Don’t order a Black and Tan. Now that wasn’t so difficult. I wish I had read this before I left for my recent trip to Ireland. Unfortunately I learned this lesson, as I so often do, the hard way. (Continue reading)
Middle of the Freakin Road
At the Crossroads of Common and Sense
How not to get tossed out of a pub in Ireland
Great tip for all the beer lovers out there…like me!
Posted by mindslam | March 17, 2011, 7:57 amIt always helps to learn from other’s mistakes so I’ll keep making them.
Posted by Thomas | March 17, 2011, 11:39 am“The movie takes place during the same time period when the Black and Tans were, depending on your point of view in these matters, either terrorizing the countryside or defending the honor of the king.”
Dude: defending the honour of the king?
You wouldn’t find any British person nowadays with that “point of view” – the atrocities commited by the Black and Tans are considered a stain on the nation’s history. Even back in the 1920s many British politicians were appalled by their conduct and saw them as dishonouring the Commonwealth, that resorting to such brutal methods to subjugate a people into their supposedly more civilised realm flew in the face of everything Britain was supposed to embody.
Abducting and torturing civilians, destroying local shops and businesses by setting them on fire, burning families out of their homes, shooting wayfarers on sight, firing into the crowd at sports games and randomly massacring spectators . . . I understand your wanting to take the misty-eyedness of Ken Loach’s version with a pinch of salt, but to assert that any of these incidents could be construed as defending honour is offensive. Older people here still mourn this part of their history, it’s therefore treated respectfully by younger people too.
Posted by tiggyt | March 22, 2011, 11:03 pmI don’t pretend to speak for everyone. Thank you for your impassioned comment.
Posted by Thomas | March 22, 2011, 11:08 pmGuinness & Harp = 1/2 & 1/2
Guinness & English Ale/Lager = Black & Tan
I know some pubs in the U.S. where you’d get the same reaction
as you did in Ireland
Cheers
Posted by Bob McDonough | April 1, 2011, 10:57 amOne bartender did ask if I wanted a 1/2 and 1/2 but I thought that was a shandy. Thanks for the tip.
Posted by Thomas | April 1, 2011, 11:33 am