Editing Black and Tans (section)

===Recruits===

About 10,000 were recruited between January 1920 and the end of the conflict.<ref>Coleman, Marie. ''The Irish Revolution, 1916–1923''. Routledge, 2013. p. 70</ref><ref>Walsh, Oonagh. ''Ireland's Independence: 1880–1923''. Routledge, 2003. p. 67</ref><ref name="irishtimes jan 2020">[https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/ric-and-dmp-policemen-to-be-commemorated-for-first-time-by-state-1.4128214 "RIC and DMP policemen to be commemorated for first time by State"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200102143033/https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/ric-and-dmp-policemen-to-be-commemorated-for-first-time-by-state-1.4128214 |date=2 January 2020 }}. ''[[Irish Times]]'', 1 January 2020.</ref> About 100 were recruited each month from January to June 1920. The recruitment rate rose from July, when the RIC was given a large pay raise.<ref name="Leeson25">Leeson, ''The Black and Tans'', p. 68</ref> The RIC began losing men at a high rate in the summer of 1920, due to the IRA campaign. On an average week, about 100 men resigned or retired while only 76 recruits enlisted to replace them. More police were needed, but enough replacements could not be found in Ireland; on average, the RIC recruited only seven Irishmen per week.<ref>Leeson, ''The Black and Tans'', pp. 22–23</ref> The intake of British recruits steadily rose and then surged from late September, following the widely publicised [[Sack of Balbriggan]].<ref name="Leeson25"/>

This sudden influx of men led to a shortage of RIC uniforms, and the new recruits were issued with a mixture of dark RIC tunics and caps, and [[khaki]] army trousers. These uniforms differentiated them from both the regular RIC and the British Army, and gave rise to their nickname: "Black and Tans".<ref name="Spellissy1998"/>

The new recruits were trained at [[Gormanstown Camp]] near Dublin, most spending two or three weeks there before being sent to RIC barracks around the country. In general, the recruits were poorly trained for police duties and received much less training than the existing Irish RIC constables.<ref>Leeson, ''The Black and Tans'', pp. 78–79</ref>

The vast majority of Black and Tans were unemployed First World War veterans in their twenties, most of whom joined for economic reasons.<ref name="Augusteijn pages 938-940"/> The RIC offered men good wages, a chance for promotion, and the prospect of a pension.<ref>Leeson, ''The Black and Tans'', p. 77</ref> According to historian David Leeson, "The typical Black and Tan was in his early twenties and relatively short in stature. He was an unmarried Protestant from London or the [[Home Counties]] who had fought in the British Army [...] He was a working-class man with few skills".<ref name="Leeson25"/> The popular Irish claim made at the time that most Black and Tans had criminal records and had been recruited straight from British prisons is incorrect, as a criminal record would disqualify one from working as a policeman.<ref name="Augusteijn pages 938-940">Augusteijn, Joost Review of ''The Black and Tans: British Police and Auxiliaries in the Irish War of Independence, 1920–1921'' by D. M. Leeson pp. 938–940 from ''The Journal of Modern History'', Volume 85, Issue # 4, December 2013 p. 939.</ref>

According to Jim Herlihy, author of ''The Royal Irish Constabulary – A Short History and Genealogical Guide'', 10,936 Black and Tans were recruited; the vast majority were born in Britain, while 883 (8%) were "Irish-born".<ref name="irishtimes jan 2020"/> Based on RIC recruitment data stored in the British [[Public Record Office]] at [[Kew]], William Lowe, extrapolating from a sample of 2745 (about one quarter), estimates that 20% of Black and Tans were Irish, with just over half of these giving their religion as Catholic.<ref name="Lowe" />