Why do people think Irish have fair skin, red hair and freckles?

Question

I hate this so much...its damn ignorance. I was just reading some guy who posted ''why do so many people think Irish and Italians look alike?'' The responses of some people were insane..'no they look nothing alike'' ''Irish people have fair skin' crap like this.
My grandparents on both parents side were dark skinned, with black hair.

People have such a wrong image of Irish people. I sware there was one ginger in my entire year, and he had blue eyes.

Irish players with red hair on the Irish national team? Eh McShane...I think that is it.

Sort it out.

Walk through Dublin city centre and there is very few gingers,

Lol.....to be fair though England does have the worst stereotype.

Yeah Rooney is Irish. I'm not saying there is no Irish gingers, and we do have more than most, but they are a minority..

Answer 1

Well because many of you do. I mean, the Chinese sure as hell don't have red hair and freckles. That gene comes from the British Isles. The Scandinavians have it too somewhat. Not all of you do, but a lot of you do.

Answer 2

This is a stereotype since many Irish people do have at least very fair skin , freckles but no always red hair . Though they still have more red hair than most people in the world, with the only exception of Scots.

Answer 3

I don't know. It's strange. I had a relationship with a half Welsh half Irish guy once, he had dark almost olive skin, black hair, and green eyes, and that question came up, but I didn't have an answer for him. It seems that to the people in those countries the "Irish" or "Celtic" look is actually dark hair. I don't know what the disconnect is.

I think that there is a slightly larger percentage of natural redheads in countries like Ireland and Scotland, but that's not saying much considering the fact that only 2% of people in the world are natural redheads. (It's about 10% in Ireland, by the way) I've heard that the most common hair color in Ireland is dark brown.

Answer 4

I'm blond, my best friends growing up had either blond or brown hair and only one in my group had ginger hair. The majority though have dark brown hair.
I think that proves that that theory is a load of crap.
We're actually mixed, and so are the English. There is no 1 Irish or English look. We are a melting pot of people.

Answer 5

Isn't it the Irish colleen with flaming red hair and green eyes that is every man's fantasy?

There are a lot of redheads in both Scotland and Ireland compared to elsewhere, so it's not surprising that it get's noted as a national characteristic.

Half my family are redheads. I'm fair but used to have a red beard and moustache.

Why give a damn anyway? Just accept that the majority of people are a bit thick and leave it at that!

Answer 6

See it really depends what you mean.. Many Irish people do have those traits. But the thing is some don't. Also there are many other races who may have those features. So i guess i would say that it's usual, but not always associated.

Answer 7

I tend to think of the majority of Irish people being dark although never really gave it too much thought. Anytime I have been in Ireland (from Scotland) there was just the usual mix of people you see any were around Britain/Eire.

Answer 8

I know that not all Irish are redheads. I've known Irish people with dark hair, light brown hair, and blond hair, as well as red. However, nearly all the natural redheads I've known have been Irish, or German-Irish, with last names like Donlon, Egan, Delany, Naughton, and Guenther. Then again, I've heard Christopher Columbus was a redhead, and he was Italian. I've known a redhead who may have been German Jewish.

Then we seen people on TV like Conan O'Brien.

Answer 9

Uh...because you do. LoL! Im just kidding. That is a very ignorant thing to believe. I have seen many different Irish people in my lifetime and they never actually fit that discription. Its just like certain races think that all Black people look alike. With all the different shades and mixtures that we have in this world how can anyone believe that?! People are so uneducated and lost in this world.

Answer 10

My aunt is black and she is married to an Irish guy and he does have green eyes, red hair and some freckles. One of her son even got his dad's red hair but I dont think any of them got the freckles.

Of course, not ALL Irish have them.

Answer 11

lOl, learn to laugh at yourself and play along with their stupid game. Send a picture of your self to this asshole and tell him it must me a ******* miracle that you don't have red hair of fair skin. I'm scottish and that is basically the stereotype of us as well. I told a guy that I was genetic miracle not to have ginger hair. I also told him that every person in scotland wore a kilt and eat haggis everyday. I told him we lived in huts and that my computer ran by a goat running on a circle like a hamster one and thats how people in scotland got eletictse. PLAY THEIR GAME. THEY'RE THE RETARDS