Galway-Spain connection...a myth?

Question

Is there a true connection between Spain and Galway city apart from the Arch? I heard there is some story about Spanish sailors being rescued by Galway locals, eventually resulting in mariages and that's why people from there, especially women, have "that Spanish look". Thanks!

Wow! So many theories.....

Answer 1

I think that some of the ships from The Spanish Armada were wrecked on the Galway coast on their way back to Spain after the defeat by the English. The sailors came ashore and were assimilated into the local population.

Answer 2

The old chestnut about the Spanish armada accounting for all the dark haired people in ireland is just that--an old chestnut. Very few sailors survived, & and some that did were killed by the terrified natives who couldn't understand them and feared them. There was trade but again--those spanish sailors must have been VERY VERY busy!
However, interestingly, in the old Irish mythologies, Spain is mentioned many times as being a source for incoming tribes. As someone else mentioned, recent DNA tests have shown that the people of Ireland (and Wales/Scotland too) do NOT genetically match the ancient celt of Middle Europe, but have a closer affinity to the Basques of Spain (note--NOT the modern Spanish). It certainly looks like this is the area from which the mesolithic hunter gatherers and neolithic farmers (the megalith builders) who inhabited Ireland & the British Isles came from,with additional ties to Brittany.
My family on one side actually are 'black Irish' & I have inherited that look myself.

Answer 3

This is a myth.

My mum's family are of Irish descent and we are all very dark haired and brown eyed and we always get the "oh thats because of the Spanish Armada" connection.

But I fail to see how a couple of wrecked ships and a handful of half-drowned sailors a few hundred years ago could influence the colouring of the people of Southern Ireland so dramatically in the 21st Century. Its just the stuff of fairytales!! Utterly impossible and improbable.

Answer 4

Galway had a sailing link with Spain for centuries, i think it was for the fishing and such trade. there is the story to that Columbus visited Galway on a few occasions and looked up maps that are in Galway. in fact there is one i know of that has a map of an unnamed place at it is just like Antarctica has four cities on it by the way. its well worth a look its so similar its spooky no one knows of course who done the map but its real old.

Answer 5

Yes, these are ships from the Spanish Armada sent against England in the 16th century. They were wrecked around the coast of Ireland in a huge storm

Answer 6

Yes, there is a connection, but it goes back much further than those fanciful Armada stories..
DNA evidence suggests that the ancestors of Scots and Irish arrived from the Western Mediterranean in prehistoric times.

Answer 7

yes there is,spanaish explorers landed on the aran islands way back when some settled down there and hooked up with some irish and had children,the saving of spanish sailors is a diffrent thing which is with ther whole eta ira thing comes from the eta ira thing like basque connemara area thing which the spanish and irish helped each other with oppresion

Answer 8

There is an article here about the 'Spanish look' it may go back further than you think!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Irish#Iberian_connection

And here also with named sources also:

http://killarney-ireland.info/genealogy/dark-irish-celt-genealogy.html

It looks like there is some genetic evidence to say there is a connection. Its not that implausible!

Answer 9

my partner was irish and was told by his eccentric hairdresser, neon, that he had spanish blood (or hair!).

neon's party trick was to tell people their ethnicity by their hair structure.

some of the armada ships did end up wrecked off the irish coast, and it seems that they stayed there long enough to produce some offspring. :)

Answer 10

i'm scottish but i look spanish so do all my relatives