Trenchcoat thug

[dr greg]

I was just watching the excellent Ken Loach film about the Irish Civil War,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wind_That_Shakes_the_Barley_(film)
and there's a scene where a landowner is made to read out a letter he sent to the British about local IRA men, in which he refers to their leader being a "Trenchcoat thug". Since this is set in 1920/21 just after the First War, I wonder how an officer's coat worn by 'gentlemen' in that period could have so quickly acquired a sinister association.
Even in the 40's films it's usually the hero who wears one as we all know, and I know the film-maker is well-known for his attention to detail so it seems a strange term to use....anybody got any ideas on this?

 

[Flat Foot Floey]

I didn't see the movie and I don't have big knowledge on the subject. Just today I learned a little more from Edward who told about the "black and tans"

I can only imagine that former soldiers who lived through the First WW had problems to fit in afterwards. Once trained to kill and traumatized in the war the could become violent and unscrupulous. Of course not all of them but some.

 

[Edward]

Trenchcoats were common civilian wear in Ireland in the period. The Irish Republican Army established in 1918ish from the ruins of the several organisations that fell in the aftermath of the 16 Rising (or, indeed, disappeared into the British Army) didn't have a uniform as such - in their guerilla war (the Irish War of Independence, 1919-21) against British rule in Ireland they wore civilian clothing, a common outfit being a tweed suit, a pair of sensible brogues, a trench coat with a Sam Brown belt (late 19th Century Mausers were a very popular sidearm among those boys) and a flat / eight panel cap. This common civilian look, modelled in many photographs of Ra men from the period, came to be a stereotype.... a bit like how in the 50s and Sixties leather jackets would come to be associated with motorcycle gangs, whomever wore them in reality. While by 1918 (at least outside of the Six Counties where things were always much more nuanced) the vast majority of the country supported the cause of Independence, there were certainly those who preferred the status quo - hence pejorative terms like "thug". "Trenchcoat thug" here is used on the same way as "leather jacketed hooligan" might have been in Hollister in 1948.

Loach's film is actually an excellent representation of the period. It has been accused of being "pro-Republican", though to my mind that would be like saying a film about the American Civil War is pro-American.... its' a story about the IRA of the period themselves (which, whatever conclusion you may come to based on The Sort Of Opinions That Shall Not Be Discussed Here, should not be confused with the organisation of the same name which was active in the Six Counties on more recent times. That sort of talk will very quickly get you a thick ear in parts of the South. ). It does to some extent cartoonise the Black and Tans (though there is a small reference to the background these men came from, which nods to the fact that most of them probably had severe PTSD of one sort or another, hence a lot of their brutality). Where it excels is in its treatment of the various factions within the republican movement. In most places in the world, the left and nationalism are not often found to work together: in Ireland in the revolutionary period, they were very much (uneasy) bedfellows. Just as James Connolly of the Irish Citizen Army (himself a Scot) had before them, many of the IRA men who fought for their independence from Britain believed in the cause of establishing a socialist republic, and that getting the Brits out was merely the first step in creating the conditions to do so, rather than an end in itself. The scene towards the end where they debate the 21 Treaty is very well played out, covering extremely well all the views at the time, from those who saw it as a sell out to those who took a more pragmatic approach. I enjoyed how this film deals with "ordinary people" rather than the DeVs and Micks of the leadership level. I'd be very surprised if Loach wasn't significantly influenced by Sean O'Casey's later work.

I studied Ireland in the period 1880ish-1923 (and later) extensively at school, and still maintain a real interest in it. This is one film I would very much recommend as having a real sense of how the Irish militants felt at the time, and the various issues they faced. If you're interested, also see if you can find the made for TV The Treaty (a joint RTE/ UTV project from about 1990) which is without a single exception the most historically accurate piece I have ever seen put on screen. Beautifully done, with every historical detail of the political negotiations on the Anglo Irish Treaty intact. A better representation than the Nial Jordan Michael Collins film (although the latter - two glaring errors aside, those being the car bomb, something that wasn't used until the 1970s, and the armoured car in Croke Park on Bloody Sunday (it actually fired from outside the grounds - the firing inside was done by Tans who marched in and turned rifles on the crowd - a reprisal for a planned "execution" by Collins' men of a key group of British Intelligence men in Dublin) - wasn't bad, for a Hollywood movie, in most respects. Most of the major historical details were correct - Collins really did have the opportunity and the brass neck to get into Dublin Castle during the 1919-21 war).

 

[Edward]

Might I also just add that for those of us who grew up in Northern Ireland especially (and the wider British Isles), this can be rather a sensitive subject... I'd like to be clear that I'm not intending to express an opinion here other than one as to the accuracy of the film in question in relation to its depiction of historical events and issues at the time. I'd appreciate it if this is not taken as an invitation to air political opinions on these issues as they sit today... Let's not make life difficult for the mods, who I'm sure have enough on their plates!

 

[dr greg]

I did see THE TREATY, thought it an excellent film, and that period has always interested me for some reason, probably because 'The Tans' were a bit of a boogeyman on the irish side of our family...

 

[Edward]

I did see THE TREATY, thought it an excellent film, and that period has always interested me for some reason, probably because 'The Tans' were a bit of a boogeyman on the irish side of our family...

I've met a surprising number of people in various places who had relatives left Ireland in that period, for one reason and another, often, but not exclusively, connected to various involvements in the political struggles of the day. It certainly is a fascinating period.... also a sad one, the level of violence that happened on both sides, as in so many conflicts the world over, over something as ultimately ephemeral as "country".