Can anyone tell me why Ireland, a northern Europena country, has so many dark haired, olives skinned....?

Question

Mediterranean looking people like me native to this island? By the way, why are so many of us dark-skinned, dark-haired Irish so blue-eyed? I say, we really are an odd lot of people. Sometimes, I can understand why the blond haired, pale skinned Nordic looking English see us as so exotic a race of people.

Answer 1

Dna testing in recent years give us the best clue.

The vast majority of the Irish are descended from prehistoric peoples who came from the Basque region of Spain/france about 10,000 years ago. A smaller proportion are descended from later neolithic farmers who  came from Mediterranean areas. these people  were  probably dark haired,and like most mediterranean people were 'long headed' (the latter confirmed by skeletal remains from dolmens and other stone age tombs).

  On the fringes of the country, esp around Dublin, you get small amounts of other Dna such as viking.

  Although celtic culturally, there is no archaeological evidence of any large scale Iron Age celtic  'invasion' of people to Ireland from the so-called celtic 'homeland' of middle Europe. The bronze age people before this period probably already spoke a celtic dialect,so could be termed proto-celtic.

    the Armada story is just a myth. So few survivors could not have dented the genepool in such a major way as confirmed by the  recent testing.

Dna experts say that if your grandmother was white and born in Ireland, there is every chance you had an ancestor living there in the stone age.

Answer 2

I too have dark hair, dark skin, although dark eyes! (Scottish, and scottish family as far as I know) I'm afriad I have no answer for you other than, yes everyone is very strange, but thats what makes us hot!

Answer 3

I heard the story years ago from me Dar in Cork City.

About the time of Queen Elizabeth 1st.  The Spanish Armada tried to attack England in 1588.  Sir Francis Drake chased them up the Irish Sea and around the West coast of Ireland.  At this point many Spanish sailors were shipwrecked and intermingled with the Red Irish, that came years before from Northern France. Some of the red Irish were of Viking descent.

Occasionally a blue eyed gene comes out.  Black hair and blue eyes is very striking.

The Fitzgerald's of JFK fame were French settlers in Ireland, but they just became Irish. No hyphenated people over here.

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Answer 4

Some Irish people look of oriental extraction.

Answer 5

The Celts that inhabit the island of Ireland came from Iberia not Britain.  It can be seen in the Celtic languages, Irish, Gaelic and Manx are are separate branch to Welsh, Breton and Cornish.  In fact what evidence was found of the Celt-Iberian language is that it is related to the Irish language family.

Also before 1400s Ireland's largest trading partners would have been Iberia so there would have been many commercial and cultural ties.

Answer 6

In terms of English people, I've never noticed any particular difference in skin tone or hair colour, just the same variations all round. In terms of historic invasions going back that far, it's impossible to seperate Britain and Ireland and I would think the genetic makeup is very similar. That having been said, both islands are part of the outreach of the wider european continent and have been settled by multitudes of peoples for thousands of years and wide variations in physical characteristics among the populations exist. It's really not surprising at all. I'm quite dark and never really gave it any thought until quite recently when there seemed to be a lot of preoccupation about what the typical Irish person looked like, which is of course a silly idea. The red haired stereotype which has been prevailing for the last 20 years or so isn't even correct as a stereotype. There may be truth in the migration of the Iberian Celts and Mediterranean peoples to these islands but really seeing it in an overall European context of people having always been on the move makes a lot of sense anyway so it shouldn't be surpising.

Answer 7

A lot of Irish have dark features ie black hair, dark complexion and eyes.

"A quick review of Irish history reveals that the island was subject to a number of influxes of foreign people. The Celts arrived on the island about the year 500 B.C. Whether or not this was an actual invasion or rather a more gradual migration and assimilation of their culture by the natives is open to conjecture, but there is sufficient evidence to suggest that this later explanation is more likely. The next great influx came from Northern Europe with Viking raids occurring as early as 795 A.D. The defeat of the Vikings at the Battle of Clontarf in the year 1014 by Brian Boru marked the end of the struggle with the invaders and saw the subsequent integration of the Vikings into Irish society. The migrants became 'Gaelicized' and formed septs (a kind of clan) along Gaelic lines.

The Norman invasions of 1170 and 1172 led by Strongbow saw yet another wave of immigrants settle in the country, many of whom fiercely resisted English dominance of the island in the centuries that followed. The Plantation of Ulster in the seventeenth century saw the arrival of English and Scottish colonists in Ulster after the 'Flight of the Earls'.

Each of these immigrant groups had their own physical characteristics and all, with the exception of the Ulster Planters, assimilated to some degree into Irish society, many claiming to be 'more Irish than the Irish themselves!'

The Vikings were often referred to as the 'dark invaders' or 'black foreigners'. The Gaelic word for foreigner is 'gall' and for black (or dark) is 'dubh'. Many of the invaders families took Gaelic names that utilised these two descriptive words. The name Doyle is in Irish 'O'Dubhghaill' which literally means 'dark foreigner' which reveals their heritage as an invading force with dark intentions. The name Gallagher is 'O Gallchobhair' which translates as 'foreign help'. The traditional image of Vikings is of pale-skinned blond-haired invaders but their description as 'dark foreigners' may lead us to conclude that their memory in folklore does not just depend on their physical description.

The Normans were invited into Ireland by Dermot McMurrough and were led by the famous Strongbow. Normans are ultimately of French origin where black haired people are not uncommon. As with the Vikings these were viewed as a people of 'dark intentions' who ultimately colonised much of the Eastern part of the country and several larger towns. Many families however integrated into Gaelic society and changed their Norman name to Gaelic and then Anglo equivalents: the Powers, the Fitzpatricks, Fitzgeralds, Devereuxs, Redmonds.

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Another theory  is that these people were descendants of Spanish traders who settled in Ireland and even descendants of the few Spanish sailors who were washed up on the west coast of Ireland after the disaster that was the 'Spanish Armada' of 1588. It is claimed that the Spanish married into Irish society and created a new class of Irish who were immediately recognisable by their dark hair and complexion. There is little evidence to support this theory and it is unlikely that any significant number of Spanish soldiers would have survived long in the war-torn place that was sixteenth century Ireland. It is striking though how this tale is very similar to the ancient Irish legend of the Milesians who settled in Ireland having travelled from Spain"

Answer 8

In the book of invasions the Fir Bolg are described as being small and dark (thought to have had connections with teh Eastern mediterannean). We were then invaded by the Tuatha De Danaan, who were tall and blonde, adn came from teh North.

Although these can really only be taken as a sort of creted mythology, some of it can probably be based on reality. Certainly, although we are a very mixed lot, having been invaded time and time again by different people, we are less mixed onteh whole than teh English, adn there certainly are more dark haired, dark skinned, light eyed people. There is also a higher percentage of red headed and fair skinned people too.

Answer 9

Celts were not blond or red headed like we think, but quite dark. I am of Irish desecnt on both sides,  but my paternal side is quite dark haired at least with brown eyes ( and go quite grey VERY early too eg  complete salt and pepper white by 30 for many of my dark headed cousins and father and aunties)......thankfully my swiss heritage has made me fair and have avoided much of the obvious grey!

I understand many of the celts actually dyed their hair...and I think it was with urine!!!! So they are actually quite dark, not fair as such.

Answer 10

Many Irish, especially those from the west, are descended from traders from Spain, Portugal and Morocco. Those countries did a brisk trade with Ireland during the Middle Ages, and many merchants from those places had homes in Ireland, and many Irish merchants had homes in those places also. The design for the Claddagh ring is believed to have come from Morocco.

A certain number of people from Spain and Portugal were forced to leave there due to the Spanish Inquisition - the west of Ireland was a refuge for many 'heretics', including Jews. Many of them came to Ireland as refugees, set themselves up here, and gradually became absorbed into the local communities. A surprising number of Irish people have this ancestry, they don't realise it because the records have been lost in many places. I have vivid red hair and green eyes - I'm storybook Irish! - and I know that I have Jewish ancestors on both sides.

And one more thing - the Galway name of Costelloe is quite possibly a corruption of the word 'Castellian', which is, of course, Spanish.

Hope this helps!

Answer 11

Spanish descent-also why 99% Catholic

Answer 12

Because Ireland was settled by many branches of the celtic clan, The Iberians(spanish) and the Gauls(french) and the germanic tribes of the celtic people. there are also stories that people from as far away as gaza and judea came to ireland between the periods before christ and 100ad.

Answer 13

yeah that's quite an interesting question. I have dark hair and dark eyes. Alot of people think that i have an oriental look. My cousin looks spanish too. But definately irish people have originated back to spain and scandanavia.

Answer 14

They current Irish are descended from people from Spain.

They aren't Catholic because of the Spanish descent.  That's a separate issue.  How the Irish Saved Civilization includes a brief overview of the settlement of Ireland.

We're talking like 3-4 thousand years ago people came from Spain to Ireland.