Black Irish?

Question

My mom says that I am part "Black Irish". Her biological father (she's adopted) was Irish and he had dark hair and eyes. What exactly is "Black Irish"? She didn't exactly explain.

Answer 1

Native Irish people typically have pale skin and light-colored hair.  "Black Irish" is actually a term coined by Americans (during the Irish immigration wave).

It denotes the group of Irish people with a dark hair/dark eyes phenotype (who are thought to be genetically related to the Basque of Spain).  

Less than 3% of the Irish have black hair.

Answer 2

They were moors who migrated up into England and Ireland when Isabella and Ferdinand started the great Inquisition.  Anyone who was not Catholic was killed or tortured or were smart and left.  My father is Black Irish, he has beautiful blue eyes, olive skin and black hair.  Although when he was a young man he had almost platinum blonde hair.  The moors eventually inter-married and so on.

Answer 3

About 300 years ago a fleet of war ships called the Spanish Armada, set out to attack Britain. There was a fierce storm that raged for days. The Spanish fleet had to find shelter, but could`nt dock in a British port, so they made for Ireland, where most of them were wrecked. The survivors stayed on in Ireland and most of them married and bred with the local population. As they were dark haired and dark skinned, this came through into the population, and is still there today.

Answer 4

there iare no such thing as "black Irish". and irish person with dark skin and hair is simply that. like evey country  there are plenty of people who have descendents from other countries. Me for example, i'm irish(living in ireland) with light brown hair, blue eyes and freckle but on my fathers side i know i have some french and my mother says i have some native american(her grandad came from america)

as for the spanish armada this is true but most them were slaughted on the beaches and the few that may have escaped the culling would not have made an sort of an impact on the population which was far bigger back then.

Answer 5

Black Irish can be a euphemism in a biracial (white-Indian, white-black) family to explain darker complexions in the days where that sort of thing could cause trouble.

The cause (and existance) of "Black Irish" in Ireland is a controversial one.  See, for instance, http://www.darkfiber.com/blackirish/