THE SERVICES OF THE ROYAL IRISH CONSTABULARY.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."]
Snr,—I received the enclosed from an officer of the R.I.C. whom I know personally, an upright, Christian man respected and loved by those who know him. What adds bitterness to the suffering of these devoted men is that whilst the men who fought in France were treated, and rightly, as heroes, with sympathy lavished upon them, the heroic R.I.C., who deserve the gratitude and admiration of all true British men and women for their amazing loyalty and courage under most nerve-racking conditions, get little but unkind criticism.—I
P.S.—Since writing this I am glad to see a small recognition of the services of the men who have given their lives for their country in Ireland has been made in the wreath to their memory on the Whitehall Cenotaph.
It has often grieved me to know that our English friends have formed such an unjust opinion of the R.I.C. during the hard struggle to maintain the prestige of the British Empire under adverse circumstances. It is well known that visitors seeking information were the guests of the Sinn Feiner's, from whom they received just what suited that party. They never visited loyalists or the R.I.C., so that it was obvious why the public heard only one side of the story. That English loyalists, or whatever they call themselves, should seek information from the murder gang is a thing that the R.I.C. could never under- stand, and it is evident that they did not realize what was going on in Ireland. The life of the R.I.C. during the past two years has been an unenviable one. No pen can picture the hardships and dangers through which we have passed. Just fancy living behind barbed wire, steel plates, and sand- bags day in and day out, without a human being outside the barrack to speak to, and every night expecting an attack. A certain number had to be on guard all night under arms. while the remainder slept with their rifles loaded at their bed- side. We were rigorously boycotted, and had to commandeer the necessaries of life; in fact, everything had to be brought in under an armed escort. When we would enter a shop no person dare speak to us, so that we were obliged to take what we wanted and then tender the price. There was a watch kept on each barrack, and every time we moved out the signal was passed along and an ambush prepared for our return, and to avoid this we had always to cross the country unless when we were travelling by cars. The country is beautiful and well adapted for this kind of warfare; no matter where one goes there are woods and glens, with high rocks, and it is at such places that the ambushes were arranged, selecting, on all occasions, a bend of the road. The rebels were well supplied with rifles, bombs, revolvers, and shot guns, the cartridges for the latter being filled with pellets about the size of a pea. The attack would be made from both sides of the road, from behind rocks and bushwood, and there was generally a tree cut and dropped across the road before the first car arrived. It was an everyday occur- rence to see a comrade carried in dead, the body having been mutilated beyond recognition. The rebels very seldom took prisoners, and any member of the Crown force who fell into their hands suffered death; this was strictly carried out during the last few months of the struggle. There was no mercy shown under any circumstances, and they resorted to the most fiend- ish methods in order to secure their victims. Sometimes they would murder an unfortunate tramp, place his body along a road, and then have an ambush for the arrival of the police. On other occasions when an R.I.C. man would be captured he would be removed to -a selected place and then murdered. A mine would be placed in such a position that when the body was moved it would explode with a deadly result.
Those were some of the methods adopted by the I.R.A., yet there was but little sympathy shown to us or to the widows and orphans; the whole outcry was the burning of a few houses belonging to rebels. I should like to ask my English and Scotch police comrades to picture this scene, and how would they feel to see their comrades murdered in such a cruel and ruthless manner when faithfully performing their duty to King and country?
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