Oh Brad you're so easily bought. Tis true the very mention of the name Black and Tans gets Irish people frothing at the mouth, but for good reasons. (They were a forerunner of later thug'ish outfits e.g Waffen SS). Memory of what they did lingers for some still...my cousin can cite horrific stories of when they ransacked our hometown and literally dragged innocent people out of pubs and shot them there and then. Or threw them in the river. It reminds me of what the Nazis did in Russia to Jewish people though not on  the same scale. But then again we gave as good as we got...there were no prisoners taken on either side. Dan if you wanted to read some good books on that period as you travel around west Cork I can offer some suggestions. Just don't go eating Ben and Jerry's while roaming through Beal na mBlath or Cill Mhichill, Cassandra but you'd be okay eating it in Dublin... we Corkonians are more hot-headed