The Good, the bad and the ugly - Very Mixed Reviews for The Black and Tan Summer by C.A. Powell

The Black and Tan Summer has had some fine reviews and also attracted bad ones too. I suppose this is to be expected. One of the bad one says; the plot is simplistic and there are no bad books but fussy readers. I should take some comfort from this.

I take a step back and say to myself, "I wanted a simplistic plot." Why does it need to be complicated?

There was also another review that says the writing was poor because of the dialouge. People never spoke in such a way back in 1920. Well I guess I'll have to take that one on the chin. The book was professionally edited, but one can't please all the people all of the time.

The book is selling well around the Isles (Britain and Ireland) and in the USA. I just can't always understand why certain people want complex plots. Still, I'll keep plugging away. Reviews are reviews - good or bad - people are giving it a go.

The reviews: Check out the good the bad and the ugly! and this one.

Giving You The Black and Tan Police of Ireland (Reserve Police Force)

The problem of Irish Independence flared in 1916 during the Easter uprising. The Irish Volunteers wore uniforms and tried to fight according to rules of war. However, the British government refused to accept this. When the IVF were defeated, many high-ranking officers of the Volunteers were executed by firing squad. The government adopted the usual retro British ways of justice with ill-deserved confidence. The Irish Republican Army learnt and adapted their methods. They went underground and became more ruthless in a new and covert method of combat.

The Black and Tans were recruited from Britain because the Royal Irish Constabulary needed more manpower. Police barracks throughout Ireland were being attacked by the IRA rebels and as a consequence, it was becoming difficult to recruit R.I.C. members. Many were killed when police compounds were raided and destroyed by the Flying Columns of the I.R.A. (Irish Republican Army) 

In Britain, there was a huge surplus of unemployed ex-soldiers from the great war of Europe. Many of these men had no apprenticeship except that of fighting and killing in the trenches of Europe.  They were thrown upon the scrapheap of economic necessity when suddenly in 1919 an opportunity to earn 10 shillings a day came about. This involved being in a reserve police force attached to the Royal Irish Constabulary and serving in Ireland combating the rebel I.R.A.

Crossley Tender with Black and Tans

This covert rebel force wanted to pull Ireland away from the United Kingdom to become an independent republic. The desire for Irish independence had been about for hundreds of years and was a problem that the British Government kept pushing along – like kicking a tin can down the road and continuously coming back to it as one journeyed along. Sooner or later the issue had to be faced. In the past; Irish uprisings were brutally put down, but by 1919 this was not going to work.

Irish Rebel Flying Column

The British Government thought they could fight the I.R.A. conflict as a police action and keep it low-key. If ever a mistake could have been made it was this one - it proved to be monstrous and monumental. The recruitment of reserves among the ranks of Britain’s unemployed soldiers might have seemed an appropriate thing, but there were hundreds of thousands of unemployed. Only 8,000 were recruited as there were so many applicants. The most brutal and thuggish of the men were cherry-picked to do the job.

The large number of recruits that went to Ireland quickly found there was not enough dark green R.I.C. police uniform to go around for 8,000 men. Therefore they were supplied with part R.I.C. uniform and part British Army khaki – hence the nickname of Black andTans.

The first Reserve (Black and Tan) units were introduced to the conflict in March of 1920 and the men quickly earned a grim reputation for themselves. Their brand of community policing and winning hearts and minds left much to be desired. They started off with a carefree attitude and had diabolically scant respect for the local population. Often they took their frustration and anger out on the ordinary people. This was because the rebels were fighting a covert war and the towns and countryside among the local population were where they could hide. The rebels were proving much more evasive and adapt than anticipated.

The Black and Tan recruits did not have the proper skills or patience for the type of conflict they were in. When one of their numbers was hit; the Black and Tans would often retaliate by rounding up all people in a district. It rapidly became clear, to the British Government, that the Black and Tans and then the Auxies were doing more to further the Irish Republican cause then the rebels were. Their disrespect and aggressive tactics drove the populace to support the I.R.A. more.

At home and abroad, the British Government came under enormous pressure to redress the situation as a spiral of tit-for-tat murders began to get out of control. By 1921, both sides began to put out feelers. Eventually, there came a ceasefire in August of 1921 and the reserves (Black and Tans and Auxies) were kept in their barracks. A peace treaty came about and in November 1921, the British pulled out of Dublin as a new Irish Free State came about.

It brought about a civil war between the pro-treaty rebels and the anti-treaty rebels. The Black and Tans were disbanded and sent back to Britain. They remain a blighted organisation and something we Brits don’t like to talk about much.

They have left a lasting scar upon Ireland. The Black and Tans are an enigma to most Brits – many have never heard of them, but among Irish people, they are remembered with bitterness and aversion.

The Black and Tan Summer

What is the The Black and Tan Summer

A story set in Ireland against the Tan war of 1920 to 1921.

It is a story of human themes.

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Why Dreadful Zealot Rage Came Upon Ireland (Oliver Cromwell at Drogheda in 1649)

Cromwell's New Model Army Arrive Drogheda 3rd September 1649

In 1649 a New Model Army (Roundheads) of the English CivilWar landed in Ireland after becoming victorious over the English Royalist Army in a second and brief Civil War. They were very fundamental Protestants who had extreme religious views that were so radical; they executed their sovereign King Charles I to protect and enhance their beliefs and rule across the English nation. In a far- reaching move; the Puritan English had destroyed the Monarchy and formed a Republic based on, their believed view of, vital religious needs to run a good God-fearing nation. The English Civil War that had raged through the 1640s decade had come to a turbulent end. The start of ominous and new zealot type rule, taken to extremes, was about to begin in earnest, but a final and third effort still remained with the defeated English Royalist Army.

Some historians think this strange new Protestant Commonwealth of England was a step in the right direction for the English constitution which would develop from the monumental change that had happened, but the beginnings were very precarious and would cause another decade of harsh religious fanatical government. Not for just England but all of the Isles – Scotland, Wales, Ireland included – plus the American colonies that would also suffer under the Puritan cloud of law.

When the English Puritans did the unthinkable and executed King Charles I of the Scottish Stewart dynasty they sent shock waves throughout Europe and brought an end to the second English Civil War of 1648 – 1649. The third English Civil War would start because the eldest son of the late Charles I was in exile and waiting to claim his throne. He was King Charles II and he formed an alliance with the Irish Confederate Catholics which allowed the defeated soldiers of the English Royalist Army to join forces with soldiers of the Irish Confederate Catholics. It seems strange in this day and age to regard an English Republic fighting against Ireland in support of the Monarchy, but in a strange and haphazard way, this was so.

The Protestant English and their New Model Army regarded Ireland as a land of heretic Catholics who had killed many Protestant Settlers in 1641 during a rebellion. Now, these un-pure people were supporting the vanquished English monarchy – aiding un-pure Royalists who would side with such heretics to destroy the divine Puritan goal of the New English Commonwealth.

Oliver Cromwell – champion of the Parliamentary cause was now at the head of his New Model Army to destroy a third English Royalist Campaign and exact vengeance upon the conflicting Irish Confederate cause. Ireland was a land to be colonised in a new exodus of Protestant religious dispersal. In the eyes of the English Protestants; they were new crusaders and the Catholic Confederation was no better than a Caliphate blight of the Holy land during the Middle Ages in the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. This was, of course in the eyes of zealot English Protestants, heady from victory over a monarchy – an old style of rule that had subjugated them. Now this unholy and unclean form of Christianity, supporting the old defunct ways, was in danger of destroying the hard won Puritan dream.

The New Model English Army of Roundheads would bring a nightmare of their own for trying to destroy their Puritan dream. This outlandish crusade would scream out in Irish history to this day and part of one of the many dreadful battles was; the Siege of Drogheda.

Cromwell and his New Model Parliamentary Army arrived outside of the walls of Drogheda on 3^rd of September 1649. He began to position his soldiers around the southern side of the city walls. The Harbour was blockaded by Parliamentary ships. Drogheda was cut off with 3,000 troops of the Irish Catholic Confederate and English Royalist Army under the command of Arthur Aston – a man who had seen campaigns in Europe among Swedes, Poles and Germans. He had also fought in the previous English Civil Wars. He believed if he could hold Drogheda, he would be reinforced by Royalist and Irish soldiers numbering 4,000 under the command of the Marquis of Ormonde. In this, Arthur Aston would be unfortunately mistaken.

After two days, Cromwell received his 48 pounder siege guns. Eleven of them. These canons were dispersed in the relevant places to start bombarding the old walls of Drogheda. The guns opened fire and two breaches were formed before the Parliamentarians called upon the besieged forces to surrender. The commander of Drogheda, Arthur Aston refused and so the shelling continued.

On the 11^th September and the New Model Army infantry went in, trying to get through both breaches in the town’s old medieval wall. At the east breach of the wall, the Parliamentarians were beaten back by the Irish and English Royalist soldiers. However, in the south breach; the English Protestants, of Cromwell’s army, gained a foothold. The Royalist forces tried to counter attack but their leader, Colonel Wall was killed and the defenders then fell back allowing more Parliamentarians to flood into the breach. It was at this fierce fighting point that many of the soldiers of both sides fell in combat amid the rubble of the southern breach. Around 150 Parliamentary soldiers were killed, including Colonel Castle of the New Model Army.

After this, more Parliamentary soldiers flooded into the town as the wall’s defenders retreated in panic. Arthur Aston with some English Royalist and Irish soldiers took refuge in Millmount Fort as the massacre of Drogheda began in terrible earnest by the English Parliamentary army. It is said that when Oliver Cromwell see many of his Roundhead soldiers lying dead in the rubble of the southern breach, he became enraged and gave the order for no quarter. The bloodlust of the attackers became uncontrollable and although the order was for all bearing arms, everyone they came across was being put to the sword. Of the 3,100 soldiers defending the city, 2,800 were killed and a further death toll of the town’s civilians numbered around 3,000 put to the sword. The carnage and slaughter must have been horrendous for all the inhabitants as they tried to flee in blind panic.

Arthur Ashton and his men at Millmount Fort watched the carnage in horror. The Parliamentarians could not breach their smaller fort without more and considerable effort, so when the slaughter began to abate, some thousands of deaths later; terms of safety were offered to the English Royalist and Irish soldiers under Arthur Aston. These terms were accepted and the remnant defenders in Millmount Fort were disarmed and taken to a mill close by.

Here another dreadful atrocity was performed by the English Protestants of the Parliamentarian Army. Arthur Aston was manhandled by his murderous captors and was believed to have been bludgeoned to death by his artificial wooden leg – his skull smashed in as he was left dead along with the rest of his murdered men – the group of defenders that surrendered after taking shelter in Millmount Fort.

Other areas of the town harboured defenders, including a church that was set alight. As the burning building began to collapse and the defenders tried to escape the burning church; they were killed by Parliamentary troops surrounding the place. In other areas where English Royalist and Irish soldiers surrendered; officers were put to death and one in every ten ordinary ranked soldiers were put to death as an example. The remaining survivors were sent to penal servitude in Barbados.

Many of the dead officers had their severed heads sent to Dublin and displayed upon spikes. The highest ranking defender to survive the massacre was named Richard Talbot – the future Earl of Tyrconnell. Why he was spared, is not really known for he was an Irish Royalist and later Jacobite soldier. Some think he escaped from the garrison before it fell.

The Siege of Drogheda is one of the foremost reasons why Oliver Cromwell is remembered, without affection, by many in Ireland to this day – his campaign from 1649 – 1653 left a terrible legacy that effortlessly stands the test of time in historical memory.