White House is forced to correct Joe Biden over ‘Black and Tans’ jibe

The White House has been forced to correct Joe Biden for quelling another spat after he joked about the “Black and Tans” during a pub visit in Ireland.

The US president risked a backlash over his ‘anti-British’ stance last night with remarks to a packed bar in Dundalk, County Louth.

Mr Biden said he wore a shamrock tie given to him by rugby player Rob Kearney – a distant relative – and said approvingly that he had ‘knocked the Black and Tans out of hell’.

That was an auxiliary police force sent to Ireland in the 1920s to counter IRA extremism – pilloried in Republican anthem for their brutality.

However, the White House website tried to smooth over the situation by clarifying its official record to refer to the All Blacks – the New Zealand rugby union team.

The comment provoked laughter in the pub, with Biden’s reputation as a gaffe machine casting doubt on whether it was intentional or just a slip-up.

Baroness Kate Hoey told MailOnline that the episode “underscores why so many pro-union people think he really only understands Irish republican history.”

The incident threatens to fuel tensions over Biden’s “partisan” attitude towards Northern Ireland and the Republic.

Former DUP leader Baroness 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 is “not anti-British.”

The 80-year-old is considered the most Irish of all US presidents, with 10 of his 16 great-great-grandparents hailing from the Emerald Isle.

Speaking at a pub in Dundalk, just south of the border with Northern Ireland, Biden proudly declared that Kearney, who won 95 caps for the Ireland team between 2007 and 2019, had given him the shamrock tie he was wearing.

“This was given to me by one of these guys, right here, he was a great rugby player,” Biden said.

“He beat the hell out of the Black and Tans.”

Voted Europe’s best player in 2012, Kearney played a vital role in Ireland’s defeat to the All Blacks – New Zealand’s national team – in Chicago in November 2016.

It was the first time Ireland had ever defeated the New Zealand side.

In the audited version of the speech on the White House website, the Black and Tans are crossed out and “All Blacks” is added in parentheses.

One of his senior officials, Amanda Sloat, said today, “It was clear what the president was referring to, it was certainly clear to his cousins ​​sitting next to him.”

The Black and Tans were a group of around 10,000 officers deployed to help bolster the island’s policing during the Irish War of Independence between 1919 and 1921. They were known for their ruthless handling of Republican attacks.

Many were former soldiers and their nickname came from their uniform – a mix of the dark green of the RIC, which looked black, and the tan of the British Army.

The ceasefire of July 1921 divided the island, with Northern Ireland remaining under British control and the South breaking away, and the RIC disbanded.

The group was singled out in the IRA song ‘Come Out, Ye Black And Tans’.

During the speech, Mr Biden also joked that although his father was English, his ‘saving grace was that a quarter of his family were Hanafees from Galway’.

“You know, Biden is English. I hate to tell you that,” he said, laughing.

“I don’t hate it – I’m kidding, but it’s true.”

There are fears that Joe Biden could infuriate unionists with references to his Irish heritage during his visit to Belfast.

As vice president, Biden greatly offended Northern Ireland’s trade union community when he joked at a St. Patrick’s Day event, “If you wear orange, you’re not welcome here.”

Northern Ireland’s mainly Protestant Unionist community associates with the color in celebration of William of Orange’s victory over Catholic forces at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.

As a senator in 1985, he spoke out against making it easier for IRA militants from the US to Britain, a sentiment popular with Irish-Americans but not in Britain.

He has often spoken of his mother’s hatred of England, so intense that she once refused to use a bed in which Queen Elizabeth II had slept.

In his memoir, “Promises to Keep,” he recalls his English last name, Biden, with some embarrassment.

And he describes how his Irish-American Aunt Gertie Finnegan once said to him, “Your father is not a bad man. He’s just English.’

In 2020, as president-elect, he was conducting a brutal investigation into Britain’s national broadcaster when a BBC reporter yelled a question at him. “The BBC?” he said as he continued smiling. “I’m Irish.”

Biden’s four-day trip to Ireland was officially timed to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.

He landed in Belfast on Tuesday evening and met British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in Belfast yesterday morning.

He spoke at Ulster University after meeting Sunak, but was criticized for only spending a few hours in Northern Ireland.

He then crossed the border to visit Carlingford, where his great-great-grandfather was born.

Accompanied by his sister Valerie and son Hunter, Biden then headed to Kilwirra cemetery, where his ancestors were buried, before stopping at the pub in Dundalk.

Today, Mr Biden will meet President Michael D. Higgins in Dublin and address a joint session of parliament before attending a banquet dinner at Dublin Castle.

Tomorrow the president will fly to County Mayo to visit the Shrine of Our Lady of Knock and a family heritage center.