On This Day / September 22, 1920
Go BackReproduced with permission from The Irish News.
19200922
Reference Date
19200922
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Summary: On This Day – 22nd September 1920, Black and Tans sacked Balbriggan, burning homes and shops and killing civilians in one of the Irish War’s darkest reprisals. Edited by historian Dr Éamon Phoenix.
‘Tans’ sack village
TWO men were killed, others wounded, a factory destroyed and thirty shops and private houses burned in Balbriggan [Co Dublin] on Monday night following the shooting of District Inspector Burke.
He was killed and Sergeant Burke, his brother, wounded.
Yesterday morning refugees on their way by road to neighbouring villages presented a pitiable sight.
Among them were mill-workers and others, including women with babies in their arms and men and women pushing perambulators and trying to carry such of their belongings as they were able to save from the flames.
After the shooting of the policemen, ‘Black and Tans’ went through the town discharging rifles and setting fire to houses, shops and other buildings.
Details of the outbreak show that the two men were brutally done to death.
The town was terror-stricken yesterday and it was feared there would be another outbreak.
It is stated that Smith’s Hosiery Factory, the largest of its kind in Ireland, was saved from the fate of the other hosiery factories by policemen stationed in the town who noticed a number of men in the vicinity.
They told the incendiaries to stop, that enough had already been done and the Black and Tans then left after breaking a number of windows.
A claim for £75,000 compensation was lodged yesterday by the company for the destruction of their factory.
The Dublin Evening Telegraph says: It is reported by gentleman who have arrived in Dublin, having left Balbriggan, that over 200 Black and Tans are in the town.
Some of them are driving around, firing indiscriminately into the houses but devoting special attention to those supposed to be occupied by Sinn Féiners.
The Press Association says: When word reached Gormanston where the Black and Tans are stationed, that a senior RIC officer had been killed in Balbriggan, a large body of the men set out in military motor lorries for the scene.
They descended from their vehicles and proceeded systematically through the streets, firing indiscriminately and burning selected businesses.
Mystery attaches to the shooting of Mr James Lawless and Mr Gibbons which are supposed to have taken place at 3am.
Mr Lawless, a barber, was taken out of his house, placed against the wall and shot.
[Editor’s note: The sack of Balbriggan by the Black and Tans in direct retaliation for the IRA killing of a policeman marked a major escalation in the war in Ireland, now entering its darkest phase.
As the diary of Mark Sturgis, a senior Dublin Castle official, confirms, such actions were authorised by the Lloyd George government at the highest levels in a strategy of ‘counter-terror’.)
Further Reading:
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
19200922
Reference Date
19200922
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Summary: On This Day – 22nd September 1920, Black and Tans sacked Balbriggan, burning homes and shops and killing civilians in one of the Irish War’s darkest reprisals. Edited by historian Dr Éamon Phoenix.
‘Tans’ sack village
TWO men were killed, others wounded, a factory destroyed and thirty shops and private houses burned in Balbriggan [Co Dublin] on Monday night following the shooting of District Inspector Burke.
He was killed and Sergeant Burke, his brother, wounded.
Yesterday morning refugees on their way by road to neighbouring villages presented a pitiable sight.
Among them were mill-workers and others, including women with babies in their arms and men and women pushing perambulators and trying to carry such of their belongings as they were able to save from the flames.
After the shooting of the policemen, ‘Black and Tans’ went through the town discharging rifles and setting fire to houses, shops and other buildings.
Details of the outbreak show that the two men were brutally done to death.
The town was terror-stricken yesterday and it was feared there would be another outbreak.
It is stated that Smith’s Hosiery Factory, the largest of its kind in Ireland, was saved from the fate of the other hosiery factories by policemen stationed in the town who noticed a number of men in the vicinity.
They told the incendiaries to stop, that enough had already been done and the Black and Tans then left after breaking a number of windows.
A claim for £75,000 compensation was lodged yesterday by the company for the destruction of their factory.
The Dublin Evening Telegraph says: It is reported by gentleman who have arrived in Dublin, having left Balbriggan, that over 200 Black and Tans are in the town.
Some of them are driving around, firing indiscriminately into the houses but devoting special attention to those supposed to be occupied by Sinn Féiners.
The Press Association says: When word reached Gormanston where the Black and Tans are stationed, that a senior RIC officer had been killed in Balbriggan, a large body of the men set out in military motor lorries for the scene.
They descended from their vehicles and proceeded systematically through the streets, firing indiscriminately and burning selected businesses.
Mystery attaches to the shooting of Mr James Lawless and Mr Gibbons which are supposed to have taken place at 3am.
Mr Lawless, a barber, was taken out of his house, placed against the wall and shot.
[Editor’s note: The sack of Balbriggan by the Black and Tans in direct retaliation for the IRA killing of a policeman marked a major escalation in the war in Ireland, now entering its darkest phase.
As the diary of Mark Sturgis, a senior Dublin Castle official, confirms, such actions were authorised by the Lloyd George government at the highest levels in a strategy of ‘counter-terror’.)
Further Reading:
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
19200922
Reference Date
September 22, 2020
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice *
Summary: On This Day – 22nd September 1920, Black and Tans sacked Balbriggan, burning homes and shops and killing civilians in one of the Irish War’s darkest reprisals. Edited by historian Dr Éamon Phoenix.
‘Tans’ sack village
TWO men were killed, others wounded, a factory destroyed and thirty shops and private houses burned in Balbriggan [Co Dublin] on Monday night following the shooting of District Inspector Burke.
He was killed and Sergeant Burke, his brother, wounded.
Yesterday morning refugees on their way by road to neighbouring villages presented a pitiable sight.
Among them were mill-workers and others, including women with babies in their arms and men and women pushing perambulators and trying to carry such of their belongings as they were able to save from the flames.
After the shooting of the policemen, ‘Black and Tans’ went through the town discharging rifles and setting fire to houses, shops and other buildings.
Details of the outbreak show that the two men were brutally done to death.
The town was terror-stricken yesterday and it was feared there would be another outbreak.
It is stated that Smith’s Hosiery Factory, the largest of its kind in Ireland, was saved from the fate of the other hosiery factories by policemen stationed in the town who noticed a number of men in the vicinity.
They told the incendiaries to stop, that enough had already been done and the Black and Tans then left after breaking a number of windows.
A claim for £75,000 compensation was lodged yesterday by the company for the destruction of their factory.
The Dublin Evening Telegraph says: It is reported by gentleman who have arrived in Dublin, having left Balbriggan, that over 200 Black and Tans are in the town.
Some of them are driving around, firing indiscriminately into the houses but devoting special attention to those supposed to be occupied by Sinn Féiners.
The Press Association says: When word reached Gormanston where the Black and Tans are stationed, that a senior RIC officer had been killed in Balbriggan, a large body of the men set out in military motor lorries for the scene.
They descended from their vehicles and proceeded systematically through the streets, firing indiscriminately and burning selected businesses.
Mystery attaches to the shooting of Mr James Lawless and Mr Gibbons which are supposed to have taken place at 3am.
Mr Lawless, a barber, was taken out of his house, placed against the wall and shot.
[Editor’s note: The sack of Balbriggan by the Black and Tans in direct retaliation for the IRA killing of a policeman marked a major escalation in the war in Ireland, now entering its darkest phase.
As the diary of Mark Sturgis, a senior Dublin Castle official, confirms, such actions were authorised by the Lloyd George government at the highest levels in a strategy of ‘counter-terror’.)
Further Reading:
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
On This Day is a daily column in the Irish News looking back either 50 or 100 years. The column was compiled by Dr Éamon Phoenix from the mid 1980s until autumn, 2022. The Foundation is very grateful to the Irish News for giving permission to reproduce Eamon’s columns. Funding gratefully received from Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs and the Magill Trust.
* The Foundation has worked hard to recreate Eamon’s distinctive voice through AI. Since this is an emerging technology, occasional imperfections may be audible.