Basil Clarke
British propaganda suffered from the fact that it was not centralised, nor was it fully professional. The Military, particularly General Macready, wanted to keep control over any news that affected the army. And in the martial law areas of the south, had absolute control over news censorship, including news out out by other government departments.
The end product was that the military, the police and the Irish Office each had what we woould call today PR departments, which worked completely independently of each other. And in may cases they were staffed by ex or serving army officers with no knowledge of the press and how the press functioned. Many of the men concerned put out wha their bosseswanted, withot much thought as to whether it would be believed or published.
So the departments involved were