[Deadman]

First things first
"or even the chit-chat of a bunch of lads after a game of hockey"
hockey? good god thats hurling! The greatest sport ever played. hockey indeed.

"the fact that these 3000 or so British irregulars had come through the Great War and its horrors and returned home to a depressed economy that had little work for them, and so they accepted the extremely dangerous assignment of policing Ireland for decent pay but little or no security or backup"

the black and tans were mostly not involved in the great war, they were prisonersc who were given the option of jail or being sent to Ireland when The great war started due to lack of army personnel in the British army. Only ranking officers and up within the black and tans would have been actual british army servicemen.

Good review other than these few points.

Oh also just a liitle aside, Loach is British, not Irish, just found that interesting myself.