Auxiliary Division

Auxiliary Division of the Royal Irish Constabulary
Common name	Auxiliaries
Abbreviation	ADRIC, Auxies
Badge of the Auxiliary Division of the Royal Irish Constabulary
Agency overview
Formed	1920
Dissolved	1922
Legal personality	Governmental: Government agency
Jurisdictional structure
National agency	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
Map of Auxiliary Division of the Royal Irish Constabulary's jurisdiction.
Size	84,421 km²
General nature	Law enforcement Local civilian police
Operational structure

The Auxiliary Division of the Royal Irish Constabulary (ADRIC), generally known as the Auxiliaries or Auxies, was a paramilitary unit of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) during the Irish War of Independence. It was set up in July 1920 and made up of former British Army officers, most of whom came from Great Britain. Its role was to conduct counter-insurgency operations against the Irish Republican Army (IRA). The Auxiliaries became infamous for their reprisals on civilians and civilian property in revenge for IRA actions, the most well-known example of which was the burning of Cork city in December 1920.

The Auxiliaries were distinct from the so-called Black and Tans, former soldiers recruited into the RIC as Temporary Constables. The Auxiliaries and the RIC were disbanded in early 1922, following the Anglo-Irish Treaty.

In September 1919, the Commander-in-Chief, Ireland, Sir Frederick Shaw suggested that the police force in Ireland be expanded via the recruitment of a special force of volunteer British ex-servicemen. During a Cabinet meeting on 11 May 1920, the Secretary of State for War, Winston Churchill, suggested the formation of a "Special Emergency Gendarmerie, which would become a branch of the Royal Irish Constabulary." Churchill's proposal was referred to a committee chaired by General Sir Nevil Macready, Commander-in-Chief of the British forces in Ireland. Macready's committee rejected Churchill's proposal, but it was revived two months later, in July, by the Police Adviser to the Dublin Castle administration in Ireland, Major-General H H Tudor. In a memo dated 6 July 1920, Tudor justified the scheme on the grounds that it would take too long to reinforce the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) with ordinary recruits. Tudor's new "Auxiliary Force" would be strictly temporary: its members would enlist for a year: their pay would be £7 per week (twice what a constable was paid), plus a sergeant's allowances, and would be known as "Temporary Cadets". At this time a London advertisement for ex-officers to manage coffee stalls at two pounds ten shillings a week received five thousand applicants.