US President Joe Biden visits the Food House while on a walkabout through Dundalk, County Louth, in Ireland on April 12. The Black and Tans were part-time officers recruited to bolster Royal Irish Constabulary in Ireland during the War of Independence, many of whom gained a violent reputation and were reviled by the nationalists. Mr Biden mixed up the nickname of the New Zealand team, the All Blacks, with the Black and Tans. He was thanking relative and former Irish rugby player Rob Kearney for the gift of the Irish team tie after a victory against the New Zealand rugby team at Soldier Field in Chicago in 2016.
Mr Biden was speaking at the Windsor Bar in Dundalk, when he referred to the shamrock tie that he was wearing. The President confused the name of the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team with a contentious War of Independence-era military force in Ireland. Mr Biden went into McAteers the Food House restaurant on the same street shortly before 7.15pm, where he chatted with staff.įormer Irish rugby player Rob Kearney was among those accompanying Mr Biden as he stopped in the town. In Dundalk, members of the public in ponchos and raincoats had been waiting to greet the US President with a sign hung above Clanbrassil Street reading: “Dundalk welcomes President Biden”. Joe Biden visits ancestral home town in Ireland
