Unwelcome Return of Auxiliary to Kilkenny

Unwelcome Return of Auxiliary to Kilkenny

Eamon Kiely

The British Auxiliaries or Auxies were a paramilitary unit of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC). They were founded in July 1920 by Maj Gen Henry Tudor. Made up of former British Army officers to conduct counter- insurgency operations against the IRA in the Irish War of Independence. It was semi-independent of the RIC and largely disliked by them. For one thing they were on double the RIC pay. Infamous for reprisal attacks on civilians and civilian property in revenge for IRA actions. They included extrajudicial killings and arson, most notably the burning of Cork City in Dec 1920.
One armed, that is invalided, former Temporary Cadet was Major Ewan Cameron Bruce of this unit. He was dismissed from the Division for striking a civilian without cause. Crozier, the head of the Auxiliaries, dismissed this man and also 21 others for looting. Gen Tudor reinstated the latter group and was allowing Bruce return to Ireland. Crozier disagreeing with his senior’s action and resigned himself stating his case in his book’ Ireland forever.’
Bruce returned to Kilkenny, where he had been stationed but not back to his unit. As Judge Jim Comerford states in his book ‘My Kilkenny IRA Days’ Bruce was known as a desperate character. On the 10 Oct 1920 about midnight, he saw an RIC officer named Whyte in the police barracks at John Street Kilkenny and told Whyte he was going to raid Kells creamery and asked Whyte for a police car. The latter said he had none but gave him the name of a local garage which might and did supply. This was amazing action by the head of all police in Co. Kilkenny, his knowing Bruce was no longer in the police. At 0200 hrs Bruce held up and robbed the Kells creamery. The man held up at gunpoint was the grandfather of one of our most esteemed current members of Kilkenny Archaelogical Society. Bruce was captured and charged with the robbery. County Inspector Whyte was a witness in the case and admitted he did nothing to stop the proposed raid.Bruce was convicted and sentenced to imprisonment.
Whyte had come to Kilkenny from Longford and a caution was sent from there to the local Sinn Fein in Kilkenny of Whyte’s animosity to IRA and Sinn Fein and recommending his being ambushed. This doesn’t appear to have happened. Whyte lived in some style in what became Rose Hill Hotel and later Hotel Kilkenny.
As for Bruce he musn’t have been the smartest — a one armed man isn’t the ideal for hold ups. It so resembles the killers of Field Marshal Wilson in London, one of them being ‘ar lath cos’ ie one legged. We know O’Sullivan’s fate following that action.

The two pillars of British justice in Ireland just outlined provoked Judge Comerford to state ‘Law and Order together with Peace and Justice became the regular way of life in Kilkenny shortly after the British Crown Forces and their satellites cleared out of the area’.

The British Auxiliaries or Auxies were a paramilitary unit of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC). They were founded in July 1920 by Maj Gen Henry Tudor. Made up of former British Army officers to conduct counter- insurgency operations against the IRA in the Irish War of Independence. It was semi-independent of the RIC and largely disliked by them. For one thing they were on double the RIC pay. Infamous for reprisal attacks on civilians and civilian property in revenge for IRA actions. They included extrajudicial killings and arson, most notably the burning of Cork City in Dec 1920.
One armed, that is invalided, former Temporary Cadet was Major Ewan Cameron Bruce of this unit. He was dismissed from the Division for striking a civilian without cause. Crozier, the head-of the Auxiliaries, dismissed this man and also 21 others for looting. Gen Tudor reinstated the latter group and was allowing Bruce return to Ireland. Crozier disagreeing with his senior’s action and resigned himself stating his case in his book’ Ireland forever’
Bruce returned to Kilkenny, where he had been stationed but not back to his unit. As Judge Jim Comerford states in his book ‘My Kilkenny IRA Days’ Bruce was known as a desperate character. On the 10 Oct 1920 about midnight, he saw an RIC officer named Whyte in the police barracks at John Street Kilkenny and told Whyte he was going to raid Kells creamery and asked Whyte for a police car. The latter said he had none but gave him the name of a local garage which might and did supply. This was amazing action by the head of all police in Co. Kilkenny, his knowing Bruce was no longer in the police. At 0200 hrs Bruce held up and robbed the Kells creamery. The man held up at gunpoint was the grandfather of one of our most esteemed current members of Kilkenny Archaelogical Society. Bruce was captured and charged with the robbery. County Inspector Whyte was a witness in the case and admitted he did nothing to stop the proposed raid.Bruce was convicted and sentenced to imprisonment.
Whyte had come to Kilkenny from Longford and a caution was sent from there to the local Sinn Fein in Kilkenny of Whyte’s animosity to IRA and Sinn Fein and recommending his being ambushed. This doesn’t appear to have happened. Whyte lived in some style in what became Rose Hill Hotel and later Hotel Kilkenny.
As for Bruce he musn’t have been the smartest – a one armed man isn’t the ideal for hold ups. It so resembles the killers of Field Marshal Wilson in London, one of them being ‘ar lath cos’ le one legged. We know 0 Sullivan’s fate following that action.
The two pillars of British justice in Ireland just outlined provoked Judge Comerford to state ‘Law and Order together with Peace and Justice became the regular way of life in Kilkenny shortly after the British Crown Forces and their satellites cleared out of the area’.