The Black and Tans

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The term Black and Tans refers to the Royal Irish Constabulary Reserve Force, which was one of two paramilitary forces employed by the Royal Irish Constabulary from 1920 to 1921 to suppress revolution in Ireland by targeting the IRA. Although only a small proportion of the British forces in Ireland, The Black and Tans were the fiercest and most feared, sent in March of 1920 by Lloyd George's Coalition Cabinet to make Ireland "a hell for rebels to live in." They could arrest and imprison anyone at any time. They murdered civilians. They wore a strange mixture of dark green tunis, khaki trousers, black belts, and odd headgear. Richard Bennett, a Lt. Colonel in the Army Bureau of Current Affairs, provides an accurate account of this harrowing period in Anglo-Irish history. - Publisher