Who were the longtails in ireland ???

Question

were they the black and tans?

Answer 1

They could be the tans. The berret worn by the tans had a long lanyard down the back thats similar to the irish officers of today. Thisw could give rise to the phrase long tails. It could also refer to the wigs worn by the legal profession, and judges here.

Answer 2

Well, "longtails" were a euphemism for "rat" on the Isle of Man.  Sailors on a ship were not allowed to use certain words for fear of bad luck, so they could not say the word "rat" and said "longtail" instead.  Apparently, even today, people on the Isle of Man (or any other area that uses Manx dialect) will only refer to rats as "longtails" or by spelling the word.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a native of Kent (England) would often be referred to as a "longtail," based on the joke that people from Kent had tails.  This originated in France, who made this joke about Englishmen in general.

So, if you came across something that referred to a certain police or army unit as "longtails," it is PROBABLY either an indication that they were from Kent, or just a general reference to them being English.  It is unlikely that there would be some big group of guys who came over from the Isle of Man to work with the black & tans!  

Still, it's very strange that even the OED (a major authority on all words, including slang), wouldn't have ANY reference to "longtail" in relation to Irish history, so you might want to check your source.

Answer 3

no they were not , black and tans where a gov; force who went out looking for the ira and fought them , i have lived here for 60 years and never heard of them

Answer 4

Longtails were a type of bird in Ireland.

Here is a website link giving all the birds in Irealand. Scroll down, the longtails are nearly down at the bottom of the page. Here is a few brief details with the website link underneath.

Order: Passeriformes Family: Aegithalidae

Long-tailed **** are a group of small passerine birds with medium to long tails. They make woven bag nests in trees. Most eat a mixed diet that includes insects. There are 9 species worldwide and 1 species which occured in Ireland.

Long-tailed t*t Aegithalos caudatus

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bir...