It looked like Joe Biden was about to make it through his trip to Belfast and Dublin entirely gaffe-free. Almost. That was until last night, when the US President congratulated his distant cousin, Irish rugby player Rob Kearney, on “beat[ing] the hell out of the Black and Tans“. A heck of an achievement considering the Black and Tans disbanded about a century ago. 

The White House has quietly corrected the record in their official transcript, adding that the 80-year old leader of the free world actually meant the All-Blacks. For the benefit of Joe, the Black and Tans were British recruits sent to Ireland during the War of Independence. They had a habit of beating and torturing patriotic Irishmen who sought their country’s independence. The All-Blacks are New Zealand’s national rugby union team. To be fair to Biden, the Irish rugby team did give the All-Blacks an historic beating on their own soil for the first time last summer, dubbed the ”Disaster in Dunedin’ by local Kiwi media. The country practically went into a state of mourning, with the New Zealand flag outside their rugby ground even lowered to half-mast. Easy to confuse the two…