"On the 28th day of November, the Tans left the town of Macroom . . ."
In fact, they were not Black 'n Tans, but Auxiliaries - part of the 1,500 battle-hardened British ex-army officers despatched in 1920 to the areas giving the Empire the most trouble.
The record of the Auxiliary Division in Ireland was truly appalling. In disregard of the Geneva Convention, prisoners were routinely tortured and murdered after capture, as happened to six IRA prisoners in Ballycannon near Cork. The burning of Cork, the murders of Canon Magner and Father O' Callaghan in Co Cork and of Father Griffin in Galway, were all at the hands of this force who incredibly, were described as "auxiliary policemen".
In many areas, such as Trim, they double-jobbed, augmenting their pay by robbing local shops and post offices. Not even unionists were safe. In Fermoy a group of Auxiliaries, after a late night drinking session in the Grand Hotel, seized upon a former British army officer, a wounded veteran of the first World War, and threw him to his death into the Blackwater River. The robbing and murder of a unionist resident magistrate, Robert Dixon, in Co Wicklow, led to the one and only case of an Auxiliary being brought to justice and executed.
Terrorised
Macroom had the honour of getting one company, whose members immediately set about living up to their reputation. Villages were terrorised, all occupants being paraded for interrogation and humiliation. They engaged in a curious sport - opening fire on innocent labourers at work in the fields, sometimes with fatal results. In Baile Mhuirne an innocent civilian, Seamas O Liathain, with no connection whatever to the IRA, was murdered in cold blood.
When on the cold wet evening, of November 28th, 18 Auxiliaries went on patrol in two trucks, they were surely aware that they could not expect kid-glove treatment from the IRA. General Tom Barry, OC of the flying column, had decided that in the interest of the morale of the IRA and the terrified locals, an Auxiliary patrol had to be attacked and destroyed. However, against these well armed professionals, he had only 30 men, only one of whom had previous battle experience. The others had just one week's training before being moved into an ambush position that had been carefully selected by Barry and his officers. Barry was a former British soldier who had seen service in Mesopotamia during the first World War. A highly intelligent man, he understood the weaknesses of the British military structure and, even more so, the incompetence of most British officers.
The action that followed was a classic example of a guerilla engagement where the weakness of the rebels was offset by the element of surprise and the courage inspired by the justice of their cause. The Auxiliaries, caught at a disadvantage, found themselves exposed to heavy fire and suffered grievous casualties. One group under one of the trucks shouted, "We surrender"; and it is a well-known story that when the IRA stood up to accept the surrender, the Auxiliaries opened fire with their revolvers at close quarters and killed three of the IRA members including a young boy of only 16 - Pat Deasy of Bandon.
Fire was resumed and this continued until all resistance ceased. Of the 18 Auxiliaries, 16 were killed outright. One who appeared to be dead survived his wounds, although crippled for the rest of his life. One escaped, but was subsequently, captured and executed by the IRA.
This action marked a turning point in the War of Independence. The fact that professional fighters had been wiped out by a handful of semi-trained West-Cork farmers was a massive blow to the morale of the British Army. So serious was the matter that the British Cabinet called for a special report on the entire affair, and this, no doubt, was another factor in forcing the British to seek a truce with Dail Eireann, the lawfully elected government of the Irish people.
The commander of the Auxiliaries, Gen Crozier, a decent and chivalrous man, was appalled at the conduct of the force he commanded. He desperately sought to bring about discipline and to prosecute those guilty of crimes. He failed; the final straws that impelled him to resign his command were when a party of 11 Auxiliaries dismissed for various robberies were re-instated and when Dr Rogers, Bishop of Killaloe, luckily escaped death when the Auxiliaries raided his residence while he was absent. In later years, Gen Crozier documented the atrocities committed by Crown Forces in Ireland, the plot by his erstwhile comrades to murder him, and the appalling political, military, and moral shambles that existed in Ireland during the War of Independence under Prime Minister David Lloyd George.
Amazed
If alive today, he would be more than amazed that many of the ruffians and murderers who got their just deserts, are now soberly recorded in a book, Po- lice Casualties in Ireland, as "policemen". And he would be more surprised that the Irish State never bothered to exhume and bury with respect the bodies of patriots executed in Mountjoy Jail, or to show the same honour for those who fought for Irish freedom as the British show on "Poppy Day" for those who died in the service of empire. He must also have felt aggrieved that never did an Irish Government acknowledge the stand that he and men such as Major Fletcher Vane took for justice in Ireland, suffering greatly as a result.
He must often have wondered if Ireland was worth the sacrifice of his career and if he, like his colleague Major Montgomery, stationed in Cork, had remained silent, would he too have ended up as a Field Marshal?
Is ait an saol e, agus is ait an tir e Eire.