The White House has corrected a gaffe by Joe Biden that confused New Zealand’s All Blacks rugby team with the British military force known as the Black and Tans that terrorised Ireland.
An official transcript of the remarks released on Thursday crossed out “Black and Tans” and inserted “All Blacks” instead.
The US president made the slip during a speech in the Windsor pub in Dundalk on Wednesday night on the first day of his three-day visit to Ireland.
Biden was thanking Rob Kearney, a distant cousin who played in an Irish rugby team that beat New Zealand, for the tie he was wearing. “This was given to me by one of these guys, right here. He was a hell of a rugby player. He beat the hell out of the Black and Tans.”
Ireland’s rugby team won a famous victory against the All Blacks at Soldier Field in Chicago in 2016.
Irish rebels fought a bloody conflict against the Black and Tans – an auxiliary military force nicknamed for the colours of their uniforms – during the 1919-21 Irish war of independence.
Biden’s Irish government hosts winced but it was too late. The mistake swiftly trended on Twitter and zinged around international media coverage of the visit.
“Gaffe spoils Biden’s charm offensive,” said a Times headline. The New York Post declared it a “cringeworthy gaffe”.
In Ireland, most commentary seemed to view it as funny and harmless. The Irish Times called it a “delicious gaffe”, while the Irish Mirror said Biden had left people “in stitches”. Twitter users called it a highlight of the trip. “A fantastic Freudian slip. Good lad Joe,” said one.
At one point on Thursday, the Wikipedia entry for Black and Tans was altered to jokingly declare their “defeat” by the Irish rugby star “ending their reign of terror”.
“Rob’s skills under the high ball is commonly cited as a factor in their loss,” the entry read.
On Thursday, Biden met the Irish president, Michael D Higgins, and taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, before he was due to make a speech to a joint sitting of parliament, following in the footsteps of John F Kennedy in 1963, Ronald Reagan in 1984 and Bill Clinton in 1995.
On Friday, he will fly to County Mayo and tour the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Knock, a Catholic shrine, and meet distant relatives before making a speech at St Muredach’s Cathedral in Ballina and returning to the US.
