Come out Ye Black and Tans

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Come Out Ye Black and Tans (sometimes Black and Tan) is an Irish rebel song referring to the Black and Tans, the British paramilitary police auxiliary force in Ireland during the 1920s. The song was written by Dominic Behan as a tribute to his father Stephen.

The lyrics are rich with references to the history of Irish nationalism and the activities of the British army throughout the world. While the title of the song refers to the Black and Tans of the War of Independence era, the specific context of the song is a dispute between Irish Republican and loyalist neighbours in inner city Dublin in the 1930s. The actual term "Black and Tan" originated from the lack of coordination of the British army with their uniforms. The troops stationed in Killeshandra wore a mix of black uniforms and tan (khaki) uniforms.

The song begins, "I was born in Dublin street, where the loyal drums did beat and the loving English feet marched all over us". The narrator's father, coming home from the pub, "would invite the neighbours outside" with the words;

Come out ye Black and Tans
come out and fight me like a man
show your wife how you won medals out in Flanders
tell her how the IRA made you run like hell away
from the green and lovely lanes in Killeshandra.

The reference to Flanders alludes to the neighbour's service in the British Army in the First World War. Killeshandra is a town in west Cavan likely to have been the scene of a successful IRA operation during the War of Independence. The service of the British Army in colonial wars against the Arabs and Zulus is also mocked, as the "natives" had "spears and bow and arrows" while the British "bravely faced each one, with your 16 pounder gun". The reference to "Arabs" probably refers to the counter insurgency campaign fought by the British against Arab guerrillas in the contemporary British Mandate of Palestine. Many of the actual Black and Tans served in Palestine after their time in Ireland.

The song goes on to describe the neighbour's previous gloating at the defeats of Irish nationalism, "when you thought us well and truly persecuted", for instance, when they "slandered great Parnell". However alongside the bitterness evoked in such sentiments is a triumphalism, borne of the fact that loyalists are a small minority in post-independence Ireland. The narrator asks, "where are the sneers and jeers, that you bravely let us hear, when our leaders of '16 were executed?". The implication is that the neighbours, no longer backed by the British state, no longer have confidence to express such sentiments in public.

The song closes on a hopeful note, promising that the time is coming when, "all traitors will be cast aside before us". The narrator promises that his children will say "God Speed" [i.e. go home], with the same song that his father used to sing to his loyalist neighbours.