THE British Army used “spin” for the first time during the Irish war of independence, according to Dr Brian P Murphy, a leading historian, who says the propaganda is still causing confusion.

Murphy has uncovered documents in the British national archives that he claims reveal the workings of a “department of publicity” that invented “official reports” of events between 1919 and 1921. Many of these reports, as well as forged

IRA documents, have been accepted as historical fact, he says. The black propaganda unit was under the command of Basil Clarke.

Although propaganda was disseminated in earlier conflicts this is believed to be the first time the British used more underhand methods. They were competing with Sinn Fein’s propaganda machine in a battle for British and world opinion.

Murphy said: “This was a highly organised unit divided into three sections and located at army headquarters in Parkgate Street, in Dublin Castle and in the Irish office, London.

“From the files in the archive in London, you can discern the complicated manner in which this department, numbering no more than 10 permanent members, operated.”

Murphy says the unit developed an “official report” system, fabricating events for both external and internal dissemination. The reports were designed to undermine the IRA, and also to boost morale in the police force and among auxiliaries. “Unfortunately these reports have in recent years formed the basis of what are perceived as reliable historical accounts,” said Murphy, a member of Glenstal Abbey community.

He believes the British spin machine went to work to lessen negative publicity over the torture and killing, by British forces, of Tom Hales, a Sinn Fein member. They also tried to soften the impact of the events of Bloody Sunday 1920, when the Black and Tans killed 12 spectators and one player at a football match in Croke Park.

The historian says his new evidence debunks recent theories based on British military accounts of the ambush at Kilmichael. These “official reports” portray Tom Barry, the commander of an IRA flying column, as demanding that no prisoner be taken, even though British soldiers had surrendered. Seventeen auxiliaries were killed by the IRA during the ambush. Murphy says it is now clear that this report was not compiled by field commanders but by the publicity department, which also distributed counterfeit editions of Sinn Fein’s daily news sheet.

Colonel Charles Foulkes, the officer in charge of British chemical warfare during the first world war, was one of the department’s key operators and revelled in his work. In an internal memo that he wrote in 1921 to a fellow officer, Foulkes states: “You may remember me in connection with chemical warfare in France. I am now running a variation of this sport, ie propaganda in Ireland.”

Foulkes first came up with the idea of distributing leaflets from the air calling for local IRA units to surrender. The ploy met with little success and the unit then seems to have concentrated on subverting media coverage of events.

Murphy said: “This unit marks a very important stage in the development of British propaganda methods where competing versions of events vied for the attention of the British and world public.

“Its work ranged form forging ‘stolen’ IRA documents to writing articles that were carried in newspapers. It is a form of atrocity propaganda that would also be used in the British Empire’s conflicts in Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan.”

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