Who were the Black Irish?
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- Опубліковано 26 лип 2024
- #irish #findingyourroots #nytn #ancestry #findingyourroots #familyhistory #genealogy
In this video, we're uncovering the fascinating history of the Black Irish and their hidden roots. We'll explore how these surprising connections shape American identity, revealing stories you might not have heard before.
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This is becoming one of my favorite channels. Thank you for addressing race issues ,even courting controversial figures like Jared Taylor, without your channel turing into a vitriolic cesspit. As someone with a mixed ethnicity family who is searching our history, your channel is an encouragement.
There are books on this, some content creators have gone to primary sources on this. Also when dna is done on Irish many have “black” dna. Europe originally has black people. The Irish were known as white N(words) also in Spain the Hebrews were called N(words) they were also in Ireland and all over Europe as it’s part of their land. You have to dive more in the scholarly sources and some are harder to come by, if you look on YT other creators have books and more on this.
When you say 'America' do you mean the United States? Not being contrary, but Canada and Mexico on down is also in the Continent of America.
❤I Love your journey and information. I too am very interested in my ancestry.
English, Indigenous to America aka Turtle Island, Irish, Scottish, Portuguese, Spanish, African and Sardinian. Much love and many blessings ❣️
a lot of misinformation here - I am from a 'Black Irish' family - the term did NOT originate in the diaspora, it originated in Ireland - it did NOT refer to mixed race people, it referred to a specific type of coloring - my genetic tests show 100% Irish ancestry, no Iberian/Spanish ancestry, no other ethnicities - I have Irish family members with black eyes, black hair, tan skin tone - this coloring came from the Picts - PLEASE stop rewriting history!!!!! It's INSANE and serves no purpose other than to push some bizarre agenda.
@@sarahfitby6027 yes thank you! I should have been more clear
As having Irish blood and Irish relatives, I was taught Black Irish was a white skinned Irish person with black hair.
I knew someone who said she was "black Irish" (that's what her mother told her) Black hair, darkest eyes and pale white skin. Their family name was "Bice"
Same here.
Same
exactly. This is part of black washing history.
Ditto. ✌🏼
I'm from an Irish-American family and the term "Black Irish" was always used by my relatives to refer to people with dark hair, white skin, and blue eyes - as opposed to the stereotypical redhead or light-haired Irish person with brown or green eyes. We had both types in our family. (Like the looks of Courtney Cox vs Caroline Kennedy.) It had nothing to do with African American ancestry.
My family, who are mainly ethnically Irish, have dark hair, medium dark skin and pale blue eyes, fit your description perfectly.
Very true and "that is me".. I had "milk white" skin and black hair as a child ( I darkened a tad )..
This explanation "Black Irish" defined as black haired, fair skinned, blue eyed people derived from the Spanish Armada was what my Irish granny presented to me. I was a little jealous of Black Irish people I knew because they were also very good looking. I had reddish brown hair and was not so well favored.
@@tommccarron1469 Those Spanish men didn't get to live long enough to mate, there would have been the odd sailor over the years that fathered a child in Ireland but not enough to affect the entire genome. The dark-haired element in Ireland is ancient.
my paternal grandfather described himself as Black Dutch, our line immigrated here from Ireland in the early 1700’s decades before the revolution. they settled in the appalachias and spread south from the carolinas and Tennessee to Georgia. Many of them are still living there. extensive YDNA testing indicates among other things haplogroup A M32.
I'm Irish, The Black Irish are Irish people who have dark hair, dark features, blue or brown eyes. See, there has always been ppl living here, even before the Celts arrived. Red, blonde hair and skin has always been around, it's akin to northern living. It's got nothing to do with Africans or anything else. We don't use the term anymore because we're all here struggling the same struggle on this island.
@azazel0783 the Pic's people were the first.. know one knows what happened to them. Maybe they breed into the Celts
@@christopherball7937 the picts were mostly in Britain, Scotland and Whales, there's a bit of ancestry in Northern Irish people, they say picts may have been other early Celtic tribes as the Celts once occupied all Europe. The Irish before the Celts arrived weren't picts tho. I bet there was a very many peoples (tribes) of ppl scattered throughout Europe for a very long time. Some may be well forgotten.
There's also the myth that The Black Irish were the remnants of the Celts from Spain that supposedly came long ago, but don't much on that, but that's what I have heard 🤷♂️
@@Stylah3001 yeah that whole thing about Spanish, nah it's not true. We've had Vikings, Norman's, a few thousand of each settled here, then the English in larger numbers but there was always a substantial population here before them. Cromwell did kill off a big chunk of the Irish, then the famine killed about 25% but if you simply look at people's surnames, all the old surnames are still around and still popular.
I wrote a script that was set Kinsale,Ireland. The Irish people I interviewed told me the Black Irish term pertained to those of Spanish ancestry. If a person had Irish and Caribbean background they were called Caribb-Irish.
Black Irish just means dark haired Irish, black haired Irish.
It comes from the rape of native Irish by people of color. Most recently from Muslim pirates.
Exactly. My ex-wife was from Ireland directly and told me the same thing.
Caucasian with black hair.
In my world Black Irish identifies those with with fair skin, and black hair. I was told it was descendants of Spanish Armada sailors.
that a nonsense Irish American myth with no baisis in fact and not even known in Ireland.
I've always had the same understanding. Grew up near Boston in a majority Irish community. Families that had black hair and blue or green eyes were called "Black Irish". My maternal grandmother was half-Black Irish, she said, because her father was from Wexford ( southern Ireland ) and he had the black hair/blue eyes trait. She and my mother both had black hair. I am the redheaded one. lol. Gotta be one of those cropping up in every Irish family now and then.
A Romantic myth,but a myth, nonetheless
98 percent Irish. Mom's side all gingers. Northern Ireland. Dad's side Black Irish. SE Ireland. Dark hair. Deep blue eyes. And the Irish grin.
@@jabbermocky4520
EXACTLY
I'm Canadian of Irish and Scottish extraction. My dad referred to himself as Black Irish because he had very dark hair, and he thought that might come from the Spanish Armada, but pre-celt Irish people were often dark-haired.
No it has nothing to do with the Spanish armada. There was only a handfull of Spanish that survived in the mainland. The vast majority of survivors was slayed. Those few who survived returned home as soon as they could.... lets be honest they had a much better life in sunny Spain. It's impossible those few atracted enough "senoritas" to leave a genetic legacy so great that still today, 400 years later, is present. BUT, with todays DNA tests, it would be VERY EASY to test how many Irish have Spanish ancestry. I bet it is 0%. Ok, maybe 0.00001%.
Spanish were Goths. So blonde, red head, black, brown, etc.
that a nonsense Irish American myth with no baisis in fact and not even known in Ireland.
@@ArcadiaJunctionModelTrains seems from what he said it would be an “Irish-Canadian myth.”
My Grandmother was right off the boat and Black Irish. She had coal black hair, eyes so dark they looked black and a sallow complexion. Her brother had the quintessential Irish features. People thought she was Italian or Spanish.
Several family members DNA results have Iberian Peninsula and North African/Arab including mine.
A "Black Irish", is a white person with black hair, pale skin, and brown, blue or green eyes. (i.e. Jennifer Connolly, Colin Farrell)
Only used in the USA. As an Irish person we don’t use it.
@@Maidaseu
BTW: I was in Dublin recently... what a mess. What happened?
@@bowieupland6112 not blue or green eyes only dark brown eyes. Think typical Spanish but without the tan!
@@loots9821
"Think typical Spanish" LOL. Have you ever been to Spain? Reddish hair, blonde hair, green eyes, blue eyes, and white skin... are common and the norm. Maybe you didn't know that Spain is in Europe and not in Latin America. That's why the "Armada" explanation is wrong.
@@bowieupland6112 apologies. What I meant was we get Spanish students to Ireland every year. Lots of them. And almost all of them have dark skin, eyes and hair. Very rarely you"ll see some with lighter hair. It's like saying the typical Scot has red hair, pale skin. That does not mean all. A lot of Irish have blue eyes, but not all. A lot of swedes are blonde but not all. You get my meaning.
It’s vague, but my understanding has always been that Black Irish were native Irish with very dark hair and eyes. More recently I came to infer that they were indigenous Celts, who didn’t tend to be red-or-blond-haired before other ethnic groups moved into the country.
Irish have always had those traits. Red haired genes reach a maximum in Ireland and Britain. There has always been phenotypic variety in hair colours in in Ireland like all populations in Europe. The idea that different groups brought in different traits like different hair colour is bogus especially in regards to things like red hair.
Yes they're basically just swarthy looking Irish, similar in complexion to Welshmen like Tom Jones. I presume the term has been coopted by African Americans at various points, early on probably to provide a family story that would help people pass as white and more recently to bolster claims of always having lived in Europe("we were here first" etc). Neither is strictly speaking true, but the former I'm more sympathetic towards as it was a rough time to be labeled as mixed race in America let alone black, the latter is usually expressed as part of a racial supremacist ideology to which I am decidedly unsympathetic though.
@@doomguy9049interesting statement. There seems to be proof that black people existed in many places that caucasians now rule but anyone referencing those claims is a racial supremacist? 🤔 this is why I typically do not listen to channels like this. The truth is not for everyone
You know how it is today.... anything that has the "black" word in the name HAS to mean African. For example there was a group of Vikings known as "the black Danes" guess what they are saying about these guys.... I bet in 500 years when they find a sports newspaper talking about New-Zealand Rugby team "All Blacks" (not one single african in the team) they will say "OH, see? I told you!! Black people were the original people in New-Zealand!!! OHH what ever happened to this prosperous Black civilization that reached the most remote location in the World, OHHH those evil colonizers...."
The same went to Spain, lots of celt descendents in northern spain and portugal
My dad was always called "black irish."" He was olive skinned, dark wavy hair and brown eyes. My husband, who is of sicilian descent, couldn't believe he wasn't Italian. I've heard that Spanish story, too.
Agree 100 percent. I’m 62 my mother’s and grandmother’s description of this phrase matches yours. It was Mediterranean, Roman, Basque (Spanish), Middle Eastern influences, not African or Aboriginal. Olive skin, wavy black hair, that dark under eye tinge like Elvis had. It may be different in usage today but back then is what it meant to our people emigrated to Philadelphia area from Scotland and Ireland.
@@HearturMindthe Mediterranean people, the Roman people the Spanish people and Middle Easterns were all either African or mixed with Africans
You just described my dad. Last name of Scanlon
@samanthab1923 My dad's last name is McHenry. My brother took a dna test and he had middle Eastern, Iberian, North African dna. Not very much mind you, but it was there. I'm fairly dark, but my brother was a toe head, so the darkness hops around. We always thought our dad was 100% Irish, but we were wrong!
@@irenem3854 That’s interesting. None of us has taken a genetic test. But you’re right about the blonde coming thru. Photos of my dad as a toddler he was macaroni blonde. Only to be jet black as an adult. My mom was brown but dying it blonde by 26. All of us had dark hair & hazel eyes except my brother Terence, he was blonde & curly. In fact as the next generation came along my youngest bro Sean married a woman from Venezuela & named their youngest Terence. He’s got curly blonde hair & tans with Hazel eyes.
My mother was Scots Irish ,jet black hair ,white skin and light blue eyes ,black Irish refers to the black hair ,thats it
They had mostly black hair and very blue eyes
Americans are obsessed with race. In Ireland no one is “black Irish”. - most people have black or brown hair. It’s just Irish. There’s no need for a label or categorisation.
The pagans still care. It’s from old pagan myths and that made people uncomfortable. But I’m positive half my family are changelings so I have no choice but accept it. 😅
"Black Irish" in Ireland refererd only to Black hair. Im of 95% Gael origin. The Irish are the palest skinned people on earth, and have the highest incidence of Blue eyes in the world.
Green eyes...my daughter has blue/green eyes, less then 1% of the world have these color eyes. when both myself n her dad had blue eyes. He had blonde hair n I had brown w /Red highlights.
My son is red haired w brown eyes n my daughter has black hair green eyes.
Irish parents can have children w any color hair n eye color!
Irish people are not the palest people on earth 🤣
My Dad was black Irish. My Mom was English Irish. I’m so white you can see through me. My Dad was very dark with blue eyes and black hair. My Mom was very white with auburn red hair and blue eyes.
You must be a gorgeous family!
LOL A friend of my Mom's in Florida said he needed shade to look at me. I like the see-through description. I've got some Celtic blood and I've found the Scottish part but I suspect there's Irish in there, too. Thinking about "what nationalities are you" question in history class, Mom said we had a tiny bit of Welsh blood but I haven't found that in my genealogy yet.
Writing from Ireland. The term “Black Irish “ is unknown here . The first time I heard it was when an Australian identified me as one because of my complexion, brown eyes and dark dark brown hair. So while I’m often mistaken as Mediterranean by Mediterraneans ,Tunisian by Tunisians, Pakistani by Pakistanis, I’m not particularly unique amongst the Irish from the west and especially the south west where I’m from. It’s nothing to do with the Spanish Armada. Recent DNA research by TCD university proves that the legacy of Early European Farmers - dark skinned , brown eyes, dark hair- who originated in contemporary Anatolia is highest in this region whereas the Steppe Beaker people ( Yamnaya- tall, fair skinned, blue eyes) who originated in contemporary Ukraine who arrived later have higher levels of dna elsewhere in the Irish population.
Translated : in Europe there are European brunettes. Since always and without any need for African ancestry. But this is US, as an African I now believe that real history is too boring for them 😁 and especially real African history because the fuss is making African "black" everything which isn t and ignoring everything that really is African and even black 😳 p.s. your Coptic dna could have traveled to you via your Italian side, since there was an intense communication among early Christian mediterranean communities - but of course it's impossible to know for certain .
Blue eyes and dark hair is also common in Ireland, which proves a mixture of Anatolian + Yamnaya in the population. But even a small portion of Anatolians themselves had blue eyes.
Great view. Makes sense i am spanish italian, and do have traces of the british isles more locally ireland, but have more mediterranean skin and light brown hair ooops😊😊😊
@@elleanna5869 agreed
My Mother told me about black Irish when I was about 7 years old, so 1957. She was born in Scotland, so it's a well known description. But it does not include dark skin. An example of black Irish colouring would be the actress Elizabeth Taylor, black hair, light eyes, usually blue and very pale skin.
I heard of Black Irish as an Irish/Irish-American person with dark hair and dark eyes, and tan skin. My mother's father used to tease his sisters that they were dark because of Native blood.
they were..
Where did that come from? Anthropology tells us now the original Irish and British were black skinned people who mixed and over time became lighter. Look up the Cheddar man.
@@leeolie3728But weren't all people originally dark-skinned? I was taught that White skin was a genetic mutation the same way blue eyes are. The lighter-skinned people survived better in the Northern climates where there is less sun and they need to absorb more Vitamin D. The darker-skinned people survived better in the climates closer to the equator where the sun is too hot for fair skin.
Fact's
@@rroadmapIt depends on how you look at it. The animals that evolved into human beings originally had much more fur. Look under an animals fur sometime and you'll see they're incredibly white because the fur provides protection from UV radiation. As the fur was lost over the eons skin probably became darker as more melanin in the skin provided an evolutionary advantage. As humans left Africa and moved further north vitamin D production was more advantageous than UV protection so they evolved lighter skin. So did humans "originally" have light or dark skin? Both and neither.
I understand this refers to Irish people with black hair and fair skin. Many in Ireland have these features.
European Atlantic amongst women is where it's common, including Ireland, Asturias and Galicia who are related.
I had a co-worker that looked 100% Native American. Long black hair, dark complexion (he "looked Italian"), high cheekbones, dark eyes, etc. I finally asked him, he was 100% Irish.
So much for phenotypes.
Irish people can sometimes be VERY dark, likely the Celtic influence (Celts were originally from various parts of the Mediterranean in ancient times). Think of Colin Farrell or Stephen Rea. Johnny Depp always thought he was Native American, and it ended up being that he's almost entirely white, mostly English with a smattering of other European ethnicities, and a very slight African-American percentage. Phenotypes at BEST point you in a general direction but are extemely shaky otherwise.
@@David-zv5xm Cleveland born and raised. West sider, then far west suburbs, then Lorain County, now Stark County.
I worked in the evil Gas and Oil industry for 35 years.
Have you ever heard of the Moors and their genetic nfluence on Ireland and Spain
@@garthlevy8275 I'm Sicilian, so yes, I'm very much aware of the influence of the Moors.
@@etruscancivilization No one said it does. Besides, there really isn't a difference in "race". Race is a human construct. It's just a different phenotype being expressed. We are all Homo Sapiens Sapiens, with a little Homo Sapiens Neanderthalensis thrown in the mix for some folks.
A wolf is a canine, so is a Chihuahua.
I have a Caucasian friend who told me she was black Irish. I asked her what that meant. She said she was half Native American and half white. The family used that term to hide the Native American bloodline. She grew up in Tennessee.
exactly, irish sounds white... otherwise she would not have been able to go to white schools..etc.
My FL relatives tell the same story. My half blooded Creek)m/Irish great grandma said she used to stand out in the field to get more tanto attract an Irish husband. She had blue eyes and black hair, high cheekbones.
A friend from the Caucasus region? Lol
how did native americans cross the Atlantic?
@@MaisyK as slaves
Black Irish does not mean African blood. Black Irish are dark haired fair skin… Spaniards invaded Ireland.
The Spanish Armada story is a myth. No truth to it at all.
Exactly...
@@darrellm9915 The Irish, Asturians, Galicians and Basques are related. The Irish call us their cousins. Asturias and Galicia are Celtic territories along with Ireland.
@@asturiasceltic3183 Yes, and the Basque influence gives us type O negative blood..
@@1953childstar Up to 50% of Basques have the O-
My mother was referred to as black Irish when she was living in Boston because she was protestant
I heard the same thing exactly. Many times growing up.
I was told the same thing too.
My father had jet black hair, pale white skin (burned easily while out in the sun), and light blue eyes. He was from a Catholic family and I was told he was of Black Irish descent.
Same as in Newfoundland- it refers to being Protestant as opposed to Catholic
Yes that is what my Grandmother used to call Northern Ireland i.e. the black North and it was due to the Protestants. This was a long time ago. People don't say that now.
My mother always claimed that black Irish were those from the northwest of Ireland. After she died, my sister through genetic testing found we had an ancestor from the Sudan.
A theory is that the pre Celtic Fomorians lived in Ireland. They were called by some Black giants. Sudan has very dark skinned people and in some parts, very tall people. I saw some in D.C. They were tall, thin and Blue Black in hue.
@@HOPROPHETAfact's
I’ve seen Irish people with this look but they are from the Republic of Ireland and not the north
@@HOPROPHETA black Irish usually be like Welsh and aren't very tall. All Irish dna studies show no black African dna. Just Eurasian stuff... Sorry to say that , but the term " black Irish " in the US was an attempt to deny African ancestry or hide it if you mated with ADOS. The Sudan ancestors very likely come from that, not from Ireland. Blame Jim Crow for shaming black Africans as a catastrophe to be denied by any means
Black Irish were white with black hair not red,
I'm Black Irish. We come from Galway Bay. We're of Moorish decent. My mom looked like a black Elizabeth Taylor with green eyes.
nicole-denicedevesti5625 - Wow! Your mother must have been beautiful ❤️
You are not of Moorish descent....stop it.
Bullshit is what that is 😂
Same my mother had dark hair and dark eyes. She was from country mayo. She said it was from Moors.
@@lauratyler4863 No, not true. I bet she does not have a Moorish surname.
My mother had told me back in the 1950s my father was black Irish, that he had come from Ireland, and his relatives had come from Castile in Spain where the Spaniards are blond and blue-eyed. My father had tanned skin with blond and blue eyes, he was striking to look at.
Bingo!
So hes Spanish?
Is it wrong to order a Black Russian while I watch this?😅
lol....I have a black coffee right now. I think were good
@@nytn Would that be a black Irish coffee you're drinking??
lol, I need to try one, I never have!
😂😂😂😂
It depends on what you order him to do. 🤷♂️
When I was a teenager a stranger asked me and my sister what our ancestry was. I told him we were English, Irish, Scottish, and Danish. Then he tells us that couldn’t be right because we were “too dark for that”. He then proceeded to tell us about the Spanish armada like we’ve never heard about it and saying our Irish ancestors were clearly Spanish from the sailors jumping ship and marrying Irish girls🙄
I just couldn’t believe this guy. His whole reasoning was we were brunette and had brown/hazel eyes and therefore couldn’t be “white Anglo”. This guy clearly didn’t know the most common hair and eye color for the British Isles is brown.
Also I was more familiar with my family tree than this rando. I knew from well documented family tree exactly what I was. My Irish ancestry wasn’t “black Irish” but Scots-Irish. They were Scotsmen who immigrated to Northern Ireland during the plantation era of the 1600s. Now obviously this stranger couldn’t have known that so he should have expected my simplified answer instead of making up a fan fiction of my own family history.
All survivors of the Spanish Armada battle with the English navy,were hunted down ,in Ireland by the English,and killed.
My grandmother, born in Tennessee in 1908, referred to our family as Black Dutch. Since I’ve been digging in to this topic, I’m intrigued and perplexed. Thanks for the video!
"Black Dutch" sounds a valid geno- and phenotype, having African and Dutch ancestry. Dutch alone tends to have light eyes and hair.
Black Dutch may have something to do with a Christmas tradition, Black Pete. Santa Claus brings toys to the GOOD children. Black Pete retrieves the BAD CHILDREN to manufacture the toys for next year. Good has it's rewards, bad has it's punishments. I am not sure how this relates though. It is a centuries old tradition in Holland.
My father was born and raised in Adair County. His mother had olive skin that darkened when working in the sun. She referred to herself as “your ole black maw”. She was born in Kentucky as was her mother. The next grandma was referred to as “black Dutch” , dark skinned, fair hair, and lively blue eyes. She was the second wife to Big John Harvey who came from Ireland. So I find your research very interesting.
The original inhabitants of Scotland were the Picts. They were dark skinned and had black hair. They mixed with the Irish. This, I believe, is the earliest evidence of the black Irish. This happened in the earliest history of the islands.
What a fascinating story. I knew a married couple whose wife belived in oral family history, that she was Norwegian, and that her husband belived in his irish heritage.
Many years later they did a DNA test and learned she was irish and he was Norwegian. We need to remember for how long different groups of people interacted genetically through choice or force.
@@etruscancivilization nationality = citizenship. ethnicity = Irish. How's that? For example German national vs ethnic German. The term irish can be used when we discuss their ethnicity and nationality.
Belived?
@@etruscancivilization It also an ethnicity like Japanese or Chinese.
@@etruscancivilization Agree. If I went to live in Nigeria they wouldn't count me as Nigerian.
Such a good point. A story of Native American ancestry was passed down through my mother’s line, complete with details about the native woman’s temperament being meaner than a rattlesnake. My mother totally looked Native American with tan skin, long black hair, and a rounded face.
Then I got a DNA test and it showed virtually no Native American ancestry (only about 1%). So yeah, you really can’t trust the family stories.
The term "Black Irish" was initially used in the 19th and 20th centuries by Irish-Americans to describe people of Irish descent who have black or dark-coloured hair, blue or dark eyes, or otherwise dark colouring.
i always thought black irish had dark dark hair and light eyes!!{blue}
In the movie Queen by Alex Haley, Queen passed as white for awhile by telling people she was French. She said that to explain her olive like skin and dark hair. She actually was of Irish descent though. Her father's father was Irish. However, her mother's side was African and Native American descent. You should watch the movie. It's a depiction of Alex Haley's grandmother.
My great grand mother was also Irish and African. She married a Black American. And my grandmother married a Black American. I have aunts and cousins who identify as Black Americans and were born with red hair
That’s a good movie.
@@theinsideoutlife1508 I too have Irish ancestry. My great grandmother's father was from Ireland. Her mother was Trinidadian. She grew up there the moved to the states. She married a black man.
typical black irish description
Alex Haley was a fraud who tried to pass off fiction as historical fact. There's nothing to believe from a race hustler and grifter
My paternal grandmother was descended from melungeon ancestry. She grew up in that part of Appalachia and her maiden name was one of the handful of known melungeon names. After doing my DNA I’ve found that I’m mostly English, next Scottish, and Ivory Coast African. I’m 68 years old, was blonde with blue eyes(now white and balding), but I’ve shown people some very old photos of my grandmothers family and some people instantly say something about them looking black.
Take a look at Dwight D Eisenhower's mother. One photo she clearly looks like a melanated indigenous woman
As to "not used in Ireland", I can recall that my Irish grandfather, an immigrant from Ireland, used the term. I have heard the Spanish invasion theory.
Black Irish normally refers to darked haired people with light eyes. The original Celts were dark haired and dark eyed. They came from the north of Spain and were called Milesians. We have some shared traits with Basque populations. When mixed with Viking influence and genes light eyes came into play. The Spanish Armada claim is rubbish
I am full-blooded Irish, born and raised. It is quite simple really. We consist of Blue eyed, dark haired, Western Hunter Gatherers and brown eyed, light haired, Neolithic Farmers. And the same goes for all unmixed Europeans. As for Red hair, that is a polygenic trait. The amount of Western Hunter Gatherer DNA increases the further North you go in Europe. To the South, Sardinians contain the most Neolithic Farmer DNA.
Don't forget the Steppe Herders (Bell Beakers) who have made the biggest contribution to the Irish gene pool.
@@jackieblue1267 The Bell Beaker is the Bronze Age, they descend from the aforementioned people as does the Celts etc.
@@Slievenamon The Bell Beakers however nearly completely replaced the other populations in Ireland. They don't descend from the older Farmers and HGs in Ireland. There was a big population turnover when the Bell Beakers came to Ireland.
Historic trade with north Africa going back as far as 3000 BC. Egyptian artifacts were recently found in Ireland. Dating to approximately 2500 BC.
learning about ancient Ireland and wales really opened up my mind and gave a glimpse into a time without race divisions. You either could read and conduct yourself as a society or you could not.
Some of these comments are hard to digest as I believe the Druidic knowledge shaped the world as we know it. Ireland was an international hub with everyone visiting Bru na Boinne - everyone! Some stayed and left their DNA …
Michael Tsarion will have research on this (as well as other areas) and there are records from the Cromwell expulsion and shipping logs
The term was also used something like the term " Black Sheep" someone who could not be tamed or was outside the norm!
My dad used the term of himself. His mother Molly Dore's parents were from County Cork. He was born in 1911 and he and his two older brothers all had dark kinky hair - closer to the kinkiness of Black African hair but not loosely curled or wavy hair. His complexion was not pale, but wouldn't be called olive either. So I heard the Armada theory from him with the added point that Cork is on the south coast of Ireland where the Spaniards washed up. He was half German and half Irish and we have done enough genealogical research to know that all our forebears came from Europe and appear in census data from about 1850. I accepted this family story on face value pretty much the same way Elizabeth Warren took her family story of Native American ancestry before the days of DNA testing. I grew up in northern New England in the 40s and 50s in a tiny town settled in 1760 when having Indian ancestry was not openly talked about. I was not surprised when it became ok or even good to have such a background that many of the families I grew up with began to allow they had Native American ancestors - and that grandparents and others had passed down such knowledge very privately. Unlike those city folks down at Harvard these modest people did not try to make it an advantage. That's a swipe at Harvard, not Elizabeth Warren, who I believe acted in good faith despite our politics being quite different! Given your research and my own DNA analysis my dad and his DNA seem to come entirely from Europe and all settled in NYC over the course of the second half of the 20th century. I would add I live in Australia and have long been friends with an Aboriginal woman who is half Irish. Her Irish Grandfather and Aboriginal grandmother were not allowed to live together under Western Australian state law. This case is getting on for 100 years ago by now and she has researched it in the state archives and even discovered that the Irish grandfather was often in trouble for visiting his children and their mother. Because she identifies as Aboriginal and I find her personality and sense of humour pretty Irish I like to kid her about being as Irish, but in fairness she is primarily Aboriginal in her culture, and I have learned a great deal from her over the years. One of the obvious genetic characteristics of Aborigines is that when they mix with European blood they can easily have light - even blond - straight hair and blue eyes. I remember seeing a boy of about 7 in the bush with long straight hair streaked with blonde, spearing a bird with practiced skill. The Western Australian playwright Jack Davis had quite dark skin but penetrating blue eyes he said came from an Afghan camel driver employed to operate the camel trains that supplied the goldfields in Kalgoorlie in the early 20th century. You've convinced me that the Armada theory is probably more romance than fact.
I've loved reading your response. My 2 cents worth is added in the comments, 'tho not as erudite yours. I'm now staunchly West Australian, have Aboriginal friends, some extended members of Aboriginal heritage, whose resilience and peaceful, gentle nature, along with a generosity of spirit, open and friendly to other cultures. Some of my family feel closer to, and more aligned with Aboriginal society after alienation from their white side because of shame over having mixed blood. Some of my extended family with Aboriginal heritage now have artwork on permanent display in Australian State galleries. One gentleman (he was my age, we got along famously having mad-cap adventures together) in particular had mixed Chinese, Irish, and Aboriginal ancestry. His name was Johny Johnson (deceased), he was from Darwin, had a family with my (white) cousin, and painted Dingo Dreaming, now in the Australian National Gallery.
My great grandmother said we had black Irish in our family all settled in north Louisiana. My mother and I had olive complexion, brown eyes and brown hair, while most everyone in the family had pale complexions and blue or green eyes. It was rumored we had Native American in our family also, but never found it. We never knew what black Irish meant, we just assumed it meant we had black ancestors. I’m leaving more towards miludgeon theory.
Until I got myDNA results in February I knew nothing of how diverse my ancestry was. I was however a history nerd and always absorbing population movements arising from the out of Africa migrations around 50,000 years ago, and how civilisation came to being. . I live in Ireland, the occupied 6 counties to be precise. Little prepared me (and other recipients of their DNA results, no doubt) for my connection to the West Indies. When I was in my teenage years my dad and I were watching cricket when Malcolm Marshall came on to bowl. My dad said “there’s my cousin “! I said dad, we’re white, he’s black” (i was only around 13), and my dad said “what do you mean?”, my immaturity at the time I never thought it possible , until my dad explained how this could be! Genetically percentsge wise, I’m 26 percent Irish, 57 percent Scottish, 11 percent English, 3 percent Welsh and 3 percent danish. My dad and I are both white with dark hair and eyes and we both go a nice brown shade when it’s sunny! My ancestry DNA communities are West Indian, East African, Basque, Louisiana creole, French Acadian, Irish in Newfoundland (with the best accent in the world), and indigenous peoples of South America. These are only a tiny portion of communities that make up who I am. I’ve discovered that I have a famous Jamaican 3rd cousin who was a bass guitarist in the reggae and ska music genres of the Caribbean. I’m pretty sure he can confirm the Malcolm Marshall story. Ps Donnelly and Perot (Perrault) are definitely in there as family names. A lot of Irish were sent as slaves or indentured servants to the Caribbean to produce sugar cane and cotton, making way for Ulster Plantations.
I'm joining to say that I, too, am Irish, and I have some DNA identified from Viking lands. My whole family had very pale skin, very dark brown hair with red highlights, and dark brown eyes. I was always told I was Black Irish, but the explanation I got from my mother was just that this meant I was Irish, with dark hair and eyes. No one could be paler than I am! The only other DNA I have is from Germany.
Being mostly Irish, my father was always referred to as black Irish, because he had jet black hair, green eyes, and pearl white skin. It was taught to my family, the term coming from Spanish Armada possibly, but when I did an ancestry test, it didn’t show any Spanish ancestry, but northern France. Have you even seen pics from magazines where the model was in France for a shoot, she had jet black hair, green or dark eyes and pearl white skin? They where also his features. They say this could be also from the Spanish decent. I don’t know, here I am, take me as I am. Just a thought. Also I’m third generation in America.
Some of my northern Alabama relatives were native Americans who told authorities that they were black Dutch to avoid deportation to the trail of tears. My father told me that some of the people from our area who were and still are very religious were called black ass Dutch because the women who first came over wore black from head to toe. I have an old photograph of a great great grandmother dressed that way and the only part of her that you could see was her white face.
Just found your channel. Love your energy. Will be following moving forward. Keep up the great work.
The idea that the Black Irish originated with the Spanish sailers is cool. However, in college my anthropology professor disagreed. She said there wouldn’t have been enough of them to influence the Irish gene pool.
I’ve heard that story too.
Perhaps. But I'm solidly 1/2 Irish, 1/2 Polish descent (my ancestors are well traced and almost entirely late 19th, early 20th century Ellis Island stock) and my parents came from New York. When I took my various DNA tests, Iberian Peninsula kept coming up, often a solid 5-10 percent. My paternal Irish side had relatives who came directly from Cork, a seaside trading port and presumably the receiving point of various waves, however small, of Spanish settlers. My paternal grandfather could've almost passed for Mediterranean with a short (5'6"), stocky but solid build, dark hair and eyes and prominent nose and other features. It might be overstated to some degree, but it definitely happened on some level.
Especially given that Ireland historically has connections to Iberia.
There weren't.
Black Irish have black hair....porcelin skin and blue eyes.
Kurimeo Ahau, does outstanding research on this topic.
She entirely skipped over the identity of the so called "black irish" that Kurimeo and many others have discussed and provided primary source documentation of, Such videos come up when you search, so I just don't think she wants to go there. But those of us who know, know. This is not a mystery to us.
@@hunibuni , "dodge the hijack". Her videos are watered down.
His readings are not acknowledged documented facts though. A lot of unknown authors., a lot of recent authors and pure speculation. He doesn’t have all the facts.
@@Itzpapalotl. He just monetizes some black Americans huge frustration to be precise, but this is a businnes like many others now. Platforns explode with this kind of fake content. (Edit : it's very easy to sound "academia" without being such, since as I could see with my own eyes, not even colleges and universities of "prestige" in the US teach their students how to value proper sources, how to read data and stats et all... So people just go by "what I emotionally need to be true? Deal sealed🙄"
The mere fact that you're using the term "black" (a crayon color), to describe melanated folk(s), indigenous to the western hemisphere, let's me know that indoctrination is still being taught in the western hemisphere educational system. Kurimeo Ahau, rips the veil on indoctrination.
My husband's grandfather was adopted and was told by his mother he was black Irish. The man had blue blue eyes, very fair skin and bright red hair. No one ever knew where she came up with that term or why she used it for him. When home DNA test kits became an affordable thing they sent my husband's grandfather's DNA off to be tested. He had aborigine heritage, (which explained my husband's hair).
We think when his great grandparents adopted my husband's grandfather they were told by the adoption agency that he was black Irish, meaning he had aboriginals blood in him. That's the only thing that seems to make sense to everyone because of his blue eyes, fair skin, and red hair.
There used to be a guy that worked at my gun club shooting range whose facial features looked like me so much that when I looked at him, I felt like I was looking in a mirror. One day I approached him and asked him if he could see the resemblance. He said he did. I asked him if he had Cherokee or Irish ancestry like me. He said he did. From that day on he referred to me as "his brother from another Mother. My Irish Grandmother had black hair black hair, blue eyes, and flawless lily white skin. My Scots-Cherokee grandfather had black hair, grey eyes, and brown skin.
I read that the dark hair and eye color in Ireland, Scotland, and Northern England was from the Picts, one of the ancient tribes of the British Isles, who were supposed to have had dark hair and eyes. Very interesting!
The Irish named "Dublin" (from "dubh" meaning "black" and "linn" meaning "pool" or "pond") for the Vikings, because they considered them as dark invaders from the north.
And Blackpool in England just across the water. Welsh are also similar colouring
@@laurah2831my mom’s grandmother told her that her husband’s family from Wales had the same coloring as my Mexican Dad so your information would support that!
@@laurah2831 Every indigenous welsh person i've ever seen was white, some got a tan in summer lol.
@@tknows470 there’s a famous boxer who epitomises the type, his name escapes me
My dad's mom used to always say we were 'black Irish'... until she found ancestors listed as FPC on the Chickasaw Dawes Rolls; after that we were just Irish. Our family records showed several of those 'black Irish' married German settlers in the Mississippi area.
I used to work for a Guinness beer distributor. Some reps from Ireland came to visit and one of them had dark skin but not black features. I asked our manager about him and he said “ he is black Irish”. I had never heard the term and I live in Massachusetts which has a very large amount of Irish immigrants.
My mother always said she was Black Irish. She had almost jet black hair and dark brown eyes and porcelain white skin. I took an ancestry DNA test and they break it down by parent. Her ethnicity is Irish, English, Swedish and Scottish.
This is a term not fully understood in America. I first heard of it in the 1960's. I think it still refers to people with fair skin and black hair who are from Ireland or have Irish ancesters. You might want to look at Australia as many Irish were sent there as criminals. Note the Song : "The Fields of Athenry". Sung at many Six Nations Rugby matches by the home fans.
Pierce Brosnan= Black Irish. Some say the Black Orish are descendants of the Fomprians who inhabited the isle before the Celts. Some say Fomorians were Black people.
Yet no African dna. Some say "black" but Americans understand "African". Because that's what Jim Crow told them 🙄
Many years ago, I dated a fella who referred to himself as Black Irish. He had dark skin, extremely beautiful blue eyes and very dark wavy hair. He was quite a looker.
Thank you for sharing this video. ❤️
I am from Dublin and we always referred to Black Irish was dark haired people who usually came from the Wexford and Waterford area which are on the South East Coast.
I'm so glad you brought up BLACK IRISH...... back in the 1950s I was engaged to a young man who was 1st generation Irish born in New England. My MOTHER OBJECTED to this relationship, and secretly broke us up then. I did not understand then what was her objection. Never learned....but in 2006 --50 years later-- we reconnected and finnally married. HE WAS BLACK IRISH....and the tale you tell is that told by Bill's father about the Spanish Armada sailors welcomed ashore with open arms by the Irish. After all, ANY ENEMY OF THE ENGLISH WAS A FRIEND OF THE IRISH.
Black Irish are simply Irish people with fair skin and very. dark hair. Not all Celts are red or blonde, nor are all Nordics. Many Northern Europeans have dark brown or black hair. Celts tended dark before being impacted by Normans and Vikings.
As far as the expression being used to cover or explain away mixed racial heritage in the diaspora, i suppose that’s possible, but non caucasian features tend to be strongly evident
Being half Irish,I was told that the Black Irish could be olive or fair complected with dark hair and either blue or brown eyes.
You do such great research.
Both my maternal and paternal ancestors were on the Americas and moved inland before the American revolution settling in what would become Florida and Appalchia. I was told we were black irish to explain the black hair and brown eyes. DNA now shows remnantsof tri-racial ancestry. When asked my ancestry I just go with American. We're all mixed anyway if you're here.
There was a study about 10 years ago that resulted in a book called "American DNA" [I think]. Anyway it concluded that every white person in the South had black "African" DNA. Yes, we are all mixed.
black irish means you are bi racial...bottom line.
Not me.
Very true. If anyone lives here long enough, their line eventually mixes with others.
@@user-gw1dr7rt9b not true
My grandma would talk like her Irish uncles, I was told by her last living sister that they moved from SC to NY & we are in Jersey, I have found the link in my families census but havent done the complete research yet. I did read where the Irishmen invaded & took over the part of SC my family is from. It’s a shame what the U. S. has done to so many of us & many of us will never know who we really are. Even some papers were changed by or completely falsified by census workers.
I hope you can keep digging!
We injuns over here 👀
Very, very well done !!!
My Dad was Scots/Irish. He was referred to as Black Irish due to dark hair and eyes and though his skin was quite pale, he tanned darkly without freckling or burning. Strange how people get labled when all they are is human.
I grew up in Montana, and I heard this term from time to time. People referred to themselves as black Irish if they had dark hair. Ive also heard black Norwegian.
This is a funny subject to me, because I have red hair, but my parents both had very dark, almost black hair. One year on St Patrick’s day when I was at school, my teacher told me that I’m Irish. When I got home that day, I asked my dad if I’m Irish, because my teacher told me I am. And he was like “No. We are not Irish”. Lo and behold, according to my DNA test, I am 😂.
But this is exactly why I am so interested in DNA and family stories. I was called the “red headed step child” because no one else had the red hair but me!
I worked with a woman named Maureen Kelley who referred to herself as black Irish. She had fair skin and blue eyes, but naturally black hair. It's quite a striking combo.
In the 80s an irish director called Bob Quinn made documentarys under the title Atlantean. Also a book titled Irish Atlantean. They explored links between Ireland and Africa.
I was told growing up t at “black Irish“ were Irish people with dark hair and dark eyes.
There are also "Black Norwegians" - dark eyes and hair. Ireland, Britain, France, and the Iberian Penninsula were mainly Celtic based. Red hair got to Scotland and Ireland with the Norse settling on the coasts.
@@thumbstruck old references refer to complexion of skin with colour and not hair or features. They say it outright.
Any progeny can have a darker tone via genetics.
No. Red hair was among the Irish, for one, before Norse colonization. Furthermore, Vikings were definitely not where red hair comes from - it originated in Central Asia.
@@militantlymarginal Norse carried those genes. Cork and Dublin started as Viking trading posts. The island folks between Scotland and Ireland have a high % of Norse DNA. People moved, mixed, shared recipes.
@@urrywest Right! It's all in the DNA mix!
I’m a redhead and everybody assumes that I’m Irish. I’m actually Chicano - Polish. When I was in college at California State University Bakersfield, we had an undocumented worker working on the staff. He was a black haired Irish guy.
You might be interested in Los Patricios - Irish soldiers who defected and fought with the Mexican side in the Mexican American War. My family has Irish/Wales in our Mexican line. 🎉 I have not been able to find the link yet, but hope is eternal…
@@tknows470 oh I’ve definitely read about the los Patricios.
I am also of Mexican-Polish ethnicity!
@@bunnygal778 Catholic on both sides?
My Dad’s maternal grandparents were from counties Donegal and Monaghan. His grandmother had dark hair, brown eyes, and a darker skin tone. Family folklore was she was descended from the Spaniards that were shipwrecked during the Armada hence Black Irish. My understanding is the Celts were dark haired with dark eyes and darker skin. The red hair, light skin and eyes came from the Nordic invaders.
Red hair didn't come from the Norwegians. It reaches a maximum in the Irish and Scots. It was more likely that red hair increased on the west coast of Norway due to Irish and Scots brought back to Norway not the other way around. Irish today are majority fair skinned and blue eyed with a range of hair colouring so the original population would have been like that. Celts anyway came from Central Europe so would have been varied as well. There is a lot of myths about populations.
My parents were Tipperary born, bred and buttered, the two of them! My maternal GM and one of my aunts and one of my uncles on my mam's side had brown eyes and sallow skin as well as very dark hair but never once did I hear them use the term "black Irish". It's just not a term native Irish people use.
Most indigenous, native born, bred and buttered Paddies and Bridies have blue eyes, very white, freckly skin that is often reddened by the wind and rain and varying shades of brown hair. A small few are like my Nan and aunt and uncle but a small few are red haired, which Irish people used to call "foxy" when I was a kid but no one thinks of any of them as "black Irish" or "white Irish" or even "foxy Irish"- they're just IRISH!
I have read in Encyclopedia Britannica it refers to Celtiberians who migrated to the emerald island the 1st millenium BC.
I worked with a guy named Kevin O'Neil 45 years ago and he was very dark skinned. I asked him how he could be Irish and have dark skin and African features? (He was from Arnprior, Ontario by the way.) He told me the story of the Spanish Armada getting wrecked on the Irish coast and survivors being washed ashore and intermarrying with the native Irish in the 1500s. So that is what he believed and the only explanation I have ever heard that was credible. Now most Spanish people I have known were more of the Latin types with olive coloured skin. But there may very well have been African people among the Spanish Armada who had moved to or were brought to Spain in the 1500s or earlier. Anyway, hi Kevin if your read this! 👋
My grandma once said "Who says the Irish were white?" It struck me ever since. I had read the original Irish were heavily Melanated and there were many dark skinned rulers. Many indentured servants also came here from Ireland of different phenotypes. My grandmother was a Kennedy from South Carolina and always identified as Irish. and said we were related to the president JFK through his dad's southern roots. I haven't figured that out yet, though.
I also read that the Turkish were called Black Irish and connected to Melugeon. My DNA shows a percentage of Turkic, Central Asian...like 4 percent. It showed in all my siblings who took DNA tests on Myheritage. I found our Melugeon line in The Carolinas and Tennessee. One cousin match had a obituary that stated "she was a Melugeon". Goins, Berry, Burden...yes al lot of the Plecker hit list names. lol.
I love your content it's like your doing the work for me. Just kidding. It really confirms a lot for me. Love your research and point of view. I now I have to put my research out, too. You've inspired me. Jonesborough, Tennessee is calling.
So glad!
It’s funny that with the “stranded Spanish Armada” story they present the Spanish as this dark swarthy element in contrast to the Irish they allegedly mingled with, yet when they portray the Spanish during their contact with the natives of the Americas near the same time period, they then show those same kind of Spanish as basically lily white red heads and the like.😆
I do have pale red heads in my family so I don't know what's so funny. It's not that uncommon in Northwest Spain.
@@asturiasceltic3183they're saying its funny, because the representations are much different than each other.
In reality, the Spanish Armada explanation for the existence of dark-haired Irish people doesn't necessarily hold up since, like you said, Spanish people can have different hair colors and appearances than just dark hair and skin.
The "Black Irish" refers to the "Old Folk" that lived in the south-west of Ireland who were of the strain of Neolithic farmers who had been living there for about 4000 years. They were known for their black hair and white skin. My great-grandmother was ""Black Irish", and many of our family share many of those traits , that came to America with the Irish in the 19th Century.
Dark hair and white skin is Celtic coloring, especially amongst women along the European Atlantic.
A lady who I worked with has Irish ancestry. She showed me pictures of her sisters one day. She has a sister with blonde hair and a younger sister with pitch black hair. My colleague told me that her sister is the only one in her family with that very dark hair, but everyone else has red (like my colleague), blond or brown hair. Being Irish doesn't always equal being red headed with green eyes and translucent white skin.
I took the Ancestry test and found out that I'm 4% Irish. Not a lot, but it was a shock to me. I never would've guessed it.
That variety of looks among siblings accords with the findings of late 19th century pioneer botanist geneticist Gregor Mendel. He found that if he bred a red rose with a white, of four offspring, one was red, one white, and two were pink. But even that was a random toss of the parents' genetic dice, as in the first and future generations, different phenotypic colors could appear. Some genes lie dormant in a gene pool, and may only express after a few to many generations.
A lot of people like me with British ancestry who have taken a DNA test have some percentage of Iberian ancestry. Supposedly the British isles were populated in part by Iberian fisherman migrating up the French coast and across the English channel thousands of years ago. These people would no doubt have been dark haired and eyed. They mixed with pale Celts and Scandinavians which is why people from the British Isles can run the gamut when it comes to hair, skin and eye color.
I've heard the theory that the original Celtic inhabitants of the British Isles prior to invasions from Vikings, Romans, and Normans were darker with a slightly more Mediterranean appearance. There are plenty of Irish and Welsh people who could pass as Mediterranean despite ancestry tests showing they're 100 percent from the British Isles. I don't personally believe this phenomenon is tied to America, because I've met plenty of people from Ireland, or people with both parents being born in Ireland, who look this way.
The Welsh actor John Rhys-Davies could easily pass as Spanish or Italian.
@@redbeardsbirds3747 tbh also Pierce Brosnan , Colin Farrell (and many British actors too - think of Dirk Bogarde)
@@elleanna5869they have a light tan at best. Have u ever seen a Mediterranean before?
@@redbeardsbirds3747maybe northern Italian where ppl are fair skinned. He does not look Mediterranean
@@sharkwantscoffee have you ever seen an Italian from Italy? The ones with light and porcelain skin are abundant; and no, not just in Northern Italy. I spent a lot of time in Sicily, fair skin people there aren't exceptional. Another Italian who could very well pass for "black Irish" is former football player Paolo Maldini (who's from Milan) . Mediterranean meaning only "brown" or dark skin and North Italians looking only pale is another misconception.
My grandmother was Black Irish, a Hagan. Big Irish family in Appalachia (Pulaski area). They are pale to olive or darker completion with dark hair, and eyes. Family lore tells of Cherokee blood but, I had always been told the 'Black Irish' part was a euphemism for the darker Irish with more Spanish/Roman ancestry. I never got the feeling it was derogatory and it sounds cool but, that's just my take on it. I hadn't heard the Australian theory but, it wouldn't surprise me. Anyway, I liked your presentation and learned something, thanks!
Yeah this is an odd topic for Americans. I remember a group of Britons came in and only one had dark hair and light skin and she referred to herself in front of me and two black girls as “the colored one.” People really gotta remember this is one helluva literal and racist country we don’t even know how to do anything anymore until they can cleanse the last two hundred years off of us.
I thought Sean Connery was considered by the Irish as Black Irish.
Scottish
Was Sean Connery Scottish?
@@annecollins1741Yes he was.
He was Scottish, but of part Irish Traveller ancestry.
@@jdee3421 Irish Traveler?
My dad had black hair, pasty white skin, and interesting eyes. They were brown with gold flecks in the center and a blue ring around the outer edge. He had no idea that his ancestors came to America from Ireland in 1729.
My mother had black hair, tanned skin, and blue eyes. Her ancestors were from Germany and England.
I have the pasty white skin, light brown hair, and hazel eyes.
Someone in my car pool in college asked me if my mother was American Indian.
Now, they didn't think that I was, but they thought my mother was. Go figure.
Phenotype doesn't really tell you much.
I worked with many guys from limerick, Dublin, Kerry, Galway & even Northern Ireland. They all are life long friends the greatest people anyone could befriend. Loyal to the core if they like you, respectful & as an American from Italian descent most of them would said I was Irish! lol I considered that as badge of honor, just great guys & friends to have in my life.
I miss working with & for them. Go Éire!
Another good one 👍🏽
Mediterranean looking British and Irish people have features from the earlier settlers of Britain and Ireland while the fairer, lighter or ginger looking people have features from later settlers. The Armada theory is a bit of a myth to try to explain dark haired Irish people. I've always associated the term 'Black Irish' with Americans tracing their family history and trying to explain why their Irish ancestors didn't have ginger hair and freckles.
There was recent DNA research about Irish people that they were indeed descended from Spain and Portugal. But not from the Spanish Armada. The Celtic Irish are descended from ancient Celt-Iberian tribes of Iberia that migrated to Hibernia way before the Roman and Carthaginian empire existed. That’s probably why you might see some modern Irish people having dark hair like Bono, The Corrs, Delores, and Sgt Major Harper from Sharpe’s Rifle TV series.
Your channel is so fascinating! I had never even heard of melungeon until coming across your channel. Absolutely fascinating!!! ❤
My understanding is that Black Irish are people from Ireland who have black or dark brown hair. The may have mixed ancestry with danes or possibly even be Presbyterian Scots who were forcibly moved to Ireland centuries ago.
Too their dark coloring may come from ancestry Pict (Latin for "painted people" who painted themselves, as in time of war) and/or Roman, as the Roman Empire had conquered and occupied much of Britain, Ireland and Scotland from early in the Common Era (starting with Emperor Claudius) to the circa A.D. 479 Roman withdrawal from the British Isles.
I was born and raised in Scotland by Irish parents, I heard many times people talk about the black Irish.
I was born in Glasgow to 2nd generation Irish parents all d my grandparents were born in Ireland.I am 6 foot 1inches talk and was always pale skinned growing up in Scotland.We were told from a young age by my father that we were black Irish.This was not something to be proud or ashamed of it was just who we were.It was nothing to do with the failed Spanish invasion.it was from trade that had been going on between the Irish and Spanish and Portuguese for centuries before the attempted invasion.Although I was pale skinned as a child I have always had black hair and hazel,Brown eyes.As I got older and started travelling around the world to countries with hotter climates.I found that I tanned easily and within a few days of landing in Greece Turkey,Spain,Portugal or Italy I was often mistaken for a local .I moved to and lived in London for over 20 yrs and because of the the weather I was almost always tanned.I have always thought of myself as bland Irish and am happy enough to wear the title with pride.
LOL...anyone in the family tree from once "questionable" dusky background was often termed "black Irish". Like I said once, I'm pretty sure my "black Irish" ancestor was almost certainly Sephardic Jewish. This sort of "passing" also occurred in regard to Jews in America as well. My uncle Benjamin Sauls was from around Charleston, SC, home to a Sephardic Jewish community since its founding, was most assuredly a good old Scottish Presbyterian with a coat of arms he'd paid for to prove it. During WW2 he was mistaken by Jewish servicemen twice and asked if he wanted to go to synagogue with, and as he aged he really came to look more and more like...an old Jewish man, ha ha!
Uncle Ben was my favorite uncle by far, by the way. RIP.
As a side note, Billy Connolly, Scottish actor and comedian, found a sliver of Asian Indian in his DNA a few years back, not unlike many other pure British Brits... Look up actress Merle Oberon if interested, who was roughly half Indian and Maori during the age of the silver screen.
Keep up the great work!
Your teacher assumed anyone with red hair was Irish. That doesn't explain blond or red hair in countries like Africa or South America.
I first heard this term from a coworker from New York about 15 years ago. She told me that one lineage of her family were Black Irish. I did a little more research and what i found is that many of the Moors were being kicked out of Spain, Portugal and France because of religion. Many of them scattered throughout Europe during the Spanish Inquisition. One of the places was Ireland and they mixed with the population there.
Sorry not true regarding moriscoes seeing refuge in Ireland.
What great show!
Hello I am around 40 percent Irish according to Ancestry. I am also around 15 percent Scottish and the rest is French, English and very very small about is from Norway. I read a lot about Irish history and every time I have heard or read about the black Irish is was always taking about the look of the skin. In some books it was a mix of Spanish and Portuguese because of the swarthy color of skin. I believe I was also referred to African dicent because of the color of their hair skin. I read a lot of the black Irish have varying colors of eyes. According to my mom my part of the family from Ireland left if the mid 1800s because of the potato famine and went to Quebec and then to Massachusetts.
They were Celto- Iberians who migrated to the Isles after the fall, or before the fall of Rome........