page_title: Auxiliary Division
section_title: Controversy
hierarchical_section_title: Auxiliary Division / Controversy
caption_attribution_description: St Patrick's Street in Cork, Ireland on (or around) 14 December 1920. The image captures the aftermath of what's known as en:the Burning of Cork. This event occurred on 11-12 December 1920 during the Irish War of Independence. The primary subject are destroyed buildings in the area from Cook Street to Robert street to Winthrop Street (off Patrick street)in Cork. To the right foreground are workers in clean-up efforts. The prominent building facade (right/middle-ground) has visible stonework signage which reads: Pharmaceutical &amp; Dispensing Chemist. This building was Sunner's chemist shop, #31 Patrick Street. Immediately to its left (behind the arched lamps) was where #29/30 Patrick Street stood. This was the Munster Arcade. Photographer: W.D. Hogan Date: Circa Tuesday, 14 December 1920. NLI Ref.: HOGW 153
context_page_description: The Auxiliary Division of the Royal Irish Constabulary, generally known as the Auxiliaries or Auxies, was a paramilitary unit of the Royal Irish Constabulary during the Irish War of Independence. It was founded in July 1920 by Major-General Henry Hugh Tudor and made up of former British Army officers, most of whom came from Great Britain and had fought in the First World War. Almost 2,300 served in the unit during the conflict. Its role was to conduct counter-insurgency operations against the Irish Republican Army, acting mainly as a mobile striking and raiding force. It operated semi-independently of the RIC and was mainly deployed to southern and western regions where fighting was heaviest.
  The Auxiliaries became infamous for reprisal attacks on civilians and civilian property in revenge for IRA actions, including extrajudicial killings and arson; most notably the burning of Cork city in December 1920.
  The Auxiliaries were distinct from the so-called Black and Tans. These were also former British soldiers who were recruited into the RIC, but served as regular constables.
context_section_description: Many of the Division's Temporary Cadets did not cope well with the frustrations of counterinsurgency: hurriedly recruited, poorly trained, and with an ill-defined role, they soon gained a reputation for drunkenness, lack of discipline, and brutality worse than that of the Black and Tans.  They were disliked by members of the Royal Irish Constabulary, who considered them "rough."  They seem to have been unpopular with the British Army as well.  One British officer, who served as adjutant for the 2nd Battalion, Cameron Highlanders, wrote in his memoirs that the Auxiliaries "were totally undisciplined by our regimental standards".  Macready wrote in his own memoirs that "those companies that had the good fortune to have good commanders, generally ex-Regular officers, who could control their men, performed useful work, but the exploits of certain other companies under weak or inefficient commanders went a long way to discredit the whole force".
  Like the ordinary police, the Auxiliaries sometimes took reprisals in the wake of attacks by the IRA. On the evening of Bloody Sunday, for example, Dick McKee and Peadar Clancy were killed by their Auxiliary captors under very suspicious circumstances: the official explanation, that the two insurgents tried to escape, is widely disbelieved.  But perhaps the most notorious reprisal involving the Auxiliary Division was the burning of Cork on 11 December 1920. At 7:30 p.m. that evening, a truckload of Auxiliaries from newly formed K Company was ambushed at Dillons Cross: a grenade was thrown onto their truck, wounding ten Auxiliaries and killing one, Temporary Cadet Spencer Chapman.  Later that night, police and Auxiliaries took revenge by setting fire to the city's commercial centre, preventing the fire service from attending the blaze, and shooting seven people.
  Two IRA men, Cornelius and Jerimiah Delaney, were killed in their beds at home in Dublin Hill (though Con Delaney survived to December 18). Five civilians were shot on the streets. Damage amounting to $20 million was inflicted.  The Cork Fire Brigade did not have the resources to deal with the fires: law and order, it seemed, had completely broken down.  The British Government at first claimed the citizens were responsible for the arson, but a military court of inquiry known as the Strickland Report later found that the fires had been started by the Auxiliaries. Its findings were suppressed by the government, but K Company was disbanded.  Allegedly, some Auxiliaries took to wearing pieces of burnt cork on their caps afterwards, to celebrate the occasion.
  A few days later, near Dunmanway, an Auxiliary called Vernon Hart killed a young man and a seventy-year-old priest, whom the Auxiliary patrol met on the road. A third civilian, a local magistrate, escaped by approaching the other Auxiliaries before fleeing across nearby fields. Hart was arrested and court-martialled. At his trial, it was revealed that he had been a "particular friend" of TC Chapman, and had been drinking heavily since 11 December. Concerned that parallels would be made between this case and the killing of Francis Sheehy-Skeffington, the British Cabinet directed that Hart should be examined by at least two medical experts, a highly unusual intervention. These medical witnesses testified that Hart was insane at the time of the murders and the court-martial concluded that he "was guilty of the offenses with which he was charged, but was insane at the time of their commission". Although Hamar Greenwood announced to the House of Commons that he would be detained at His Majesty's pleasure, Hart was briefly held at Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum before release the following year.
  While Hart spent some time in a Criminal Lunatic Asylum, other Auxiliaries got away with murder. On 9 February 1921, James Murphy and Patrick Kennedy were arrested by Auxiliaries in Dublin. Two hours later, constables of the Dublin Metropolitan Police found the two men lying shot in Drumcondra: Kennedy was dead, and Murphy was dying.  Murphy died in the Mater Hospital, Dublin on 11 Februar
caption: The aftermath of the Burning of Cork by Auxiliaries, December 1920
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