Black and Tans The Black and Tans ( ) were men from Great Britain who joined the Royal Irish Constabulary ( RIC ) as Temporary Constables during the Irish War of Independence . They were the brainchild of Winston Churchill , then British Secretary of State for War . Thousands , many of them British World War I veterans , answered the British Government ' s call for recruits . Their role was to help the RIC maintain order and fight the Irish Republican Army ( IRA ) ; the army of the Irish Republic . The nickname " Black and Tans " arose from the colour of the improvised khaki uniforms they initially wore . The Black and Tans became infamous for their attacks on civilians and civilian property . The Black and Tans should not be confused with the Auxiliary Division , which was a counter - insurgency unit of the RIC made up of former British officers . However , sometimes the term " Black and Tans " is used to cover both of these groups . Foundation . The late 19th and early 20th centuries in Ireland were dominated by Irish nationalists ' pursuit of Home Rule ( or even independence ) from the United Kingdom . Since 1886 there had been three failed attempts to overturn the 1800 Act of Union and bring Home Rule to Ireland . This failure led to a huge degree of scepticism that the constitutional methods were going to be successful . The Legislation introducing Home Rule , i . e . limited self - government for Ireland within the United Kingdom , was passed by the British parliament in 1914 , but its implementation was immediately postponed because of the outbreak of the First World War . Unionists were resisting its implementation and had armed with the stated intention of breaking the Act . The Larne gun - running was for the purpose of arming Ulster Unionists . Plans were also under way to have the Home Rule Act modified in order to accommodate partition of the country with an exclusion of the Ulster region . In response to the arming of Ulster Unionists the Irish Volunteers were formed . Almost 200 , 000 men enlisted in support of a Dublin parliament and to defend the establishment of same from any threat from Ulster . British political participation in the Ulster Larne gun - running was seen as a real threat to the implication of Home Rule . The British Army in Ireland refused orders to disarm Ulster . The First World War confused the issue . Some of the Irish Volunteers went to the front because John Redmond - the Leader of the Home Rule Irish Party at Westminster - told them it was the best way to secure Home Rule . But scepticism about British intentions - and the Ulster resistance to the Home Rule bill - remained in Ireland and for this reason about half of the Irish Volunteers did not join in World War I . Then in Easter 1916 the Irish Republicans , who sought full independence for Ireland rather than just Home Rule , staged the Easter Rising in Dublin against British rule . The Rising initially lacked wide public support within Ireland , and was suppressed by the British military authorities within a week . However , public outrage against large - scale arrests by the British , and the courts martial and executions of the Rising ' s leaders , helped radicalise mainstream Irish nationalism . At the end of May 1916 , after the Rising , Lloyd George attempted to bring about a Home Rule parliament in Dublin and he tried to negotiate with the Unionists about the Ulster question . The sticking point for Redmond and Carson was the ' temporary exclusion ' of the Six County region . Lloyd George ultimately failed to bring about any agreement on this issue . With this failure and the British threat to impose conscription in Ireland to aid the war effort , nationalist support rapidly came to be channelled into the revolutionary Sinn Féin political party . Sinn Féin contested the general election in December 1918 with the promise that they would refuse to take their seats at Westminster and secede and form an Irish parliament . Sinn Féin consequently won 73 out of 105 seats in Ireland , and in January 1919 established themselves as the First Dáil , which then declared an independent Irish Republic . They also declared the Irish Republican Army [ IRA ] the official army of the state . In the same month the Irish Republican Army began the Irish War of Independence . Because they were fighting superior forces with superior arms Michael Collins developed and deployed a campaign of guerrilla warfare against British rule ; . This consisted of attacks on the Royal Irish Constabulary ( RIC ) and the British Army in Ireland . In September 1919 Lloyd George , the British Prime Minister , outlawed the Dáil and British Army presence in Ireland was augmented . Starting work on its next Home Rule Act . In January 1920 , the British government started advertising in British cities for men willing to " face a rough and dangerous task " , helping to boost the ranks of the RIC in policing an increasingly anti - British Ireland . There was no shortage of recruits , many of them unemployed First World War army veterans , and by November 1921 about 9 , 500 men had joined . This sudden influx of men led to a shortage of RIC uniforms , and the new recruits were issued with khaki army uniforms ( usually only trousers ) and dark green RIC or blue British police surplus tunics , caps and belts . These uniforms differentiated them from the Army and the Regular RIC , and gave rise to the force ' s nickname : Christopher O ' Sullivan wrote in the " Limerick Echo " on 25 March 1920 that , meeting a group of recruits on a train at Limerick Junction , the attire of one reminded him of the Scarteen Hunt , whose " Black and Tans " nickname derived from the colouration of its Kerry Beagle s . Ennis comedian Mike Nono elaborated the joke in Limerick ' s Theatre Royal , and the nickname soon took hold , persisting even after the men received full RIC uniforms . The new recruits received three months ' hurried training , and were rapidly posted to RIC barracks , mostly in Dublin , Munster and eastern Connacht . The first men arrived on 25 March 1920 . The British government also raised another unit , the Auxiliary Division of the constabulary , known as the Auxiliaries or Auxies . This group was made up of ex - army officers . The Black and Tans acted with the Auxiliaries in the British government ' s attempts to break both the IRA and the newly elected and established Irish Government , Dáil Eireann . Conduct in Ireland . The behaviour of the Black and Tans or ' auxies ' as they were also synonymously known in Ireland at the time has been recorded in first hand accounts . The quasi - military nature of both placed them both in tandem in the eyes of the civilians and the IRA . A statement by Timothy O ' Connell of Dunmanway given at the time describes his arrest and treatment by the ' Tans ' or ' Auxies " . The Statement is headed : Interrogation and Treatment of republican suspects by the British Auxiliary Forces , ' Black and Tans ' , January 1921 . " I happened to be in bed in a friend ’ s house when someone downstairs shouted ‘ Tans ” . I hopped out of bed and had a look through the upstairs windows … I could see two lorries stopped by the road about a hundred yards away . . . " " On Monday morning shortly afterwards , I was called out along with two other prisoners , the Barrett Brothers of Coppeen . Three lorries were lined up , each full of Auxies . We were ordered on board , one of us on each lorry and were told that if one shot was fired at the lorries all three of us would be shot immediately . The first stop was the military barracks at Bandon , which had been attacked the previous night . We were ordered off the lorries and kicked through the gate . Then the Auxies told the military that they had arrested us on the road , and gave it to be understood that we had taken part in the attack on the previous night . . . We were ordered to strip off our clothes and stand under the showers . Then the cold water taps were turned on and the water was almost freezing . We had to stand under the jets of cold water until we were almost lifeless , and the military didn ’ t pull any punches during the proceedings so that we emerged from the showers with more black eyes . " " Temporary Constables were paid the relatively good wage of 10 shillings ( ½ a pound ) a day plus full board and lodging . With minimal police training , their main role was to increase the strength of police posts , where they functioned as sentries , guards , escorts for government agents , reinforcement to the regular police , and crowd control , and mounted a determined counter - insurgency campaign . They and the Auxies became known as " Tudor ' s Toughs " after the police commander , Major - General Sir Henry Hugh Tudor . They were viewed by Republicans as an army of occupation because of these duties . They soon gained a reputation for brutality , as the RIC campaign against the IRA and Sinn Féin members was stepped up and police reprisals for IRA attacks were condoned by the government . Alexander Will , from Forfar in Scotland , was the first Temporary Constable to die in the conflict . He was killed during an IRA attack on the RIC barracks in Rathmore , County Kerry , on 11 July 1920 . The Black and Tans were not subject to strict discipline in their early months in Ireland and as a result , their deaths at the hands of the IRA in 1920 were often repaid with arbitrary reprisals against the civilian population . In the summer of 1920 , the Black and Tans burned and sacked many small towns and villages in Ireland , beginning with Tuam in County Galway in July 1920 and also including Trim , Balbriggan , Knockcroghery , Thurles and Templemore amongst many others . In November 1920 , the Tans " besieged " Tralee in revenge for the IRA abduction and killing of two local RIC men . They closed all the businesses in the town and let no food in for a week . In addition they shot dead three local people . On 14 November , the Tans abducted and murdered a Roman Catholic priest , Fr . Michael Griffin , in Galway . His body was found in a bog in Barna a week later . Finally , the Black and Tans sacked Cork city , on the night of 11 December 1920 , destroying a large portion of the city centre . In January 1921 , the British Labour Commission produced a report on the situation in Ireland which was highly critical of the government ' s security policy . It said the government , in forming the Black and Tans , had " liberated forces which it is not at present able to dominate " . However , since 29 December 1920 , the British government had sanctioned " official reprisals " in Ireland — usually meaning burning property of IRA men and their suspected sympathisers . Taken together with an increased emphasis on discipline in the RIC , this helped to curb the random atrocities the Black and Tans committed since March 1920 for the remainder of the war , if only because reprisals were now directed from above rather than being the result of a spontaneous desire for revenge . However , many of the atrocities popularly attributed to the Black and Tans may have been committed by the Auxiliary Division ; and some were committed by Irish RIC men . For instance , Tomás Mac Curtain , the Mayor of Cork , was assassinated in March 1920 by local RIC men and the massacre of 13 civilians at Croke Park on Bloody Sunday was also carried out by the RIC although a small detachment of Auxiliaries were also present . However , most Republicans did not make a distinction , and " Black and Tans " was often used as a catch - all term for all police and army groups . The actions of the Black and Tans alienated public opinion in both Ireland and Great Britain . Their violent tactics encouraged the Irish public to increase their covert support of the IRA , while the British public pressed for a move towards a peaceful resolution . Edward Wood MP , better known as the future Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax , rejected force and urged the British government to make an offer to the Irish " conceived on the most generous lines " . Sir John Simon MP , another future Foreign Secretary , was also horrified at the tactics being used . Lionel Curtis , writing in the imperialist journal " The Round Table " , wrote : " If the British Commonwealth can only be preserved by such means , it would become a negation of the principle for which it has stood " . The King , senior Anglican bishops , MPs from the Liberal and Labour parties , Oswald Mosley , Jan Smuts , the Trades Union Congress and parts of the press were increasingly critical of the actions of the Black and Tans . Mahatma Gandhi said of the British peace offer : " It is not fear of losing more lives that has compelled a reluctant offer from England but it is the shame of any further imposition of agony upon a people that loves liberty above everything else " . About 7 , 000 Black and Tans served in Ireland in 1920 – 22 . More than one - third of them died or left the service before they were disbanded along with the rest of the RIC in 1922 , an extremely high wastage rate , and well over half received government pensions . A total of 404 members of the Royal Irish Constabulary died in the conflict and more than 600 were wounded but it is not clear how many of these were pre - war RIC men and how many were Black and Tans or Auxiliaries . Those who returned to civilian life sometimes had problems re - integrating . At least two former Black and Tans were hanged for murder in Britain and another wanted for murder committed suicide before the police could arrest him . Legacy . Due to the ferocity of the Tans ' behaviour in Ireland and the atrocities committed , feelings continue to run high regarding their actions . " Black and Tan " or " Tan " remains a pejorative term for the British in Ireland , and they are still despised by many in Ireland . The term can still stir bad reactions because of their remembered brutality . One of the most famous Irish Republican songs is Dominic Behan ' s " Come out Ye Black and Tans " . The Irish War of Independence is sometimes referred to as the " Tan War " or " Black - and - Tan War . " This term was preferred by those who fought on the anti - Treaty side in the Irish Civil War and is still used by Republicans today . The " Cogadh na Saoirse " medal , awarded since 1941 by the Irish government to IRA veterans of the War of Independence , bears a ribbon with two vertical stripes in black and tan .