‘That memorable day when Irish rugby beat the Hells Blacks and Tans’: Twitter erupts with memes after Joe Biden confusing the All Blacks with British paramilitaries as he praises his cousin Rob Kearney
Twitter erupted with memes after Joe Biden appeared to mistook New Zealand’s All Blacks rugby team with British paramilitary force ‘The Black and Tans’ during a speech in an Irish pub.
The US president was paying tribute to distant relative and Irish rugby star Rob Kearney, before referring to a match between Ireland and New Zealand played at Soldier Field in Chicago in 2016.
He would talk about his heritage and notions of Irishness to a crowded Windsor Restaurant and Bar in Dundalk, County Louth, before describing how Kearney gave him his shamrock tie.
But Biden said, “This was given to me by one of those guys who, right here, was a hell of a rugby player.” The Hellfire has been defeated by the Black and Tans.
Social media users quickly created a wave of hilarious memes highlighting the president’s mistake.
US President Joe Biden is pictured during his speech in front of a packed pub in Dundalk, Ireland, yesterday
Kearney, who was named European Footballer of the Year 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 beaten New Zealand.
But Biden’s obfuscation of history also had a dark side.
The Black and Tans were a notorious group of policemen recruited to help the British cause during the Irish War of Independence – the 1919-1921 battle between the Irish Republican Army and British forces.
A July 1921 ceasefire divided the island, 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 to defeat the Irish Republican Army. Their name came from their uniform: a mixture of the dark green of the RIC, which looked black, and the brown of the British Army.
Their fighting was so ferocious that rumors spread that they had been recruited from British prisons.
They were known for their brutality and took reprisals against civilians they believed were supporting the IRA.
Public opinion in the United Kingdom and Ireland was widely opposed to their actions.
The unit was disbanded in 1922, but to this day they remain Black and Tans shorthand for hyperviolence, and their role in the war remains controversial.
The troops are immortalized in the popular Irish rebel song “Come Out, Ye Black And Tans”.
