The black and tans

A fresh blush

of black and tan

streams before my eyes,

red and raw.

Not a cuddly Yorkshire friend

as we were told

but cruel, cold , metallic, grey

villianous contemtpible blaggards

hiding behind a uniform

so prim

it tells them what they do

is right;

a licence to kill

if you might.

 

"See that Fenian b*****d,

there ... in the pram

skewer it

with your bayonet

old chap

and we'll giggle

'round the fire

and dance a reel

as it roasts

 drink a toast

and have a little bite."

 

What English rose

produced such a monster

from her womb,

to scour our land?

Had she known

her maternal instincts

would have railed against its nature

ripped it out

and fed it to the wolves.

And the world

a better place

for her sin

woud be.

 

 

© Paul O' Neill 2012

Reviews

[ríða andlit]

Now THIS is poetry! I'm glad to see that you don't follow suit with the other ones of yours I've read... the ones with one or two words, three lines, this is far better. I wish you'd write more like this. If people see your other stuff, they may be deterred as well. I hope not. You're pretty good.

[Pól]

Awww- rhats kind.
Btw i can't find ur review of buried alive- can u resend

[The Girl That Let You G..]

A powerfull write. Wonderful work

[Pól]

Thank u , d&d

[James Hanna-Magill]

Dear Paolo

Thank you for your recent review. My turn.

The subject of the Black and Tans is not lost on me. I am Irish by origin, having left home just turned 19 in 1979 and I am now 53. I see you are Irish too. It all rings loud clear bells in my head.

I thought I would pick out a few aspects of you poem and comment on them.

1) Structure and rhyme: Three stanzas, first 14 lines long, second 11 and last 13. There are no rhymes. This is free verse.

2) Punctuation: You fully punctuate throughout. Whatever type of poetry a poet undertakes, I like to see consistency (just my thing) should it even be no punctuation at all.

3) Form: You write this in the style of verse, but you could easily have written it shaped as prose - the general notion of poetry in prose. But I like what you do here, as it keeps the lines short and has a visual elegance.

4) Use of English and imagery: Colourful! See favourite lines below.

5) Mood of piece: There is an understandable anger that runs through this piece. The whole notion of British reservists working for the RIC in the earlier part of the twentieth century. I even used to know someone who was a retired member. You contrast this well with the always Irish term Fenian I was brought up with as part of my vocabulary for Irish Nationalists.

The whole of Irish history I find lying somewhere between deep sadness and frustration at the inability of either side to reach compromise, and the endless violence between both.

I was born into the Unionist side, you on the Nationalist. It was not by choice on our parts. Merely the accident of birth.

I was brought up in Belfast during the height of the troubles during the Seventies. Bombs and bullets were all around me as tit for tat attacks were made by both sides against the other giving rise to needless blood shed.

Frankly when I left at 19 and never came back except to visit my family, I was so happy to leave it all behind as so many Irish have done over the years, either by famine or desire to run.

I hated the 'no compromise' position and that still to this day it exists even though an uneasy peace reigns whilst people are now talking mostly rather than shooting.

There is a strange way in which when I left, frankly I had more time for people like Gerry Fitt of the SDLP than I did for the less measured words of Paisley.

Strange to tell there was a debating society at the Belfast grammar school I went to (mostly protestant / unionists). In one debate Gerry Fitt (nationalist) and Ernie Baird (unionist) turned up and talked about Irish issues. Strange to tell for a protestant school, the catholic Fitt won!

I hated all the stupid discrimination. Things like (on the protestant side) 'How do tell a Fenian? Their eyes are closer together than ours!' Excuse me but from my protestant origins, I feel like and did then saying 'What bullshit?'

The Black and Tans had a vicious reputation for the extent of their violence. And as I remember, it was even in the end recognised by the unionist side that they were overly so when disbanded. Even I as a child, incongruously was brought up with the notion that they had been so.

You can see how I relate.

6) Favourite lines:

First lift:

'Not a cuddly Yorkshire friend
as we were told
but cruel, cold , metallic, grey
villainous contemptible blaggards'

You compare well the colour of the benign dog with the contrasting, at least in spirit, colouring of the cruel Black and Tans.

Second lift (sorry but this has to be the whole of the speech in the middle stanza):

'"See that Fenian b*****d,
there ... in the pram
skewer it
with your bayonet
old chap
and we'll giggle
'round the fire
and dance a reel
as it roasts
drink a toast
and have a little bite."

What a powerful way of expressing the hatred of the Unionist Black and Tans for the Nationalist.

It is undoubtedly the case, given, 1968 that the Nationalist community was suppressed.

The Easter Rising and role the British played in it as well as the Bloody Sunday of 1920 fame give the same taste.

But in the end, all I really figure was that one side was as bad as the other. Neither had an appetite for talking.

My greatest pleasure is that they now do talk, albeit there are splinter groups and the British army presence is largely removed.

The colonisation of Ireland by the British is much in the same vein of the Whites in South Africa or if you like also the British empire which largely no longer exists.

As a fence sitter in all of this, as the roman catholic population increases and with proportional reputation even now, neither side holds sway but the Alliance party do, I believe that the days of the joining of North and South and independence from the rest of the UK will arrive sooner rather than later.

Sad to say Paolo, but we both know there will be endless grass routes objection to it and the whole unhappy mess of killing will stat again.

Last lift:

'What English rose
produced such a monster
from her womb,
to scour our land?'

You eloquently wonder how the English rose, emblematic of the English (to the shamrock of Ireland) could ever have produced such a force of brutality as the Black and Tans.

7) Overview: A highly accomplished piece of free style writing that expresses emotionally one aspect of Ireland's' sad and unhappy past.

Well written

Your friend


James Hanna-Magill

[Pól]

What a truly amazing review, James. I am speechless. I can see now why your views are so highly regarded.

The Black + Tans were particularly villianous, but I think war brings out the base instincts in people generally, and the irish have committed appalling atrocities too. TBH- whilst I was born on the Nationalist side, I personally dpo not consider that the re-unification of Ireland, or indeed the maintenance of the Union, was worth a single life. And thankfully the vast majority of people here are much more integrated than one would assume from the entrenched positions of our political representatives.


Thank you again, James, I am much indebted.

[James Hanna-Magill]

My complete pleasure Paulo, James

[Sami Khalil]

"her maternal instincts
would have railed against its nature
ripped it out
and fed it to the wolves.
And the world
a better place
for her sin
would be."
A very powerful write...Thank you for sharing...:)

[Pól]

Thank u, Sami

[Sami Khalil]

My pleasure...Any time...:)

[Frieda P]

Chilling and lots of symbolism here, I know a bit of it from a friend of mine, who's also very passionate about this cause. Ending is a killer. Great piece.

[Pól]

Thank you so much Frieda. I'm nor so much into the cause- I'm just anti-war generally. Most conflicts produce savages on both sides. The Black and Tans are particularly infamous, but there is no shortage of examples of this villany, both in the past and, unfortunately, the present.
Really chuffed you liked it.

[Frieda P]

Since getting to know her, I've gotten quite a few history lessons, most handed down from her grandfather. Yes, I do agree, it's amazing what it can do to a person, turn them into uncivilized monsters, most enjoyed this....my pleasure, and I love the word chuffed. :-)

[Pól]

lol- must use it in a poem then.
Actually the granfather reference is interesting. it was my granny who told me about the black and tan murdering the baby as she witnessed it. She cried when she told me about it. Even though over 80 years had passed, it was still vivid in her mind.

[Frieda P]

That's how these stories stay alive and live on....ha, yes, I've tried, it's not really poetic!

[Muse]

The end blind-sided me in a good way...I never saw it going there. Perhaps from the womb she brought into this world a life of trasgressions. I'd hate to think we are nothing more than a by-product of our forefather's mistakes. Generation after generation of wolves wearing and sharing the sheeps clothing. In this case it is not made of wool, but instead a uniform colored in black and tan. Symbolic for so many things....

villianous contemtpible blaggards
hiding behind a uniform
so prim

So many of us hiding behind a "title" a "uniform" thinking they are so powerful. Yet the only thing different underneath is not the skin...but the lack of compassion...the lack of a pulse....the lack of any concern for humanity.

[Circe]

a lot of your writing has so much cultural significance, I had to look up Fenian, it tells me an Irish Republican Brotherhood... that is one hell of a backstory to this piece... the bayonet, pram and dance was such chilling, savage imagery... and I could taste that bitterness of the english rose and the scouring of lands.. powerful, emotional, blood boiling write..