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‘Matters best forgotten’: the Ulster Special Constabulary in 1922
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 December 2025
Abstract
This article examines the structure and role of the Ulster Special Constabulary (USC) in rural Ulster in 1922. It is argued the actions of the USC during this period have not received sufficient academic or public attention. The origins and organisational structure of the Specials are considered and it is claimed that the force’s decentralised make-up made it almost impossible to control. In terms of personnel, access to newly released archives gives unique insight into the force. Traditional assumptions about the connection between the pre-war Ulster Volunteer Force and the USC are questioned. Furthermore, it is found that few ‘B’ Specials had prior service with the British army. Overall, it is concluded that the Specials were an almost exclusively Protestant force made up of inexperienced and at times ill-disciplined recruits, most of whom were ill-suited to any policing role. Furthermore, it is argued that the Specials played a significant role in shaping post-partition identities in Northern Ireland.
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- © The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd
References
1 Wallace Clarke, Guns in Ulster (Belfast, 1967), 1.
2 Cormac Moore, ‘The partition of Ireland and of Irish history’, Irish News, 27 Dec. 2023.
3 Irish Times, 2 Jan. 2020.
4 John O’Neill, ‘Taking Matters into their own hands’ (www.theirishstory.com/2020/01/22/taking-matters-into-their-own-hands-the-ulster-special-constabulary) (accessed 21 Feb. 2024).
5 Recruitment to ‘A’ Specials, c.1925 (PRONI, USC collection, USC/1/50/3); Versey report, 1 Aug. 1922 (TNA, HO 45/24812); Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Charles George Wickham letter on C1 strength, 9 Oct. 1922 (PRONI, USC collection, USC1/70); Richard Abbott, Police casualties in Ireland, 1919‒1922 (Cork, 2000), 14.
6 O’Neill, ‘Taking Matters into their own hands’.
7 S. B. Newman, ‘For God, Ulster and the ‘B’-men’: the Ulsterian revolution, the foundation of Northern Ireland and the creation of the Ulster Special Constabulary, 1910‒1927’ (Birkbeck, University of London, PhD, 2020), 27. The titles Newman refers to are: Wallace Clarke, Guns in Ulster; Arthur Hezlet, The B Specials: a history of the Ulster Special Constabulary (London, 1972); Pearse Lawlor, The outrages: the IRA and the Ulster Special Constabulary and the border campaign (Cork, 2011); Michael Farrell, Arming the Protestants: the formation of the Ulster Special Constabulary and the Royal Ulster Constabulary 1920‒7 (London, 1983).
8 Hezlet, The B Specials, 23‒9.
9 Farrell, Arming the Protestants.
10 J. A. Cousins, Without a dog’s chance: the nationalists of Northern Ireland and the Irish Boundary Commission, 1920‒25 (Kildare, 2020), 42; Donnacha Ó Beacháin, From partition to Brexit: the Irish government and Northern Ireland (Manchester, 2019), 14.
11 Timothy Bowman, Carson’s army: the Ulster Volunteer Force, 1910‒22 (Manchester, 2012); Christopher Magill, Political conflict in east Ulster, 1920‒22: revolution and reprisal (Woodbridge, 2020).
12 Robert Lynch, The partition of Ireland 1918‒1925 (Cambridge, 2019), 6.
13 All material referenced as ‘USC Collection’ required police clearance. Permission has not been given, as of 26 Aug. 2024, to name the officers whose files were consulted.
14 Email to Patrick Mulroe from PRONI, 19 June 2022.
15 Margaret O’Callaghan, ‘Genealogies of partition; history, history-writing and the Troubles in Ireland’, Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, ix (2006), 623.
16 Cormac Moore, Birth of the border: the impact of partition in Ireland (Newbridge, 2019); Diarmaid Ferriter, The border: the legacy of a century of Anglo-Irish politics (Dublin, 2019); Robert Lynch, The partition of Ireland: 1918–1925 (Cambridge, 2019); Ó Beacháin, From partition to Brexit; Cousins, Without a dog’s chance.
17 Farrell, Arming the Protestants, 12.
18 Fermanagh Herald, 23 July 1921.
19 Farrell, Arming the Protestants, 13.
20 ‘Memo regarding formation of ‘B’ Specials in Fermanagh’, c.1968 (PRONI, UVF circulars and correspondence, D1191/49).
21 Mervyn Dane, The Fermanagh B Specials (Enniskillen, 1970), 11.
22 David Keys, Duty bound: the County Fermanagh B Specials 1920‒1970 (Enniskillen, 2022), p27.
23 John Webster letter detailing founding of Armagh USC, 1960 (PRONI, D1290/9).
24 Magill, Political conflict in east Ulster, 54.
25 Newman, ‘For God, Ulster and the ‘B’-men’, 178.
26 Bowman, Carson’s army, 163.
27 Ibid., 191.
28 Paul Bew, Churchill and Ireland (Oxford, 2016), 96.
29 Farrell, Arming the Protestants, 43.
30 B. A. Follis, A state under siege: the establishment of Northern Ireland, 1920‒25 (Oxford, 1995), 1‒48.
31 Ibid., 69
32 Paul Bew, Peter Gibbon and Henry Patterson, Northern Ireland 1921/2001: political forces and social classes (London, 2002), 19
33 ‘Retention of Firearms in Home’, 30 Mar. 1921 (PRONI, D1022/2/9/1).
34 Hezlet, The B Specials, 19.
35 Ibid., 30.
36 Belfast News Letter, 13 July 1922.
37 Clarke, Guns in Ulster, 32‒4.
38 Farrell, Arming the Protestants, 47.
39 Memorandum on draft organisation, Oct. 1920 (PRONI, CAB 5/1).
40 Lieutenant-Colonel C. G. Wickham letter, 10 Dec. 1921 (PRONI, FIN 18/1/2).
41 General orders for special constables, 10 Nov. 1920 (PRONI, FIN 18/1/2).
42 Bew, Gibbon & Patterson, Northern Ireland 1921/2001, 29.
43 General A. S. Ricardo report for S. G. Tallents, June 1922 (TNA, CO 906/27).
44 Follis, A state under siege, 122‒4.
45 Bridget Hourican, ‘Tallents, Stephen George’, http://www.dib.ie (accessed 2 Apr. 2024).
46 S. G. Tallents, ‘Memorandum on the present position of the Imperial Government in Northern Ireland’, 22 Mar. 1922 (TNA, CO 906/30).
47 Bowman, Carson’s Army, 195.
48 Magill, Political conflict in east Ulster.
49 The assembled dataset of 1,500 USC members is a complex mix. For ‘A’ class recruits, information is drawn from the county register (PRONI, USC/6/120/1) and personnel files of officers (PRONI, USC/1/100/1/1). The register lists all personnel who served in Fermanagh and contains the name, age, home address and occupation of recruits. The register is incomplete in places. So, for ‘age’, the dataset has only 323 entries, whereas there are 666 entries for ‘home address’. The ‘A’ officer files are uncatalogued and were found by chance by the author submitting a request for an ‘unnamed file’ in the USC collection. The officer files are arranged in boxes of ten to twenty files, sequenced in alphabetical order. Approximately half the officers’ files available were used in the dataset. For ‘B’ recruits, personnel files for Fermanagh (PRONI, box 4052–box 4238) are used. There are 80 boxes of ‘B’ class personnel files for Fermanagh housed at PRONI. Each box contains thirty to sixty files. The boxes are uncatalogued but arranged in alphabetical order. This means the files of officers that served in the 1920s can be viewed alongside those from the 1960s. Approximately half the boxes were randomly selected to create the dataset. For ‘C’ Specials, a limited register with the name, address and age of recruits was accessed (PRONI, USC BOX B4267). All the aforementioned files require a ‘researcher agreement’ to access and are not publicly available.
50 IRA figures are derived from Hart, The IRA at war, 121.
51 Keys, Duty bound, 38.
52 Letter from Captain Chillman, 4 Dec. 1922 (PRONI, USC collection, USC 1/150/16).
53 Form S.C. 12, USC ‘C’ membership list (PRONI, U.S.C. collection, box B4267).
54 David Fitzpatrick, ‘The geography of the War of Independence’, Atlas of the Irish revolution, ed. John Crowley, Donal Ó Drisceoil, Mike Murphy and John Borgonovo (Cork, 2017), 536.
55 R. F. Foster, Vivid Faces: the revolutionary generation in Ireland 1890‒1923 (Milton Keynes, 2014), 1.
56 Farrell, Arming the Protestants, 76‒9.
57 Basil Brooke letter on the formation of C1 Category, 11 Nov. 1921 (PRONI, USC Collection, USC/1/50/5).
58 Peter Hart, The IRA at war 1916‒1923 (Oxford, 2003), 121.
59 Timothy Bowman, Carson’s army, 193.
60 Ibid., 199.
61 Robert Gerwath, The vanquished: why the First World War failed to end, 1917‒1923 (Stirlingshire, 2016), 122. Thank you to John Dorney for drawing my attention to this parallel.
62 Letter from commandant of Newtownards Camp in relation to [named] British army major, 29 Aug. 1922 (PRONI, USC collection, box B191067).
63 General A. S. Ricardo report for S. G. Tallents, June 1922 (TNA, CO 906/27).
64 Hezlet, The B Specials, 95.
65 C. W. Magill, From Dublin Castle to Stormont: the memoirs of Andrew Philip Magill, 1913‒25 (Cork, 2003), 70.
66 Bew, Gibbon & Patterson, Northern Ireland 1921/2001, 32.
67 Kieran Glennon, ‘Who were the Belfast Specials?’, (https://thebelfastpogrom.com/2023/12/30/who-were-the-belfast-specials) (accessed 29 Mar. 2024); Magill, Political conflict in east Ulster, 88.
68 Magill, Political conflict in east Ulster, 88.
69 Basil Brooke letter, 11 Nov. 1921 (PRONI, USC collection, USC/1/50/5).
70 Sinisa Malešević, The rise of organised brutality: a historical sociology of violence (Cambridge, 2017), 168.
71 Magill, Political conflict in east Ulster, 95.
72 David Marshall, The protected years: a history of Clogher Ulster Special Constabulary (Omagh, 2004), 94.
73 Meeting with S. G. Tallents, 29 June 1922 (TNA, CO 906/26)
74 Census of Ireland 1911, https://www.cso.ie/en/media/csoie/releasespublications/documents/ep/storiesfromcensus1911/census1911originalreports/457_Area,_houses,_and_population,_Ulster,_Ireland,_1911_Fermanagh.pdf (accessed 23 Feb. 2024).
75 Minutes of Police reorganisation committee, 2 Mar. 1922 (PRONI, HA 47/2).
76 File on [named ‘A’ Special Officer], 1926 (PRONI, USC collection, box 191069).
77 Abbott, Police casualties 1919‒1922, 381.
78 Belfast Telegraph, 3 Oct. 2016.
79 Magill, Political conflict in east Ulster, 85.
80 Fermanagh Herald, 14 Jan. 1922.
81 Lynch, The northern IRA and the early years of partition (Kildare, 2016), 125.
82 Magill, Political conflict in east Ulster, 85.
83 Jack Elliott letter to Irish Grants Committee, 7 Sept. 1928 (TNA, Irish Grants Committee, CO 762/167/21); see also George Hewitt, 11 Sept. 1928 (TNA, Irish Grants Committee, CO 762/169/10); Louis de Montfort application, 11 Nov. 1926 (TNA, Irish Grants Committee, CO 762/116/10).
84 Dane, The Fermanagh B Specials, 24.
85 Letter regarding Robert Parks, 23 Oct. 1922 (PRONI, HA/5/1044).
86 List of Roslea Specials from Monaghan (PRONI, USC collection, box B4267).
87 Presentation by Dr Edward Burke, ‘A forgotten conflict: political violence on the Irish border 1922’, Iontas Theatre, Castleblayney, Monaghan, 17 June 2022.
88 Letter from Dawson Bates, 7 June 1922 (PRONI, USC collection, box 191070); additional letters of application are in the same file from officers expressing pro-Ulster sentiments.
89 Anglo-Celt, 3 June 1922. See police memorial citations for Thomas Steen and George McDonald, (https://policememorial.org.uk) (accessed 26 Feb. 2024).
90 See Abbott, Police casualties for: Robert Armstrong (403); George Johnson (407); David Torrens (413); Alexander Compton (365); James Murray (411); Thomas Hume (407); Thomas Cochrane (404); David Surgeoner (413). See police memorial citations for James Skillen, William Liggett and Foster McGeagh (https://policememorial.org.uk) (accessed 26 Feb. 2024); for Robert McCleary, see Lurgan Mail, 16 July 1922.
91 See Abbott, Police casualties for: William Graham (406); James McInnes (409); Thomas McNeill (410); and Richard Black (403).
92 Belfast News Letter 22 Mar, 1922 for Hugh French; see Abbott, Police casualties for David Friars (405); and Victor Kidd (408).
93 Andy Bielenberg and John Dorney, ‘Death and killing in the Irish Civil War’, (www.ucc.ie/en/theirishrevolution/irish-civil-war-fatalities-project/research-findings) (accessed 20 Aug. 2024).
94 See Alan F. Parkinson, Belfast’s unholy war: the troubles of the 1920s (Dublin, 2004), 249 for Charles Vokes; and Northern Standard, 8 July 1921 for James R. McCullough.
95 Lurgan Mail, 16 July 1922.
96 Northern Standard, 8 July 1921.
97 General A. S. Ricardo report for S. G. Tallents, June 1922 (TNA, CO 906/27).
98 Brian Barton, Brookeborough: the making of a prime minister (Belfast, 1988), 53.
99 Major J. D. McCollum, evidence to Police Reorganisation Committee, 2 Mar. 1922 (PRONI, HA 47/2).
100 Parkinson, Belfast’s unholy war, 90.
101 Nominal roll of those killed or wounded in Belfast and six counties from 6 Dec. 1921 to 31 May 1922 (PRONI, HA/5/219).
102 Robert Lynch, ‘Belfast’, in Atlas of Irish Revolution, ed. Crowley, Ó Drisceoil, Murphy & Borgonovo, 630.
103 Parkinson, Belfast’s unholy war, 91.
104 This data was collated using Richard Abbott, Police casualties, supplemented by further evidence from newspaper reports and RIC Outrage Reports, 1921–2 (PRONI, HA/5/698).
105 File containing reports of border raids and kidnappings in Tyrone and Fermanagh (PRONI, HA 5/175).
106 County inspector letter, 23 Jan. 1923 (PRONI, HA/5/253).
107 Harlan Strauss interview with Lord Brookeborough, 14 Mar. 1973, (UCD Folklore Collection, Harlan Strauss collection), 6. Thanks to Conor Mulvagh and Harlan Strauss for making this source available.
108 Irish Independent, 20 Mar. 1922.
109 Northern Standard, 31 Mar. 1922; RIC Outrage Report, May 1922 (PRONI, HA/5/699); murder of William Fleming (PRONI, HA 5/195).
110 Jack McElhaw witness statement, 7 Jan. 1952, 39 (MAI, Bureau of Military History, WS 634).
111 Dáil Éireann deb., xxxii, 23 Oct. 1929.
112 Evening Herald, 21 June 1922.
113 Pat Holland, ‘The burning of Roslea village, Co. Fermanagh in 1921 and the reprisals’, Clogher Record xxiii (2018), 41‒64.
114 Henry Patterson, Ireland’s violent frontier: the border and Anglo-Irish relations during the Troubles (London, 2013), 6.
115 Owen McGill, Matt Fitzpatrick and Francis Ward pension applications (M.A.I., M.S.P.C, Owen McGill 2D453, Matt Fitzpatrick 2D288 and Francis Ward DP7285).
116 For the case of James McGleenan case, see PRONI, HA/5/184; for Francis Reilly, see Seán Bernard Newman, ‘For God, Ulster and the B-men’, 240; for Patrick Tumelty and Joseph McAlinden, see MAI, MSPC, D6562. For William Brown’s acquittal of the murder of James McKeown, see Larne Times, 20 Jan. 1923; Olive Coulter, Northern Whig, 6 June 1922.
117 James Robinson case (MAI, MSPC, DP6357); Fergal McCluskey, Tyrone: the Irish revolution, 1912‒23 (Dublin, 2014), 120‒22 for cases of Edward McLaughlin, Frank Kelly, Hugh Cassidy, Peter Hagan, Charles Lavelle and John McCracken; Adrian Grant, Derry: the Irish revolution, 1912‒23 (Dublin, 2018), 136 for cases of Jack Carolan, Denis Kilmartin, Dominic Wilson and Pearse Lawlor, The outrages, 274–81 for cases of Henry McGeehan, James McGeehan, Francis Higgins and John Higgins; Patrick Mulroe, ‘Moving away from the bandit country myth’, Ireland and partition: contexts and consequences, ed. N. C. Fleming and J. H. Murphy (Liverpool 2021) for cases of Patrick Creegan, Thomas Crawley, Peter Murray and Michael O’Kane; Sean McConville witness statement, 23 Mar. 1951 (MAI, BMH, WS 495) for case of Anthony McConville; divisional inspector bi-monthly report, 31 Jan. 1922 (PRONI, HA/5/152) for case of Hugh Kelly.
118 Handwritten note from A. P. Magill on James McGleenan, 22 Mar. 1922 (PRONI, HA/5/184).
119 Newman, ‘For God, Ulster and the B-men’, 240.
120 Derry Journal, 28 June 1922.
121 Frontier Sentinel, 8 July 1922.
122 A. P. Magill minute, 10 July 1922 (PRONI, HA/5/983).
123 Patrick Tumilty pension application (MAI, MSPC, D6562).
124 T. K. Wilson, Frontiers of violence: conflict and identity in Ulster and Upper Silesia, 1918‒1922 (Oxford, 2010), 107.
125 Jack McElhaw BMH witness statement, 39.
126 Report of E. J. McKean, 8, July 1922 (PRONI, HA5/239).
127 Alfred Cope to Winston Churchill, 12 Feb. 1922 (TNA, CO 906/20).
128 Belfast News Letter, 13 Feb. 1922.
129 Parkinson, Belfast’s unholy war, 212.
130 Cormac Moore, ‘Why don’t we remember Weaver Street?’, Irish Times, 13 Feb. 2022.
131 Lurgan Mail, 13 May 1922.
132 Sean McConville witness statement, 12‒13.
133 C. G. Wickham to Colonel J. K. McClintock, 28 May 1921 (PRONI, HA 5/161).
134 John McKenna, A beleaguered station: a memoir of head constable John McKenna, 1891‒1921 (Belfast, 2021), xvii.
135 Hezlet, The B Specials, 87.
136 ‘Notes by Ex District Commandant’, June 1922 (TNA, CO 906/27).
137 McCluskey, Tyrone, the Irish revolution, 122.
138 RIC Outrages Report, May 1922 (PRONI, HA/5/699).
139 Ibid.
140 Robert Stevenson to local paper, May 1922 (PRONI, D4246/3/3).
141 S. G. Tallents to J. E. Masterson Smith, 4 July 1922.
142 Freeman’s Journal, 10 May 1922.
143 Irish Weekly and Ulster Examiner, 1 Apr. 1922.
144 Hugh Cassidy pension application (MAI, MSPC, DP1618).
145 Adrian Grant, Derry: the Irish revolution, 1912‒23 (Dublin, 2018), 136; Derry Journal, 22 May 1922.
146 Second periodical report of the Colonial Office, 14 Aug. 1922 (TNA, Cab 6/18).
147 Wallace Clark, Guns in Ulster, 70.
148 Kieran Glennon, ‘Firearms cases in the Belfast courts: Outstanding in their leniency’ (https://thebelfastpogrom.com/2023/11/25/outstanding-in-their-leniency-firearms-cases-in-the-belfast-courts/#references2) (accessed 29 Mar. 2023).
149 See: Ballymoney Free Press and Northern Counties Advertiser, 13 July 1922 for Thomas McDowell being charged with the murder of Archibald McCann; Northern Whig, 22 Feb. 1922 for John Porter being charged with killing Michael Crudden; and Larne Times, 20 Jan. 1923 for William Brown’s acquittal of the murder of James McKeown.
150 ‘Protestants who have been interned’, 13 May 1923 (PRONI, HA/32/1/289A).
151 Sean O’Connell, ‘Violence and social memory in twentieth-century Belfast: stories of Buck Alec Robinson’, Journal of British Studies, liii (2014), 734.
152 ‘Protestants who have been interned’.
153 Newman, ‘For God, Ulster & the ‘B’-men’, 207.
154 Ibid., 244.
155 S. G. Tallents to Masterson Smith, 4 July 1922 (TNA, CO 906/30).
156 Kieran Glennon, ‘Northern Ireland: civil war, pogrom and Specials’ ineptitude’ (www.rte.ie/history/civil-war-fatalities/2024/0212/1431801-northern-ireland-civil-war-pogrom-and-specials-ineptitude/) (accessed 29 Mar. 2024).
157 Summary of outrages in Northern Ireland, Nov. 1922 (PRONI, HA 5/701).
158 Denise Kleinrichert, Republican internment and the prison ship Argenta (Dublin, 2001), 18‒22.
159 James Craig meeting with Lionel Curtis, 13 Sept. 1922 (TNA, HO 45/24812).
160 Promotion application of [named person] and report on [named person] (PRONI, USC collection, USC/6/UNL box 4193).
161 Letter of complaint signed by USC members, 8 Dec. 1955 (PRONI, USC collection, USC/6/UNL, box B170698).
162 J. D. to minister for home affairs, February 1926 (PRONI, USC collection, box 191069).
163 Stathis Kalyvas, The logic of violence in civil war (Cambridge, 2006), 386.
164 S. G. Tallents to J. E. Masterson Smith, 4 July 1922, (TNA, CO 906/30).
165 Wilson, Frontiers of violence, 5.
166 Kalyvas, The logic of violence in civil war, 26.
167 Farrell, Arming the Protestants.