I saw the movie in Dundalk in July 2006. It was so emotional that it is the only movie I have ever seen where nobody in the audience spoke or made any noise during the movie or even when it was over. We all just walked out of the cinema in complete silence. It was an eerie feeling.

My mother had some stories about the Tans, especially about them throwing a grenade into a group of children playing" ring -arounf-a - rosie''. She had a photograph of the blackened street. I believe my older brother still has the photo.
I heard a few reasons as the why wore the unusual uniform
1 - so they would not be confused with either the police or the regular army.
and
2 - nNt enough complete uniforms to go around so they had to use part of the army uniform and part of the police uniform.
They were bad days indeed.