US president Joe Biden has been left red-faced after confusing the All Blacks rugby team with the Black and Tans, a notorious group of British reserve troops known for their brutality during the Irish War of Independence from 1919 to 1921.
The 80-year-old is currently in Ireland and was speaking in a pub in Dundalk on Wednesday when he paid tribute to a distant relative, former Ireland fullback Rob Kearney.
Biden publicly thanked Kearney for presenting him with a tie and referred to Ireland’s famous 40-29 win over the All Blacks in Chicago back in 2016.
At the time, it was the nation’s first-ever victory over the global rugby powerhouse.
‘This was given to me by one of these guys, right here, who was a hell of a rugby player,’ Biden said.
US president Joe Biden has been left red-faced after confusing the All Blacks with the Black and Tans, a group of British reserve troops known for their brutality during the Irish War of Independence
It is safe to say the All Blacks wouldn’t want to be compared to the notorious figures from Irish history (pictured middle, star New Zealand fly-half Beauden Barrett)
A convoy of Black and Tans pictured in Dublin in 1921 during the War of Independence
‘He [Kearney] beat the hell out of the Black and Tans,’ Biden said, with his words resulting in fits of laughter from the crowd.
The Black and Tans were infamous for attacks on civilians, extrajudicial murders, arson and looting last century.
Following the embarrassing gaffe, it didn’t long for Biden to be savaged on social media.
‘The greatest gift Ireland wanted from Joe Biden was a signature gaffe. And….didn’t he just go and give us one for the century,’ comedian Oliver Callan tweeted.
Another commenter tweeted: ‘I assume Biden meant the All Blacks, but people say things like this when they have dementia.’
A third spoke for many when he posted ‘absolute comedy gold’.
Joe Biden is pictured on Wednesday at the Windsor Bar in Dundalk, Ireland with Michael Martin, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Defence
Biden is pictured welcoming his relative, Irish rugby star Rob Kearney, to the White House to celebrate St Patrick’s Day last month
Kearney (left) is pictured celebrating Ireland’s first ever defeat of the All Blacks – a 40-29 victory in a match at Chicago’s Soldier Field in 2016
Biden was also widely mocked after mispronouncing the surname of his distant relative.
He referred to the former no.15 as ‘Keer-ney’, with the correct Irish pronunciation being ‘Kar-ney’.
While some felt Biden’s remark was a clear gaffe, others thought it was a Freudian slip – and a nod by Biden to his reported pro-Ireland feelings.
Former Democratic Unionist party leader Arlene Foster said on the eve of his arrival that the US President ‘hates the UK’ – forcing Biden’s senior aide, Amanda Sloat, to insist he was ‘not anti-British’.
Yet Biden’s reference to the Black and Tans has only served to reinforce the idea of his pro-nationalist attitude.
Whether deliberate or not, his 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 (IRA) 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 to defeat the IRA.
Sir Hamar Greenwood of the Royal Irish Constabulary inspects a group of Black and Tans in January 1921. The Black and Tans were infamous for their brutality in their quest to stop Ireland gaining independence from Britain
A suspected member of Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein is searched at gunpoint by the Black and Tans in November 1920
Members of the Black and Tans are pictured with Lewis machine guns in Dublin in the early 1920s
Their name was derived from their uniforms: a mix of the dark green of the RIC, which looked black, and the tan colour of the British army.
Such was the ferocity of their fighting that the rumour 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 Tan name remains a shorthand for excessive violence.
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