Tipperary

I have been reading, on a rather stop-go basis, a book about how Ireland got its independence after the First World War. By one Maurice Walsh, who spins things out a bit, but tells an interesting enough story along the way. I share two factlets about Tipperary.

First, the famous song about the place was composed overnight by a music hall gent. for a bet before the First World War, was made famous by a famous tenor of the time, sold tens of thousands of copies in sheet music form (so presumably a good earner for someone) and became one of the most popular songs of both the British and French armies on the Western Front.

Second, one of the first blows for independence after the war, that is to say after the British had already conceded the point in principle (having finally struck down the forces of reaction in the then hereditary House of Lords), but who did not care to be pushed, was the murder of two Irish policemen on a routine detail to guard the (horse drawn) transport of some gelignite from the barracks in Tipperary to a nearby quarry. The policemen in question were local men, quite possibly the sons of local farmers who had thought that life as country policemen, looking after drunks, poaching and stolen livestock might be a softer option than slaving away in the fields. Most of Ireland was shocked by this brutal murder of two more or less innocent men - but it served to set the tone for the brutality, savagery and murders which were to come in the years that followed.

I should perhaps add that the police in the Ireland of the time were rather closer to being soldiers than was the case in the mainland. They were armed and lived in (mostly small) barracks. Nevertheless, out in the country and troubles aside, much like country policemen everywhere.