Our Irish people have a sense of humour, and they have always been noted for their happy knack of giving appropriate nick-names. In the district which surrounds Knocklong—South Tipperary and East Limerick the name Black and Tan was born. For generations there had been in that district a famous pack of hounds known as the “Black and Tans.” Is it surprising that the people soon saw how like the new force was to their hounds, not only in colour but in other respects? Such is the origin of a name that will survive in all languages for terrorism, loot and murder.
These changes to which I have referred had taken place in our native county during our absence. We decided at once to open a series of attacks on police barracks.
Attacks on police barracks had been going on in various parts of the South on a small scale for months. The first case in which the garrison was captured was at Araglen, on the borders of Cork and Limerick, near the southern end of the Galtees. The attack was carried out by Liam Lynch, who was killed during the Civil War early in 1923, while he was Chief of Staff of the I.R.A.
Liam Lynch, as the struggle developed in intensity proved himself the finest officer in Ireland to control and handle a brigade or division. He and Sean Moylan made an admirable combination and their successes against the British were amazing. Tom Barry was, I think, the best leader of a flying column.
I first met Liam Lynch at the Autumn of 1919. We were introduced by Tom Hunter, then Republican Deputy for Cork and Peadar Clancy’s partner in business in Dublin. Lynch was at that time very much on the run, like myself. On September 7th, he had carried out a daring coup in Fermoy, disarming twelve soldiers who were going to church. In the struggle one of the British soldiers was killed and Liam himself was wounded. That incident is of historic importance by reason of the fact that it led to the first case of “reprisals”; for the night of the attack the British soldiers, led by some of their officers, wrecked and looted the principal shops in Fermoy.
Liam Lynch was a soldier to his finger tips. He stood six feet in height and in his eye you read that he was born to be a leader of men. As gentle as a child he was a dauntless soldier, and commanded one of the best brigades in Ireland against the British.
Shortly after the capture of Araglen Barracks by Liam Lynch, the next victory of the kind was gained by Michael Brennan, who seized all the arms and ammunition in a barrack in Clare. In this case the barrack was surrendered by Constable Buckley, who afterwards fought with the I.R.A. through the war, and was killed in Kerry while a prisoner during the Civil War. The next barracks that was captured by the I.R.A. was Ballylanders on the 28th April, 1920, when three policemen were wounded and the barrack burned to the ground after the garrison had surrendered their arms to Sean Malone (alias “Forde”), who commanded in the attack.
On our return to Tipperary we very soon carried out three attacks on police barracks, one of which surrendered to us after a five hours’ fight.
The first barrack in Tipperary to surrender to the I.R.A. was Drangan. That was on June 4th, 1920. Drangan is situated in the eastern end of the county, near the Kilkenny side. It is seven miles from Killenaule.
Our usual procedure in these attacks—which always took place at night—was to mobilise 30 or 40 I.R.A. men, and have trees felled across all the roads leading to the position. In that way we prevented, or at least delayed, assistance from arriving to help the besieged garrison. This blocking of the roads was carried out often for a five or ten mile radius. Often, too, we felled trees across the roads when we had no intention of attacking a position—merely to annoy and confuse the enemy.