Outrage as Nike issue 'Black and Tan' sneaker line for St. Patrick’s Day

Psssst! James! As if your post wasn't bad enough, your glorious leader Niall has taken it Hostage and has hacked it out as his own! ! ! Jolly bad show,what-what?

@Barneyjo: Well said. Irish Central barely raise an eyebrow at a drink called an Irish Car Bomb but a drink called Black & Tan now that's different. Even though that drink existed long before the Black & Tans paramilitary unit. Hmmm, I wonder why that could be??

You know what?? I find it striking that there wasnt the same level of anxiety shown when people flagged the "Irish Bomb" cocktail as an offensive term.

Here...here for borefield!! Well said!! Yes, just about "every ethnic group" (especially blacks & mid-easetern Arabs,etc) will scream & holler over everything! The Irish have a right to be upset. I'm American of Irish descent (2nd generation) and even I'm upset! I go over to Ireland often...I've heard this ordered in the pubs & yes I do know the "history of what the evil Black & Tan British troops did to the Irish". That was why I asked if it was "rude to order a Balck & "Tan in a pub"....because I was surprised the 1st time I heard it. OK, so maybe it is "just a drink", but naming the shoes is "politically incorrect". But I'd say the Irish shouldn't worry because form the looks of the shoes it'll be only the the "home boys & gansta's" here in the US who will buy the things!! The ones usually buyiung these types of shoes....punks!!

SO they only loaned, not gifted 300m? Very stingy of them. And the billions to bail out the banks which couldn't get their money back from their borrowers (the Irish people) came from their borrowers (the Irish people). That makes a lot of sense.

jonny b dfor your information the brits are required to give that money as a loan which they will be repayed with interest. The billions to bail out the banks came out of the pockets or Iriah peole so get your facts right.

@springfield. what the hell are you talking about? I live in Limerick but the Black and tans permeated all of irish Life when they were let loose by the british establishment.

Ditto to Citizen69!

How is it that people overlook the fact that the "Black and Tans" were (originally) a pack of hounds from Limerick?

Teacher1101 says “Leave it to Nike”. Nobody Irish person complains about Guinness... watching a pint of it settle oodles black and tan. I’ve heard pub customers call for a pint of Black & Tan and the barman knows it means Guinness. It’s just another Nike commercial name, not an Irish political allusion.

Seems we're falling over ourselves to be 'outraged' these days! Outrage over a silly hat, outrage over an Obama t-shirt using a four leaf clover, now outrage over the colour of a pair of sneakers. "It would be the American equivalent of calling a sneaker 'the al-Qaeda'"... get a grip.

Yes Silling. Boycott all things British. Oh wait, does that include the £300m those nasty Brits gave last year to bail out the Irish banks? Should we give it back?

The boys that beat the Black and Tans were the boys from the County Cork. (line from a song) But wait, sure the queen has only just visited the Rebel County and was as welcome as the flowers of May. If America was a British Colony, the Irish would still be there just as they are in Australia, New Zealand and indeed in England. If we need to protest against the British, then boycott not Nike, but all things English. Incidentally, J'etais nee en Irlande et J'habite dehors le pays, mais en France et pas dans un pays Anglophone comme vous. Tir gan teanga is tir gan ainm, America is British always was always will be, W.A.S.P.S. Make a real protest, and abandon the Brits.

Richard Cahill you are an ass- The memory of the Black and Tans should never become a "a 90 year old bad memeory" any more than what the Germans did to the Jews, Gypsys, insane and anyone else who they wanted to kill off become "just a memory" If we forget the past we are bound to repeat it!

To Marcella who said, "I choose to honor the countless people murdered, terrorized and wrongfully abused by the black & tans (sadly some of these goons were irish) by not making light of that phrase." Maith Thu! As for Nike-directed outrage,....seriously? Millions of Irish-Americans are ignorant of Irish history and drink not only Black and Tans, but Irish Car Bombs with fervor. Like Marcella, I choose not to, just like I'll choose not to buy the Nike Black and Tans. Sometimes a shoe is just a shoe and not an ethnic insult.