‘That memorable day when Rob Kearney single-handedly beat the Black and Tans’: Twitter erupts with memes after Joe Biden confused All Blacks with British paramilitary force as he praised his Irish rugby playing cousin
Twitter has erupted with memes after Joe Biden appeared to mistake New Zealand‘s All Blacks rugby team with the British paramilitary force ‘the Black and Tans’ during a speech at an Irish pub.
The US president was paying tribute to distant relative and Irish rugby star Rob Kearney, before referencing a match between Ireland and New Zealand played at Soldier Field in Chicago in 2016.
He was speaking about his heritage and notions of Irishness to a packed Windsor Bar and Restaurant in Dundalk, County Louth, before describing how the shamrock tie he was wearing was given to him by Kearney.
But Biden said: ‘This was given to me by one of these guys, right here, was a hell of a rugby player. He beat the hell out of the Black and Tans.’
Social media users have quickly created a flurry of hilarious memes highlighting the president’s error.
US President Joe Biden pictured during his speech to the packed pub in Dundalk, Ireland, yesterday
Kearney, voted Europe’s best player in 2012, played a pivotal role in Ireland’s defeat of the All Blacks – the New Zealand national team – in November 2016, in Chicago.
It was the first time that Ireland had ever beaten the New Zealand side.
But Biden’s muddling of history also had a darker side.
The Black and Tans were a notorious group of constables enlisted to help the British cause during the Irish War of Independence – the 1919-21 battle between the Irish Republican Army and the British forces.
The July 1921 ceasefire saw the island divided, with Northern Ireland remaining under British control and the south gaining independence.
The Black and Tans – officially part of the Royal Irish Constabulary – were a group of 10,000 men recruited from Britain to try and defeat the IRA. Their name came from their uniforms: a mix of the dark green of the RIC, which looked black, and the tan color of the British army.
Such was the ferocity of their fighting that the rumor spread that they had been recruited from British prisons.
They were well known for their brutality and enacting reprisals on civilians they believed supported the IRA.
Public opinion in the UK and Ireland was widely disapproving of their acts.
The unit was disbanded in 1922, yet to this day the Black and Tans are a shorthand for excessive violence, and their role in the war remains contentious.
The troops were immortalized in the popular Irish rebel song, ‘Come Out, Ye Black And Tans’.
