Black Irish (folklore)
Mythical ethnic identity / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The historic concept Black Irish is a myth[1][2][3] primarily used in the 19th and 20th centuries by Irish-Americans to describe "an Irish person, or one of Irish ancestry, having dark hair and a dark complexion or eyes"[4] who were supposedly the descendants of Spanish sailors shipwrecked during the Spanish Armada of 1588;[2][5][6][7] however, anthropological, historical, and genetic research does not support this. Some theorists assert that the term was adopted in some cases by Irish-Americans seeking to conceal interracial unions with African-Americans, paralleling the phrase "Black Dutch" which was also used in the United States to hide racial identity.[8][9][10] Likewise, the concept of "Black Irish" was also used by some Aboriginal Australians to racially pass themselves into white Australian society.[11] In the earlier parts of the 19th century, "Black Irish" was sometimes used in the United States to describe biracial people of African and Irish descent.[6][7]
The folkloric term "Black Irish" is not used in Ireland,[12] where "Black Irish" usually refers to Irish people of African descent, or Irish people of another black background.[13]