The Burning of Trim

It's amazing what you find on the internet! Searching for material for a talk on The Black and Tans to some post-primary pupils at the weekend I found this article on the burning of Trim in 1920. The amazing thing about it is not its content but where it was printed - the front page of the New York Times on the Tuesday following the event.

The police barracks in Trim had been burned by the IRA on the Sunday morning and on Sunday night/Monday morning lorries of Black and Tans arrived and burned a large part of the town. No one was killed in either action but the bad publicity which resulted for the British side as a result of this and similar reprisals during 1920 is well illustrated by the prominence it received in America. The propaganda value of such events for the Irish rebels was great and was one of the reasons why the British eventually agreed to a Truce and then to the Treaty.

The New York Times archive is here. It seems that content before 1921 is free as it is deemed in the public domain but there is a charge for articles after 1921.

More material on the Black and Tans here.