Sir,—Compliments to Seán Bernard Newman on his excellent article on the Ulster Special Constabulary. He is correct that the weapons toted by the half-squad of B Specials (HI 29.2, March/April 2021, p. 35) are not the standard government-issued short magazine Lee Enfield rifles (SMLEs), but nor are they ‘Larne era’. They appear to be Lee Enfield Carbine Mk1 .303 rifles, which until the summer of 1920 would have been used by the regular RIC.—Yours etc.,
PÁDRAIG ÓG Ó RUAIRC