Ben and Jerry's drop a clanger

The Ben & Jerry's ice cream company has managed to offend Irish sensibilities by introducing a new ice cream flavour: Black & Tan:

The Black and Tan ice cream is based on the alcoholic drink of the same name, which is made by mixing stout with pale ale.

But the phrase originates from the 8,000 ex-servicemen who went to Ireland to keep order as Britain attempted to control republican rebels.

The Black and Tans were recruited to support the Royal Irish Constabulary and their name came from the mixture of police uniforms and khaki that they wore.

In November 1920 they massacred 12 people at a Gaelic football match in Croke Park, Dublin. The killings were in response to the IRA murdering 14 undercover detectives.

Yesterday Michael Laffan, the head of history at University College Dublin, said: "The very name Black and Tan still has a resonance.

"This is something that would provoke a response and make hackles rise in some quarters, because they were a nasty group. They did carry out a lot of killings."

Hat tip to Nealenews.