Jimmy, I'll shout you a drink, anyday.

I put the comment about the "Black Watch" & the "Black & Tans" in there because I have heard this before...most recently from a fellow at my church (oddly enough, it's an Episcopal Church), who is very pro-Fenian, IRA, etc. I set him straight on that PDQ, that the BW and the Black & Tans were not the same thing.

Collins may have been thinking of the Argylls -- I know that the story that the jewel of the film "The Quiet Man" is based on, "Green Rashes", has a character in it who is an officer in the A & S.

Irish history is very fascinating -- and it should always be studied with an objective and jaundiced eye, because as you state, there is a lot of myth & legend in there as well.

And the same goes wi' me as far as political postings -- I come from a long line of Ulser & Scottish Presbyterians, so I usually tend to bleed "orange and blue" instead of "green" - but, on the same token, I follow Burns's philosphy "...that man to man, the world o'er, shall brithers be for a' that."

Cheers, Jimmy, and Good on ya!

T.