How did the term "Black Irish" come about?

Question

I thought it was used to describe an Irish person with dark hair. On the other hand, I was just told yesterday that it was a term used to describe a person of Irish and Spanish ethnicity. So way back when, the Spanish came to Ireland and raped the Irish women (I don't know exactly how it went, so bear with me), and those children were called "Black Irish" because they were mixed. And now it's used to describe someone of Irish and Spanish ethnicity. Is this true?

Answer 1

"10) What are black Irish and shanty Irish?

This question has come up fairly regularly on the newsgroup but has never been resolved definitively. Neither "black" or "shanty" are used much in Ireland. They seem to be mainly used in America.
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"Black Irish" is often taken to mean Irish people with dark hair and eyes.One romantic story is that they are the descendants of shipwrecked sailors of the Spanish Armada. Unfortunately for the story, it is very unlikely that enough of the sailors survived for their genes to be in the population visible today.

"A variation on this theme says they are descended from Spanish Moors who traded with people on the west coast of Ireland.

"Another explanation is that it's common in Irish to give people nicknames based on their hair...and "black Irish" is just a carryover of this into English.

"Some people say that the "black Irish" were the original inhabitants of the island and all the rest were just blow-ins.

"One other interpretation is that "black Irish" refers to the descendants of Irish slaves taken to the Caribbean island of Montserrat during Cromwell's time. The descendants of these slaves and black slaves from Africa live there to this day. The surprising thing is that they still speak with an Irish accent!"

Answer 2

I'm Irish but am not familiar with the expression: 'Bog Irish' is a rude expression for country people. The Spanish connection could be when the Spanish Armada was routed when attacking UK and their ships were forced by weather to go around Ireland to escape. Many floundered and are supposed 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.
Personally, I would think that it is just a derogatory name which goes back to when mostly labourers in England were looking for lodgings only to be greeted with signs which read 'No blacks, no Irish and no dogs'. To be honest, a lot of the Irish brought it upon themselves by their scruffy appearance and drunkenness. A final word: an Irish politician, admittedly a few years ago now, was quoted as saying 'Ireland is a banana republic with no bloody bananas'.............. Happy Christmas..............

p.s. I have read many of the other answers and find them fascinating and all with a ring of truth about them, especially the Black famine, the Jews etc., pretending to be Irish. All great stuff and no offense whatsoever taken. I always believed that dark skinned and dark haired Irish people were decendants of the Celtic race whilst the fair skinned and fair haired were of Nordic decent............

Answer 3

Well, yes and no. The Spanish, being Catholic, came to Ireland in greatest numbers to help as mercenaries in rebellions against the rule of the English. Naturally, some of the Spanish stayed behind. The Irish have been historically adept at assimilating new cultures (IT took the English hundreds of years and the help of a Great Famine to weaken Gaelic's hold on the tongues of Ireland) and the Spanish were no exception. So yes, 'Black Irish' CAN be used to refer to these folks. But some Irish had black hair before the Spanish came.

The term can also be used (rarely) to refer to an Irishman who posseses a certain melancholy air that some feel is endemic to the Irish.

Answer 4

The term "Black Irish" is meant to describe an Irish person with dark hair and eyes. They are NOT the descendants of the sailors who survived wrecks of the of the Spanish galleons. This is a common mistake made by many people. Any Spanish sailors who survived the wreck were summarily dispatched by the common folk of the time.

Instead I would put the origin of black Irish as descendants of Milesia, a group of darker people than the Celts who came to Ireland much later.

Answer 5

The term Black Irish is a term used by some descendants of Irish emigrants to describe their ancestors. The term is found in Australia, Canada, Great Britain and the United States. It refers to the possessing of dark hair and eyes as opposed to the caricature of Irish people with red hair, pale skin, and blue or green eyes, a difference which is possibly due to less Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian ancestry being found in people on the west of Ireland) . The term is often accompanied by a claim that the darker features are due to Iberian descent

Answer 6

The Irish Immigrants to America were divided in to to groups the Lace Irish came over before Potato Famine and were of the Middle and Upper Classes. Black Irish were from the Potato Famine to 1918 they were farmers and other working stiffs. The Spanish had nothing to do with it.

Answer 7

My understanding is the Spanish shipwrecking story is accurate, however I am doubtful there was a lot of force involved with the cross breeding of the Irish and Spanish. Both were fierce catholics and fierce opponents of the English crown. It is unlikely a Irish patriot would turn over some one fighting a similar cause to the British crown, and over time the bloodlines mingled.

However, its not the first time this has happened either, in northern Spain the region of Galicia has very strong Celtic traditions. Legends state that it is possible people from this region of Spain traveled north to Ireland and Scotland before the times of the Romans and some of their culture is seen there today. In Galicia you can still find structures that are clearly Celtic inspired that date to the Monolithic era. Galicia is also the only part of Spain where the people hold festivals more resembling Celtic ones than what is traditionally considered catholic, often performed with a form of bag pipe, kilt and Celtic dance.

If true then the actual "Black Irish" bloodline may go back before the Spanish Shipwrecking .

So is it possible there is a Spanish/Irish connection? Absolutely. Proving it is the hard part.

Answer 8

You're pretty close to the rational. There are Irish with Black (Moorish IE Spanish) bloodlines and have darker features like black hair etc. I think the term also came to mean "Shanty" or low class Irish. Another explanation I've heard is that it refers to the Irish that fled Ireland to the US during the "Black Blight" also known as the great potato famine (which I think was about 1850). Also, see the attached.

Answer 9

The term 'Black Irish' refers to Irish with pale white skin, black hair and olive/hazel eyes. Usually though the hair is not totally black.. more like a very dark brown and curly.

Spanish sailors - in the armada - tried to free Ireland, but their fleet was destroyed by bad weather. The story goes that many who reached shore were saved by the locals, and married locally.

Black Irish is real, but most likely, the 'black irish' are just the normal Irish. Most of Ireland has dark brown hair anyway. It's probably celtic, and they came from Spain (before the 'Spanish' became Romans). The red haired elements came from the pre-celtic peoples of Ireland.

Nowadays, if you're black Irish, it means you live in Ireland, but yer grandma was Italian, Moroccan, Romanian, Indian, Spanish, or whatever. And you're probably catholic.

Don't confuse that term with another variation... from our grandparent's generation and before "black" also meant either protestant, or sulky, with the slightly vitriolic insinuation that if you were one, you might be the other. In those days, the protestant people were the wealthy British descendents, and politically were of mixed persuasion - some favouring independence, but most not. Many were landlords, and these in particular had been resented for hundreds of years. That's all ancient history for us now.

In Gaelic, "An Fear Dubh" (literally: The black man) was the old Irish word for the devil, and not used anymore, more commonly called 'An Diabhal' nowadays. A person with dark skin is referred to as 'duine gorm' (literally: Blue person), but more usually used to refer to a person of African heritage.

In modern times, "Black Irish" is increasingly used in Ireland to mean African-Irish. In this category, the highly respected rockstar Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy was the icon of Black-Irish cool back in the 1970's, and is widely regarded as a musical genius. The other most famous African-Irish superstar is pop/RnB singer Samantha Mumba.

Answer 10

There are about 30 different versions of what it constitutes to be "Black Irish". Apparently people in Ireland have never even heard the phrase!

A likely explanation is that Native Americans or other ethnicities (Jewish, mulatto, etc.) listed themselves on census forms as being Irish to avoid persecution.