Joe Biden has confused the New Zealand national rugby team with an infamous British paramilitary outfit that operated in Ireland in the 20th Century.
Speaking in Dublin on Wednesday, Biden, who is currently on a four day tour of the island of Ireland, visiting both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, made a comment referring to his cousin, Rob Kearney, a member of the Irish national rugby team.
In 2016, Kearney, along with his team-mates, roundly defeated the New Zealand national rugby team, known as one of the best teams in the world at the sport. “He was a hell of a rugby player, and he beat the hell out of the Black and Tans,” Biden said to the crowd in Dublin.
However, “Black and Tans” is not the nickname of the New Zealand rugby team, whose actual nickname is the All Blacks. The Black and Tans were, instead, a controversial outfit of the Royal Irish Constabulary, featuring men recruited from the rest of Great Britain, to help combat the IRA during the Irish War of Independence in 1920 and 1921.
The Black and Tans were marred in controversy, engaging in arbritrary civilian reprisals in response to suspected IRA attacks. The group is now mostly known to this day through a traditional Irish nationalist folk song, “Come Out Ye Black And Tans.”
In Ireland, Biden told a story about a rugby player who "beat the hell out of the Black and Tans."
Except he meant New Zealand's "All Blacks" rugby team. "Black and Tans" were a unit of the British military that fought the Irish Republican Army. pic.twitter.com/1KYQaUPhNy
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 13, 2023
In yet another incoherent babble at an Irish pub Joe Biden speaks of his delight at Ireland beating the “hell out of the Black and Tans”.
He meant the All Blacks of New Zealand.
The Black and Tans were a British unit during the 1919-21 Irish independence war.
Utter embarrassment. pic.twitter.com/MBzCBOMVsG— Darren Grimes (@darrengrimes_) April 13, 2023
Joe Biden mixing up the “Black and Tans” (infamous arm of the British military police that killed thousands of Irish during their occupation of Ireland) with the “All Blacks” (NZ rugby team)
very normal behavior from a sitting US president seeking to run again in 2024👍🏻👍🏻 pic.twitter.com/3SEWumJBp8
— will 🕊 (@willobri) April 12, 2023
In the released scripts of the event posted afterwards on the official White House website, the gaffe was noticed, and corrected for Biden to say the All Blacks instead.
Tom Elliot, an MLA for the Ulster Unionist Party, said it was “unfortunate” for Biden to go off script, and make multiple gaffes. “What really annoys me is that most of these gaffes are against the British, or the unionist community,” Elliot said.
“Comments like that about the Black and Tans… I think it demonstrates that he just has a deep-rooted Irishness, and that he’s obviously on the side of the nationalist community, as being opposed to having any unionist sympathies whatsoever,” he added. “That’s what frustrates the unionist community.”
Joe Biden appeared to confuse the All Blacks and the Black and Tans during a speech at an Irish pub.
Ulster Unionist Party MLA Tom Elliot: “Comments like that demonstrate that he has a deep rooted Irishness and that he is on the side of the nationalist community.”@JuliaHB1 pic.twitter.com/hN0VPqBpWI
— TalkTV (@TalkTV) April 13, 2023
Biden’s remarks come after he was attacked by top unionist politicians, including Arlene Foster, the former First Minister of Northern Ireland.
“The Belfast Agreement is very clear that Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom, until such times that people in Northern Ireland decide otherwise,” Foster said, adding that Biden has repeatedly engaged in “dismissal” against the British community in Northern Ireland. “He hates the United Kingdom. I don’t think there’s any doubt about that,” she added.
Sammy Wilson, an MP for the DUP in Westminster, appeared to agree with Foster, slamming Biden as “anti-British,” adding that he has made his “antipathy towards Protestants” well known. “He has fully backed the EU in this whole Protocol process,” he added. “He’s refusing to come to the Coronation. I don’t think any of us are rushing through the door to greet him.”
