-Colonel Smyth, DSO, addressing the Black and Tans in Ireland.
The attempt of the Irish people to win independence from British rule in the Easter 1916 uprising was brutally crushed. But in 1919 the struggle began once again.
The Westminster Government responded by speedily dispatching. in addition to an increased number of regular soldiers, batches of armed thugs recruited from every nook and cranny of British society. These special forces were known as the 'Black and Tans' because of the colour of their uniforms Lloyd George -then British Prime Minister- stated that Ireland should "be made mincemeat of by the military." The Dublin Police Journal was equally clear ahout the task of the Coum forces: to make Ireland hell for rebels to The history of the Tan war is a list of atrocities perpetrated on the Irish people in an attempt to Terrorse them into submission. 'Pacification' began mildly enough with internment and court-martials. These measures were followed by the imposition of martial law, Then came the policy of official reprisals against the civilian population.
During that year, the Tans went berserk. For example, one patrol in Cork, firing wildly, killed 3 children playing hurley in a field. Innocent persons may be shot.,.but you are bound to get the right parties some time. The more you shoot the better I will like you.
In November Tans invaded the sportsground at Croke lark where a football match was in progress and fired indiscriminately into the ground, killing 12 people and wounding 60. This behaviour was explained by the Irish secretary Balfour, at Westminster as being the result of heroic men, "engages in a heroic struggle,.sometimes hitting back!
Probably the most notorious incident of the war occurred in December 1920. Tans poured into Cork city and, beginning by simply beating up rundom individuals, peoceeded systematically to burn and loot the entire City centre. The Crown forces broke into the City Hall and the Library and after one unsuccessful attempt, soon had them blazing well. The Tans cut the hoses of the Fire Brigades and police giarded the hydrants, turning the water off every time the firemen turned it on. Miraculously, they left only 4 dead that night.
After threatening to shoot investigators sent by the Labour Party, these gallant heroes further distinguished themselves by parading through Dublin with burnt corks in their caps, indicating their pride in razing the City, Meanwhile a government spokesman complacenough these davs.
But this is only the beginning we will sce other measures. Once there is no mass protest at a handful of deportations, their mumbers will gradually incrcase, Patricia Hewitt, the general secretary of the Nation al Council for Civil Liberties, regist ered their apprebensions in a recent meeting with Roy Jenkins.
in the small priat of the Act related to the powers conferred on immigr ation offcials. They can now detain a suspect for five days at any port of entry, and for a further five with the permission of the Home Secretary. This amounts to longer than the police are allowed to hold a suspect.
Our "civilised" Home Secretary has also created a new precedent, Those served with exclusion orders ently explained, to everyone's astonishment, that the Forces of the Crown had saved Cork from destruction" and that the Irish had burnt their own city in order to discredit the government's policy These are carly days and before long Main.
One point which she discovered bing of Hanoi and Haiphong in Vietnam in December 1972, or the torture of nationalists in Aden hy BritThe Tribune MPs who supported the Jenkins measures have with few exceptions completely failed to break Another sign of the future is the introduction of 'maximum isolation' control units at Wormwood Scrube (abovel and Wakefield jails, both picketed last Saturday NICK MULLEN, President of Middlesex Polytechnic Students' Union, unsuccessfully moved a pro!RA amendment to the motion opposing the new 'anti-terrorist laws at the recent National Union of Students confer ance, Here Red Weelly talles to him about how the press sensationalised the whole debate, and how he sees the situation now.
For socialists, the struggles again at these new laws and for the right of self-determination of the Irish people ure interrelated, and have to be pursued relentlessly in the coming months.