Six County Top Cop Jon Boutcher Says IRA Volunteers who killed Black and Tans (Royal Irish Constabulary) during War of Independence were “Terrorists”
PSNI boss Jon Boutcher is interested in recent Irish history – and he wants to know more about events which occurred over 100 years ago. He heads an organisation which has an extremely bad reputation. He wants to clean up the image of the police force operating in the six county bit of Ireland – but has run into serious problems.
He recently described the killing of members of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) in the 1919-21 War of Independence as acts of “terrorism”.
In January 2020 Fine Gael Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan TD (Laois-Offaly) proposed a state commemoration of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC), whose members included the Black and Tans. A tsunami of public protest forced Flanagan’s government to drop this plan. Flanagan desperately pretended that he was only proposing to commemorate the 1920 police force – the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) – and not the Black-and-Tan or Auxie terrorists. This distinction was ridiculed. The row seriously damaged the Fine Gael government, and was a factor in its disastrous General Election result on February 8 2020.
Readers may be interested in contemporary assessments of the RIC/Black and Tans expressed in the First Dáil.
Pride of place goes to Eoin Mac Néill TD, a government minister. Mac Néill was a grandfather of Senator Michael MacDowell, a former Minister for Justice.
Here is a summary of MacNéill’s Dáil speech, delivered on April 10 1919 :
““Now, it is the determination of the English Government at present, and it is not only their determination but their last resource, to make the police supreme in Ireland, and it is not to relieve our feelings that we have this discussion, but to defeat this infamous policy. We can, and will, and must, defeat it, and to this end we must pledge ourselves, pledge our children, pledge our friends, and pledge our country on no account to submit in any shape or form or at any future time to be police-governed by the English Government. The police in Ireland are a force of spies. The police in Ireland are a force of traitors, and the police in Ireland are a force of perjurers. I say these things, not that your feelings might be roused, but to convince you of the necessity that exists why you should take such measures as will make police government in this country by the enemy impossible.”
More details are below.
Mr Boutcher heads a discredited police force which continues to cover up many state murders.
Link :
PSNI boss Boutcher says War of Independence IRA volunteers were “terrorists”
Attacks on RIC in War of Independence was ‘terrorism’ says police chief
CONNLA YOUNG, CRIME AND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT, Irish News, January 15th, 2026
PSNI chief constable Jon Boutcher has described the killing of members of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) in the War of Independence as acts of “terrorism”.
The “controversial” comments were made as he gave evidence to the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee at Westminster on Wednesday.
Speaking about the Kenova investigation team, Mr Boutcher said he had recently attended an event to remember members of the RIC.
The once all-Ireland police force was disbanded in 1922 and replaced by An Garda Síochána in the south and the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) north of the new border.
It is estimated that around 500 members of the RIC were killed by the IRA during the War of Independence, also known as the Black and Tan War, between 1919 and 1921. Around 70% of the RIC rank and file were Catholic.
Leaders of the IRA during that period included Michael Collins, who was killed by anti-treaty republican forces during the Irish civil war in 1922 and Éamon de Valera, who later became Taoiseach and served as president of Ireland.
Some RIC members, known as Black and Tans, were former British soldiers. They were responsible for various murders, civilian killings and other reprisals during the conflict.
Another RIC unit known as the Auxiliaries were also well known for their indiscriminate targeting of civilians.
The Ulster Special Constabulary, which was also part of the RIC was formed in 1920.
Members of the RIC were also directly involved in killing opponents, including the murder of Lord Mayor of Cork Tomás Mac Curtain in March 1920.
The RIC was also targeted by the IRA, with two members of the police force killed in an ambush at Soloheadbeg, Co Tipperary in January 1919, which started the War of Independence.
In 2020 former Irish justice minister Charlie Flanagan was forced to defer plans to hold a commemoration for members of the RIC and the Dublin Metropolitan Police after a political backlash.
During Wednesday’s hearing, Mr Boutcher spoke about how the RUC was the “most dangerous police service in the world to be a member of in the 1980s”.
He said that “there’s not a week that goes by that there’s not a memorial for a member of the security forces, and often those victims are forgotten”.
“I was at an event on Sunday for RUC officers, in fact Royal Irish Constabulary officers, murdered before the creation of the RUC by terrorism,” he added.
Historian and Irish News columnist Cormac Moore described Mr Boutcher’s remarks as “controversial”.
“You can’t divorce the RIC from the Black and Tans, the Auxiliaries, or the Ulster Specials.
“They are all linked, they were all on assignments together, they co-operated together, a lot of deployments against the Irish Volunteers, the IRA at the time….that’s very dangerous territory then to be talking about – they were killed by terrorists.”
Mr Moore highlighted that pensions and medals were later given to those who took part in the 1916 Easter Rising and subsequent conflict.
“The Irish state honours the men and women of the Easter Rising and War of Independence,” he said.
“There has been an acknowledgement of other players in that conflict, including British and security forces.
“But you rarely hear people describe those that participated in the War of Independence on the republican side as terrorists.
“I think it could have been a slip of the tongue, he has been sensitive to nationalism, he has been sensitive to different view points.”
The historian said Mr Boutcher’s remarks will “definitely raise eyebrows in the south”.
“Most people will think that the RIC were upholding the crown’s law, particularly after the 1918 general election, the British authority in Ireland had evaporated, they had no popular support,” he said.
“The RIC were ostracised, and they were targeted by the IRA, and they had a lot of popular support for that as well, there was boycotting of the RIC, their morale went through he floor, many people left.
“To call members of the IRA, like Michael Collins or Éamon de Valera, people in the IRA as terrorists, that’s a very controversial thing to say.
“I don’t think too many people would agree with that.”
Mr Boutcher should be boycotted and sacked.
Tomás Ó Flatharta 
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