Not related to the civil war but a while ago it was discovered tha Ernesto 'Che' Guevarra landed in Shannon during the sixties, had his plane delayed by fog and, with the rest of the passengers of the flight, was put up in a hotel in Kilkee for the night. Ofcourse, a famous person staying in a place is something that can be milked and a large mural of Jim Fitzpatrick's iconic portrait of the man went up as a mural on the sea wall. American tourists complained and the council had it painted over promptly. Big protests followed and a whole new series of murals went up all over the town (spent the last twenty minutes trying to locate the photos but couldn't bring them up, maybe later), which were allowed to stay.I have to wonder if pressure from the states to bury recollections of the civil war had an effect on Ireland: tourists want thatched cottages, not bitter grudges. Ireland should be wealthy enough now to tell the states to feck off.
American tourist have also been known to complain people serving them in pubs and restaurants were, god forbid, Eastern European. Not the 'real' Irish experience, they felt. Well, guess what? It is. Get used to it.