The news link we posted to the concern about ‘recognizing’ (or commemorating) the RIC and Dublin Metropolitan Police generated a large degree of interest so I thought I would post this item by RTE that takes an in depth look at the RIC and the integral components of them during the War of Independence in Ireland the Black and Tans (‘Tans’) or the Auxiliary Division (‘Auxies’)
The ‘On this day’ link to an RTE radio programme about the burning of Cork gives a graphic illustration why even after 100 years, the memories of this infamous force are still rare in Ireland:
https://www.rte.ie/…/1037888-come-out-ye-black-and-tans-wh…/
However most emotive is the poem of Yeats about the murder of Ellen Quinn by the RIC. On November 1st 1920, she was shot and fatally wounded while sitting on a wall outside her house in Kiltartan, Co Galway with her nine-month-old baby in her arms. The shot came from a passing police lorry.
“Where may new-married women sit
And suckle children now? Armed men
May murder them in passing by
Nor law nor parliament take heed.”
(Reprisals W B Yeats)
Bernard Moffatt, Assistant General Secretary Celtic League (6 January 2020)
