Irish Government to commemorate the DMP / RIC (Black and Tans)

On January 17th 2020 the Irish Government are planning to officially commemorate the DMP and the RIC / Black and Tans in Dublin Castle.

Body of Harry Loughnane after torture by members of the RIC

The event which is to commemorate those who served in the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) and the Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP).

A petition calling for the commemoration to be stopped is being run on change.org

You can view and sign it here.

Petition – Don’t commemorate The Black and Tans – Change.org

The Black and Tans who were mercenary soldiers mainly from Britain (to put it mildly) were sent to Ireland by the British as the RIC were not up to the task of defending British rule in Ireland. They were considered a branch of the RIC.

Sir Hamar Greenwood inspects a group of Black and Tans

Cllr John Sheehan the Cork Lord Mayor has declined the invitation from the Minister for Justice to attend the commemoration saying, 

“I would be doing this wearing the same chain that was once worn by my predecessor who was killed by RIC officers”

This is on the murder of Tómas MacCurtain at the hands of RIC officers. He was taken from his home in Cork on his 36th birthday and shot in front of his wife and son the 20th March 1920

The Mayor of Clare is to boycott the commemoration service for the Royal Irish Constabulary, describing the event as

“historical revisionism gone too far”

Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan in September 2019 became the first Government Minister to attend a commemoration service for policemen killed by the IRA in the War of Independence.

The Minister said the policemen involved were only

“Doing their job”

This is on the RIC and the DMP at the time which were British organisations and Ireland was fighting British rule.