President Joe Biden made a gaffe during his visit to Ireland on Wednesday as he confused a rugby team with a controversial 1920s-era British police force.
Biden was speaking at the Windsor Bar in Dundalk, Ireland, when he appeared to mistake New Zealand’s All Blacks rugby team with the Black and Tans, a brutal force deployed against rebels during the Irish War of Independence.
The US president had been thanking his distant relative and former Irish rugby player Rob Kearney for gifting him the shamrock tie that he was wearing.
He received the Irish team tie after they won against New Zealand at Soldier Field in Chicago in November 2016. The victory marked Ireland’s victory over the legendary All Blacks for the first time in 111 years.
“See this tie I have, this shamrock tie?” Biden said.
“It was given to by one of these guys right here, who’s a hell of a rugby player who beat the hell out of the Black and Tans.”
He corrected himself before adding that he wore the tie “with great pride.”
The Black and Tans were officers recruited to bolster Royal Irish Constabulary numbers during the 1919-1921 Irish War of Independence. Many of them gained a violent reputation.
White House official Amanda Sloat later defended Biden’s mishap, saying: “I think for everyone in Ireland who was a rugby fan, it was incredibly clear that the president was talking about the All Blacks and Ireland’s defeat of the New Zealand team.”
However, he did not avoid ridicule on social media, with Irish comedian Oliver Callan tweeting: “The greatest gift Ireland wanted from Joe Biden was a signature gaffe. And be the holies didn’t he just go and give us one for the century.”
Biden is a keen rugby fan and previously admitted to even playing the sport…
Read the full article here