Who were the Black Irish?

What a joke , all of these posts about historical and genenoligcal significance.Ask any American or American/Irish citizen and they will undoubtly explain the true mneaning of black Irish. They were and still are the descendants of Scottish planters in the island of Ireland. Planted there by the English government of that time these crusaders will always be refered to as the "black irish', so sad

Thanks for this article. Way better informed than a previous one : )

Citing the Fitzpatricks in the context of families that changed their Norman name to Gaelic and then Anglo equivalents might cause some confusion when there are so many families of clear Norman origin to use as an example.

the real black irish reside in jamaica. in particular, they located in the rural mountains. they were escaped irish prisoners who intermarried with escaped african slaves. they maintained their gaelic language sometimes mixing gaelic with bantu.

It's an interesting article. I've got dark hair, hazel eyes, and nearly transparent skin. (I've gotten sun poisoning through tinted windows, so I avoid the sun.) I dohave one thing I have to take exception to: there was no famine in 1845-51 Ireland. The potato crop failed, but enough other food and animals (as well as fish) were available in Ireland. Anything that could be sold was exported to support the "life style" (drunken debauchery for the most part) of the would-be "upper class" British. The "Great Hunger" was a shortage of the food the Irish were allowed access to. There was no need for anyone to die, but british law did not see the Irish as people, so the deaths of so many Irish didn't upset anyone in england. (I've read estimates as high as 1.5 million dead with about the same number leaving for north America or Australia. We'll never know how many ships sank, taking all aboard to a watery grave, as soon as they were out of sight of Ireland. It's hard to know how many people actually died or emigrated.) Fishing in "his lordship's" lake could result in execution, hunting in the few forests that were left could also lead to death.

An ENMU professor claims the red hair gene was brought to Ireland by the Vikings. I hadn’t heard that the Irish were taxed on windows. When we were in Ireland last spring, we were told at one of the castles we toured that during the 17 or 18 hundreds it was the roofs that were taxed. By then, most people weren’t living in those old castles so to avoid paying tax on them they burned the roofs off. You can’t drive five miles in Ireland without seeing at least one of those old, two or three story fortresses standing roofless and gutted out. Of course none of that may be true. When talking to tourist one tends to try and create a good entertaining stories.

To answer JohnKinMD-No you can't-if that is a serious query. The 'O'in Irish surnames names simply means 'the son of...' or 'of the family of....'. So,O'Bama? Most unlikely!

Two small observations: Norseman to Norman. As friend (Sgt Pipe Major Frazier/Black Watch)once told me, "dere 'r only ta tings dat 'r scotch: whisky an' tape. ALLL 'lse is Scots!""

Another derogatory term for the Irish used by both noted English "Gentlemen"such as Oliver Crowell & Winston Churchill is Bog Savages. I wear a T-shirt proclaiming myself as a "Proud Bog Savage"

I heard of this many times and my family from Galway had dark features. I remember anti Irish Catholic Protestants being called "black Protestants" cause of their bigotry.

please ask CitizenWhy foe a citation Re: the Basques

Great article and great comments! Two notes: 1. The French got tired of Paris being raided up the Seine by the Vikings in their shallow draft longboats so the king bribed some of these Norsemen-Northmen-Normans to settle in what became Normandy along the french coast and let them fight future bands of their brother vikings. They then intermarried with the native french. Note the viking shapes of Duke William's ships in the Bayeau tapestry showing the Norman Invasion of England and the Battle of Hastings in 1066. 2. Since the Irish celtic group called the Scotti left Ireland, invaded what came to be called Scotland and subjugated the indiginous Pics, should the Scotch-Irish be called the Irish-Irish? The Irish Bagpipe? The Irish celtic plaid Highlander Regalia? Shouldn't we give credit where credit is due?

I grew up hearing the term Black Irish but in my family it represented those, and my mom was jet black haired blue eyes and light brown coloring who may have had Spanish blood in them. Her grandmother was from Cark and the other was from Cavan we think. I had, as a child, blond hair that went brown with very fair skin and hazel eyes which her father had as well.

My father, half Irish, was a blue eyed, painfully fair, always sun burned badly, carrot top. His sister, the other half Irish, was dark haired, blue eyed with gorgeous bronze skin, always with a suntan. Both looked so Irish, but in opposite ways.

Funny how I never heard the term applied to a woman. It was always a man who was "Black Irish." Me old mum used to say "He has the look of the hangman."