LL-L "History" 2012.06.10 (06) [EN]

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 L O W L A N D S - L - 10 June 2012 - Volume 06
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From: Mark and Ruth Dreyer mrdreyer at telkomsa.net
Subject: LL-L "History" 2012.06.10 (02) [EN]


Dear  Tomas:

Subject: LL-L "History"

You ask:
    Can anyone shed light on the term "Black Irish"?
Ive read of them a lot, with different theories, but none definitive...

    This is what I can offer from our family history, but I couldn't tell
if definitive comes into it...
We associate the term with one of three racial types most typical of the
Irish, but in no case does it apply to one of darker complexion.
    Pale Irish are noted as least typical, but that might only apply to the
Gaeltecht of Old around Ballyhaunes in County Mayo, where my Grandmother
hailed from. It is darkly suggested they have Viking blood, & they are
typically blond with blue eyes.
    Then there are the Red Irish. This may have more to do with complexion
for they are ruddy & inclined to freckles, but such are expected to have a
strong hereditary inclination to red hair (actually chestnut) & green eyes.
    The Black Irish have a pale complexion with good colour (they have a
blush to their cheeks & red lips) but long, straight & fine jet-black hair
& grey eyes. If I'm not wrong, Diedre of the Sorrows would be such a one.
    There is another type associated with the Western Islands & adjacent
coasts & they are as pale as the rest, but their hair is supposed to be
notably short & to be or go grey from early youth, & their eyes are usually
black. They are long of body & short of limb & great singers, & reputedly
they can't sleep out of the sound of water, whatever that means. There is
an occasional hereditary problem with the slight hypertrophy of the flesh
of the soles of their feet & the palms of their hands, & it can interfere
with finer hand-work, but hand-lotion helps. Grandmother supposed with a
chuckle there might be selkie blood in her. But she was not 'Black Irish'.
    I read elsewhere that the Pale Irish are associated with the Milesians,
Mile Espano's People, the Red Irish with the Fir Bolg, Fir Gaeloin & Fir
Domnann, & the Black Irish, the Oldest of the native races, with the People
of Nemed.

All Yrs,
Mark Dreyer.


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