I go alinear whenever anyone uses the totally politically incorrect term for a nice 1/2 & 1/2, Half Guinness and Half Smithwicks I present this snipped from a NY Times article explaining the outrage in Ireland which is celebrating the 100th Anniversary of its war for independence. The incident that has everyone going crazy is a planned commemoration ceremony for Royal Irish Constabulary Officers who died fighting on the British side. The outrage is so great that it may bring down the government in this Saturday's election.
That anger was amplified by the discovery that the 563 officers being officially commemorated would include — whether or not the government had realized it — not only Irish-born members of the Royal Irish Constabulary and Dublin Metropolitan Police, but also members of the “Black and Tans” and the Auxiliary Division. These mainly British ex-soldiers were recruited as special wartime reinforcements, and became notorious for mass reprisals and indiscriminate killings of Irish people.
“It is shocking to many to commemorate a force that aided the colonial power and the Black and Tans,” read one typical Tweet on the subject. “The French don’t commemorate Vichy!” it added, comparing the officers to the French government that collaborated with the Nazis.
Now you know why I excoriate any of you for using that "B&T" phrase and if you're in an "authentic Irish Pub" in the states and you see anything called a "B&T" on the menu, you know damn well it isn't a real Irish Pub...
That anger was amplified by the discovery that the 563 officers being officially commemorated would include — whether or not the government had realized it — not only Irish-born members of the Royal Irish Constabulary and Dublin Metropolitan Police, but also members of the “Black and Tans” and the Auxiliary Division. These mainly British ex-soldiers were recruited as special wartime reinforcements, and became notorious for mass reprisals and indiscriminate killings of Irish people.
“It is shocking to many to commemorate a force that aided the colonial power and the Black and Tans,” read one typical Tweet on the subject. “The French don’t commemorate Vichy!” it added, comparing the officers to the French government that collaborated with the Nazis.
Now you know why I excoriate any of you for using that "B&T" phrase and if you're in an "authentic Irish Pub" in the states and you see anything called a "B&T" on the menu, you know damn well it isn't a real Irish Pub...
