Letter to the Editor: A murderer but not murdered

Calls to boycott the January 17 State commemoration of the RIC have concentrated on the integral role of Black and Tans and the Auxiliaries, recruited mainly from England. Black and Tan recruits began deploying after March 1920, the British officer-based Auxiliary Division some months later.

Before this, on the evening of March 19, 1920, a disguised RIC force invaded the home of Cork Lord Mayor Tomás Mac Curtain. They shot him dead at the door of his bedroom. A coroner’s jury found that “the murder was organised and carried out by the RIC officially directed by the British government”.