"RUC Special Constabulary - Irish Civil War Period" Topic

There are some excellent photos of B Specials on the Lennon Wylie website under the title 'Lost Photos', including one of an entire battalion with its Lewis gunners.

In general, unlike the full-time RUC who continued to wear the RIC police uniform, photos I've seen from the early 1920s show the 'constables' in British army uniforms dyed black-green and '08 webbing with light equipment. In some they wear loose trousers, but in the shots on the above website they wear puttees. Perhaps the wearing of puttees depended on operational conditions; e.g. loose trousers for urban street patrols, but puttees for major rural operations.

The senior officers wear khaki British army uniform.

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Thank you, both. Are there any 28mm figures that would fit these depictions?

Looks like Footsore and Reiver might have what you need…

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Any early WW1 British infantry in light order would do with just a different paint scheme, Skeptic.

BTW, the third senior officer from left in the battalion shot was played by Hugh Laurie.

Here's some uniforms from earlier in the period:
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I confess if I were doing anything in the general vicinity, I'd have to paint some units in a 1920 mix of RIC (or Rifle?) green-black and army khaki for recognizable Black and Tans.

This thread is solely concerned with the USC, Robert.

While you can certainly field USC from as early as October 1920 (non-uniformed before 1922), I'm primarily interested in the post-treaty period here.

I'm posting this information because, despite being at the forefront of the action in Ulster, the USC isn't as well known as IWI types such as the Black and Tans and the Auxiliary Division, who were disbanded along with the rest of the RIC by early 1922.

It is worth pointing out that "Black and Tans" is a phrase with various interpretations.
For many people it is a catch all term for the forces of the Crown in Ireland during the War of Independence. This would include the RIC and its special Constables and the Auxiliary Cadets.
There were no independent "Black and Tan" units. The original use of the word was for the temporary special constable brought in to bring the numbers of the RIC back up after wide spread resignations. The majority of these were British but also included Irishmen. They did not patrol independently but were used as regular members of the RIC. Look at many of the reports on ambushes on the RIC and you will see a mix of Irish born and British among the casualties. The vast majority of sergeants remained long service Irish RIC.
So if you wished to model a "Black and Tan" force you should have a mix of full RIC uniforms and a few in mixed RIC and Army uniforms.
The RIC never wore the large berret, that was exclusive to the Auxillery cadets. Many photos captioned Black and Tans are in fact Auxiliares,as in the web site you reference Robert. You will notice on the top photo with the legend on the back Black and Tans they are all wearing RIC peaked hats.
The formal photo labeled Auxiliaries is taken with them in the official uniform of a medium blue. On patrol the Auxiliaries wore a wide variety of army service items and watch out for the low slung pistol holsters that seem to have been a statement item.

I think I'll take up professional cat herding.