A note about the Black and Tan story... As we all know, from Sean Tracy's great book, or Dan Breen's book, there was different treatment of British regiments in Ireland during the 1919 Anglo Irish war, depending on how they treated civilians and Republican prisoners, for example, if memory serves, the Essex regiment were particularly despised for using a fake surrender as a way of getting Tracy's men to stand up and accept surrender, only to fire on them when they showed themselves.
When I first read the story, I though there may be an eliment of oral tradition at work here, and as the old boy got older, adopted the term Black and Tans to refer to himself, as one of any of the regiments which fought in Ireland, as an old friend of mine who fought in 1919 refered to his rifle as "my old Fienian gun", though of course he was much to young to have been involved in the Fienian uprising... to give our brother the benifit of the doubt. At least it shows the class identity we hope for, us against them (worker v. those who own our labour) eh?
Anyway, as storys go... it deserves a drink... and a song in responce.
Cheers, Larry