And I've heard that the Black Irish were Iberian-blooded descendants of
shipwrecked Spanish sailors from the dispersed remnants of the Armada, after
its defeat by Francis Drake in 1588. Go figure.
Bob Karp
NIAAA
rkarp at willco.niaaa.nih.gov
----------
From: BIOSCI-REQUEST
To: gen-link
Subject: Re: black irish
Date: Wednesday, October 30, 1996 7:47PM
I don't know how true this is, but I grew up on the story that way back,
(whenever that was), Invaders from Britan attempted to conqueor the North
African area. (Era of the Crusades?) The invaders were repulsed by the
Moor's, some of the fiercest warriors of the time. The Moor's repelled the
attack and then followed the Invaders back to the British Isles in ships.
Many of the Moor's were shipwrecked on the Irish coast, took local women
for their own etc. As time went on, children were born with dark hair and
eyes, darker skin etc. and were negatively refered to as "black Irish".
Occassionally, to this day, children in Ireland are born with deeply dark
eyes etc. (Or so I am told)
Peter William Gooding <pwg02 at wumpus.its.uow.edu.au> wrote in article
<556d8e$978 at wumpus.its.uow.edu.au>...
> >: Deanna Starlin wrote:
> >: > My Mother use to tell me my ancestry was English and Black Irish.
> >: > Could someone please tell me what Black Irish is???
>><SNIP>
