The Black and Tans – they haven’t gone away you know. Not completely, not if Fine Gael have anything to do with it.

 

The Government’s plan to commemorate the service of the men of the Royal Irish Constabulary and Dublin Metropolitan Police – and therefore, as many people pointed out, that of their colleagues in the Black and Tans and the Auxiliaries – has been shelved after heavy criticism. Thanks to Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan & co, the Wolfe Tones currently top the charts in both Ireland and the UK.

 

Historian Brian Hanley joins us in studio to analyse the controversy. What was the true nature of the RIC? If they found themselves on “the wrong side of history”, then what proportion of the Irish people of the time were on the wrong side of history with them?

 

 

What were Fine Gael trying to achieve with the planned RIC event? What is the point of the current series of commemorations of the Irish revolutionary period? And what does this week’s controversy tell us about Irish memory and the development of Irish nationalism?

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