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Where does the term "black Irish" come from?

I have heard one person say it is from Irish families owning black slaves and giving the black kids Irish last names. I've also heard it came from Spanish ships landing in Ireland, mating with the Irish and now many Irish people have black hair.

Update:

I have heard its the expression for the blacks who have an Irish surname like O'Neal (see names in the NBA) because their ancestors were slaves in the US to Irish families and they we given the Irish family's last name. I know it commonly is thought to describe the Irish with the really dark hair. The dark hair may be from other European countries who mated with Irish or settled in certain areas of Ireland.

6 Answers

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  • 1 decade ago

    The Irish never owned black slaves.

    It merely means an Irish person with very dark brown or black hair and either brown,green or blue eyes. Skin tone in the 'black Irish' can be from olive to milky pale.

    It's found most often in the West of Ireland--and this is where the Irish genepool is very,very old and very unmixed,tracing back to the first people who settled there over 8000 years ago. Where did these first settlers come from? Iberia. I think that gives you a pretty big clue as to why these Irish people are dark!

  • Anonymous
    4 years ago

    i'm Irish yet am no longer conscious of the expression: 'bathroom Irish' is a rude expression for usa human beings. The Spanish connection must be while the Spanish Armada became into routed while attacking uk and their ships have been compelled via climate to bypass around eire to flee. Many floundered and are meant to have landed in places like Galway and Kerry. there is credence to the story as there are place names like Spanish places, i.e., Valentia Island in Kerry. for my section, i might think of that that's only a derogatory call which suits back to while ordinarily labourers in England have been searching for accommodations basically to be greeted with indicators which examine 'No blacks, no Irish and no canines'. To be undemanding, particularly some the Irish delivered it upon themselves via their scruffy visual allure and drunkenness. an exceedingly final be conscious: an Irish baby-kisser, admittedly some years in the past now, became into quoted as saying 'eire is a banana republic without bloody bananas'.............. happy Christmas.............. p.s. I actual have examine lots of the different solutions and locate them appealing and all with a hoop of actuality approximately them, exceedingly the Black famine, the Jews and so on., pretending to be Irish. All great stuff and no offense by any ability taken. I continuously believed that dark skinned and dark haired Irish human beings have been decendants of the Celtic race at the same time as the honest skinned and honest haired have been of Nordic good............

  • 1 decade ago

    It's generally thought that the "Black Irish" are those who bear the last vestiges of the pre-Celtic blood lines in Ireland. Generally, they're said to have dark hair, pale skin, a low hairline and to be cunning and clever. The Celts themselves called the people who were in Ireland before the Celts came the Tuatha de Danaan, or Children of Danu, and while the Celtic peoples certainly came to dominate the whole island, it's thought that the West may have sheltered the last tribes of the Danu, and that those blood lines may have remained relatively pure for quite some time, simply because of the remoteness of the region.

  • 1 decade ago

    It means those with really dark hair because stereotypically either Irish have extremely dark hair and often light eyes and pale skin or like red hair and freckles.

    They don't know where it comes from but it's not from black slaves at all! They think it's from another European group.

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    Black Irish just refers to those Irish who have dark features like darker skin or hair. The reason they may have acquired them from the gene pool isn't known as there could be several reasons, although it is mostly thought to have to do with mixture with Vikings.

  • 1 decade ago

    I don't believe that. It's the Irish folks with black hair that are black Irish.

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