Note to gargoyle re. Black and Tans:

In the aftermath of the Easter 1916 uprising, the struggle for Irish independence was carried on by the Irish Republican Brotherhood, led by Michael Collins and others. By 1919 acts of violence and murder were becoming more and more frequent, with members of the state police force, the Royal Irish Constabulary, as the targets of much of the terrorism. The RIC began to return the violence in kind.

By spring of 1920, the RIC began to recuuit reinforcements from England as well as from among Irishmen and with the expansion of the force there were not enough of the traditional "bottle-green" uniforms, to go around. New recruits were equipped with khaki additions to their uniforms and were soon dubbed "Black and Tans" a nickname borrowed from a pack of hounds that were well known in County Tipperary.

The situation in the country deteriorated rapidly into virtual guerilla warfare between two increasingly vicious bands of armed men, the Black and Tans (including their especially violent "Auxiliaries") on the one hand and the Irish Republican Brotherhood, soon to be known as the Irish Republican Army (IRA). The "troubles" have continued, though there's perhaps at last a possibility of an end to the violence. So much blood....