Sir, – As we approach a number of centenary commemorations over the next few years, most especially the 1916 Easter Rising and the First Dáil Éireann in 1919, it is not unexpected that there would be calls to commemorate other events during that period which resulted in loss of lives. This is not unreasonable. However, the call by two members of the Retired Garda Síochána Members Association, (Letters, August 22nd)indicating their intention to mark the ending of the Royal Irish Constabulary and the Dublin Metropolitan Police and to commemorate all police officers killed during the War of Independence at a gathering in Glasnevin Cemetery, is carrying political ecumenism a step too far.
One cannot honour the RIC without also honouring the Black and Tans and the Auxiliaries who were an integral element of policing in Ireland during the 1919-1922 period. To do so would be a considered an affront to all who suffered appalling abuses from this group of uniformed thugs.
It should not be forgotten that it was the Royal Irish Constabulary who fired indiscriminately into the crowd in Croke Park on Bloody Sunday in 1920 killing 13 innocent spectators and the Tipperary football team captain Michael Hogan. They were the armed colonial police force tasked with brutally enforcing British rule in Ireland despite the massive rejection of this rule by the electorate in the 1918 general election, an event which subsequently rendered this force unlawful.
Why would the Retired Garda Síochána Members Association wish to stand in slavish obsequiousness to those members of the Black and Tans who sacked and burned more than 300 buildings in Cork city in an act of reprisal for the killing of one “Tan” in 1921, the burning of Balbriggan and Trim towns, and numerous other atrocities? This unruly mob displayed an absolute indifference to civilised policing. Even their commander, Gen Frank Crozier, resigned in protest at the deployment of these men. – Yours, etc,