field a quarter of a mile off a narrow lane in the wild distract of Corbally. Mrs Feeney, who is a widow, lives here with her four sons and two daughters. She told me that at 11 o’clock on Saturday night, as the family had finished reciting the Rosary and were preparing for bed, the door was burst open and the room was filled with men. She was so terrified that she did not know who the men were or what happened’.

A Victim’s Own Story

‘Her son Thomas, a powerfully built and intelligent young man, told me the story. He said he had just retired to his bedroom when the men entered the house. He went downstairs to the living room. The men seized him, rushed him out of the house, and stood him against a wall. Having searched him, they took him into an adjoining field. They then compelled him to let down his trousers and gave him several cuts with a rope, but without doing him much harm. He was also kicked. Then they threw him over a wall into a vegetable garden. The left side of his face was badly grazed in the process. He also received a heavy blow behind the right ear, whether in the fall or by a blunt instrument he could not say, but the wound bled profusely.

He showed evidence of this rough usage when I saw him today. He added that a rope bad been placed round his neck and the men tried to pull him back over the wall, but he managed to free himself. His brother Martin was also taken outside, compelled to take down his trousers, and beaten. He also was thrown over the wall, and shots were then fired in the air. His brother Willie was hit over the ear with a rifle butt and stunned, but his brother Paddy, a lad of 16, was allowed to return to the house untouched.

Thomas Feeney told me that the men accused him of being a notorious rebel and a volunteer, adding, “You have bad your day. We have got ours now”. He could not describe the men beyond saying that they wore Scottish caps and two of them were masked. They made a thorough search of the house and broke open two boxes and deliberately smashed two bicycles’.

A Report & The Facts

‘The men, who are supposed to be Black & Tans went on to the village of Corofin, about two miles distant. What occurred here is described in the Dublin papers in the following terms:

Uniformed men took a drink at the shop of Mr J.Raftery, Corofin, early on Saturday evening, and that night Mr Raftery was taken out of bed naked, taken a mile away and flogged. After the first beating he was thrown over a wall and dropped 10 feet into a bed of thistles and nettles. He had to scramble out of this position, and was made to crawl along the road for 30 yards, all the time getting flogged. He was then made to lie flat on the ground, and one man stood on the back of his legs, so that he could not raise his feet to ward off the blows. He was then made to stand, and a man placed on each side of him with revolvers, and four shots were fired off his shoulders.

Mr Raftery was apparently roughly handled, but my enquiries failed to substantiate the more sensational elements of the story. Mr Raftery is the owner of a grocers and licensed premises in the village, When I called he had left to attend a funeral, but his sister told me all she knew of the affair. It was 2 o’clock on Sunday morning when the men knocked at the door and asked for a drink. Mr Raftery was fully dressed when he was taken out of the house. He was beaten, but not much hurt, and shots were fired. He was not thrown over the wall. It was a lot of loose stones, common to the district. He was pushed against it, and it broke with his weight, and he fell through it.

These are but examples of the systematic pressure which is being maintained by the regular and Auxiliary Police, and the so-called Black & Tans in County Galway. The city has been thrown into a state of gloom and terror by the desperate and brutal murder last night of Mr Michael Walsh, a respected tradesmen, who was seized in his house by four men in civilian clothes, taken to the dockside and shot through the head, his body being thrown into the water. Mr Walsh, who was 40 years of age, leaves a widow and eight children. He was the proprietor of The Old Malt House in the High Street, where he carried on a large business as a grocer and publican. He was a member of the Urban District Council and a prominent Sinn Féiner.

In that same month, a correspondent wrote a detailed letter to the Editor of The Times, the letter in question being published on 2nd October 1920. This letter contains a useful list of Black & Tan-related incidents during the months of August and September 1920, together with critical comments about Sir Hamar Greenwood (1870-1948) the Chief Secretary for Ireland and Sir Nevil Macready (1862-1946) the commander of the Army in Ireland.

REPRISALS: A CATALOGUE OF DAMAGE

‘Within the last few days two important pronouncements on Ireland have been made:

1) By Sir Hamar Greenwood, who denied that the Government were authorizing reprisals or conniving at them in any way; and he further declared that the damage done was insignificant and much exaggerated. In a message sent to the Pall Mall Gazette the Chief Secretary said: The Government condemn reprisals, and have issued orders condemning them, and have taken steps to prevent them …. In spite of intolerable provocation, the police forces maintain their discipline, are Increasing in number and efficiency, and command the support of every law-abiding citizen. The number of allegedly reprisals is low, and the damage done exaggerated.

(2) In the form of an interview given to an American journalist by Sir Nevil Macready, in which the latter said that the repression of reprisals was a ‘delicate matter’ and that it was only human that troops should resort to them. As reported in this interview his actual words were: – But now, the machinery of the law having been broken down, they feel there is no certain means of redress and punishment, and it is only human that they should act on their initiative. Punishment for such acts is a delicate matter, inasmuch as it may be interpreted as setting at naught the hoped-for effect of the training the officers have given their men.

This interview, whether correctly or incorrectly reported, would naturally be taken by the troops in Ireland as a tacit encouragement of their activities. In connexion with Sir Hamar Greenwood’s statement and the interview with Sir Nevil Macready, which appear somewhat conflicting, I beg to draw your attention to the enclosed list of outrages as reported in the Irish Press since Parliament rose on 19th August 1920:

19th August – Bantry, County Cork, shot up by police.

21st August – Oranmore, County Galway, sacked by police.

23rd Glengarriff County Cork, shot up by police.

24th August – Several houses at Dundalk, County Louth, wrecked by troops.

25th August – Kill, County Waterford, wrecked by police.

26th August – Creamery at Knocklong, County Limerick, destroyed by police.

26th August – Shanagolden, County Limerick, partially sacked by police.

26th August – Naas, County Kildare, shot up by police.

27th August – Queenstown, County Cork, sacked by troops.

1st September – Ballaghadereen, County Mayo, sacked by police.

2nd September – Inniscarra, County Cork, partially sacked by police.

10th September – Tullow, County Carlow, sacked by police.

17th September – Galway City shot up and bombed by police.

18th September – Several houses wrecked and fired by police in County Limerick.

19th September – Several houses at Salthill, County Galway, wrecked and fired by police.

20th September – Carrick-on-Shannon, County Leitrim, partially sacked by police.

20th September – Tuam, County Galway, shot up by police.

20th September – Balbriggan, County Dublin, sacked by police.

21st September – Balbriggan, County Dublin, shot up by police.

22nd September – Drumsbambo, County Leitrim, partially sacked by police.

22nd September – Houses at Tuam, County Galway, and Galway City wrecked by police.

22nd September – Ennistymon, County Clare, sacked by police.

22nd September – Lahinch, County Clare. sacked by police.

22nd September – Miltown-Malbay, County Clare, sacked by police.

22nd September – Houses at Galway City wrecked and looted by police.

24th September – Newspaper offices and houses at Galway City bombed by police.

24th September – Ballinamore, County Leitrim, shot up by police.

26th September – Several houses at Athlone, County Westmeath, wrecked.

25th September – Houses wrecked at Killorglin, County Kerry, by police.

27th September – Trim, County Meath, sacked by police.

30th September – Mallow, wrecked and fired by troops, alleged to be men belonging to the most famous Cavalry regiment of the British Army’.

Reprisals at Tuam

Further evidence relating to the activities of the Black & Tans is provided by a letter to The Times, written on 16th October by The Most Reverend T.P.Gilmartin, the Archbishop of Tuam, which was published in on 21st October 1920:

‘As evidence of the frightfulness to which the people of this district have recently been subjected, I send you the following facts. About the sack of Tuam, following the shooting of two armed policemen three miles from the town on June 20 last, I need say nothing, except that the people of Tuam reprobated that crime, the only one of its kind in the whole diocese, and that the local police did not dream of reprisals until a party of outside police arrived in the town, under a county officer. Two days later, an understanding was come to with the local police that, it they were not attacked, they would not attack. Accordingly, things were resuming normal conditions, when some three weeks ago the Black & Tans came to the neighbourhood. Ever since, the people of Tuam and surrounding district have been living through a reign of terror.

The time chosen for the searching of houses and arrests has been the dead of night. One man was taken from his bed, in the presence of his wife, carried away three miles stripped naked, scourged and allowed to return home as best he could. There were two other cases of brutal flogging in the neighbourhood (at Headford). Another night a visit was paid to the flat rnaii referred to. when he was told that if he did not clear out of the town within four days his house would be burned. He is an ex-policeman who refused to take part in the of Tuam. The charge against him is that he is a turncoat.

Only a week ago police fired from a passing lorry near Tuam at workers in the field, one of whom was hit. The workers did not give the least provocation. The same evening, when the Police were leaving the town for Galway, they fired several volleys. The dining-room of one house was pierced, but the occupants had fortunately retired to the back room.

I could mention many other instances of barbarity and reckless and criminal firing by the Auxiliary Police, but I think I have said enough to give the English people a sample of what is being done here in their name. I feel bound to add that at present the people of this town have no complaints against the local military. Nor do I believe that the present local police officers are responsible for the terrorism referred-to. The responsibility rests with the British Cabinet who, instead of acting up to the principles for which the war was fought, are imitating the tyranny for which they declare the war was meant to kill. Let us have government, with the consent of the governed, and in a short time Englishmen and Irishmen will be mutually helpful friends.

PS – As I write, I learn that a religious service was invaded on the 14th by uniformed men. It is called a station – ie, Mass in a private house, at which the neighbours attend. During the service the people were terrorized. In arresting a priest a few days ago at Castlebar the officer in charge placed him undressed between two guards on the landing. Searching his room alone (except the presence of a policeman) the officer, finding nothing but Sinn Féin literature, produced a box of cartridges, of which the priest denies possession’.

The Brotherhood of Avengers

It is interesting to note that  a  Protestant Loyalist group known as ‘The Brotherhood of Avengers’ which  supposedly operated around Bandon was mentioned, albeit briefly, in The Times  It has largely been established that such Loyalist protection squads (or ‘murder gangs’, depending upon one’s point or view) were a cover name used by the RIC, Black and Tans and RIC Auxiliaries when carrying out reprisals. According to The Times on 9th August 1920:

‘The recent deputation to the Prime Minster from Cork Unionists may have been prompted by the feeling that matters in the city, as in the counties around, are ripening into a great tragedy, which the last Government Bill may help to precipitate. It is impossible to take anything but a grave view of the symptoms presented since the adoption of the 10 o’clock curfew. None but the most foolhardy may venture into the streets, the military patrols fire on the slightest provocation, townspeople allege often without provocation at all, and charges of looting and wanton destruction are frequently made. But there are countless charges of sniping at the patrols. While the feeling towards British troops In many parts of Ireland is not bitter, it is becoming so. There is another sinister new factor, the anti- organization the Brotherhood of Avengers which is believed to be run by Orangemen. Its efforts are mainly at present directed against Sinn Féin in Limerick and West Cork’.