IRISH REBEL SONG Come Out Ye Black And Tans has reached No. 1 in the UK and Irish iTunes charts in the wake of controversy over the planned commemorations event for the Royal Irish Constabulary and Dublin Metropolitan Police.
The Government was heavily criticised for planning the event in recent days – first for holding the event in the first place, and then its doubling down on why it was holding the ceremony.
Historian Diarmaid Ferriter – a member of the Expert Advisory Group set up by the government for its Decade of Centenaries – told TheJournal.ie that the group did not recommend the planned Dublin Castle commemoration.
A few hours later, the government performed a u-turn and cancelled the event until further notice.
Since the cancellation, The Wolfe Tones’ version of the rebel song Come Out Ye Black And Tans has topped both the Irish and UK iTunes charts.
Responding on Twitter, the band said: “Come Out Ye Black n Tans No. 1 in Ireland…Fine Gael got their answer”.
The song was first released in 1972 by the Wolfe Tones and refers to the notorious British officers recruited to bolster RIC ranks during the War of Independence.
Last March, actor Steve Coogan performed the song while dressed as an Irish farmer on an episode of Alan Partridge.
Partridge creator Coogan – playing the Irish farmer – hijacks the remaining airtime and proceeds to belt out an unrelenting medley of increasingly controversial ballads, including Come Out Ye Black And Tans.
Last year, the song was also used in an advertisement for Brady’s Ham in which deli butchers belt out a version of the song, replacing the word Tan with Ham.
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