i hear alotta different opinions about what “black irish” means. I am lst generation irish american & my peeps tell me that is what the irish called the irish who gave up their religion 2 join the church of england so that they could keep their property. Usually in the english language black is not a good thing, like black ball, black list, black day, etc. I would like 2 hear if anyone else has heard that version of the phrase.
I’ve also heard it (only very rarely) used as a euphemism for ‘non-white ancestry’, as wikipedia puts it.
Originally the Irish were blond haired and blue eyed just like the British. But then the country got invaded by the Moors. And the moors are niggers. They did so much fucking, they changed the bloodline forever.
You’re…part eggplant!
OK, just kidding. That’s actually the Sicilians. Sorry.
(Link if you didn’t get the above joke.)
Cecil’s column on the Black Irish.
I’ve only heard the term in reference to people with Irish names who look more Italian than Irish. As in, “he must be black Irish, ha ha.” Not used in a serious way, as if there were actually a race of “black Irish.”
I do know that the Irish were not considered white upon their arrival to America, and if you look at cartoons of them from the 1800s, they’re depicted as knuckle-dragging apes. I never understood this, since Irish always meant to me “as white as you can get,” but I guess the British and Scottish upper-classes had a very different definition of “white.”
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Thanks for the morning giggle – I lurved that scene! I swear to Og, I was just talking about yesterday – how i honestly can not think of a movie that he has been in that was not way the fuck out in left field and yet, he is one of my all-time favourite actors.
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Black Irish = hot, IME.
As Cecil says in the linked column, it’s definitely not a phrase you’d hear around here. There are plenty of recent immigrants to Ireland: the PC term at present seems to have gone from “Foreign Nationals” to “New Irish”.
Yeah, whatever it means and whereever it came from it’s not really an Irish term. I’ve only heard it when people are referencing Americans using the term. There are a lot of black haired blue eyed Irish though.
“Black Irish” is a phrase almost never heard in Ireland. I’ve only heard it there in discussion of Cecil’s column, with fellow Dopers in a pub.
That said, I’ve met a few scorching hot Irish ladies who fulfil the description, so that look does exist there.
ETA: oh yeah, what them paddies upthread said.
Correction:
Irish = hot. 
Why thank you!
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Jimmy: “Do you not get it, lads? The Irish are the blacks of Europe. And Dubliners are the blacks of Ireland. And the Northside Dubliners are the blacks of Dublin. So say it once, say it loud: I’m black and I’m proud”.
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I have to say that, I married one.
Seriously though, have you been to Ireland? Most of them look like potatoes.
So, uh, you female?
/worst line ever…
As I posted in a similar thread before, black is often used to mean protestant in parts of Ireland. Perhaps it originates from that. ‘Black Irish’ is on the Irish census but I think it refers to people of African descent born in Ireland.
http://www.cso.ie/census/Question14_000.htm
Slight Hijack.
I grew up hearing the Black Irish stuff. Pretty much was weaned on it.
In my Mother’s opinion, if you aren’t Irish, well, you wish you were. :rolleyes:
Being that both sides of her family (dad’s and mom’s side) both came from Ireland to Canukistan, she was weaned on Irish! Irish! RAH! RAH! RAH! etc.
So, a few years ago, my mom had this problem with her hand locking up. After awhile it would unlock itself. She chalked it up to Old Age (and did not see a doctor about it.) A couple of years into this sporatic and increasing hand locking problem, she was at a family reunion and found out that one of the cousins had this problem too. He had surgery to correct it.
She gets into the doctor’s office for the consult and finds out that this hand locking problem is indicative of people of Scandanavian heritage.
THAT, my friends, put a bee up my mother’s nose and I have been wanting to buy some kind of Viking warrior thingie for her since.
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My father was born and raised in Lancashire, England, by a mother who was half-Irish (and it was apparently somewhat scandalous when Granddad married her :eek: ) I have a younger brother who’s apparently the spitting image of his Irish great-grandfather with black, curly hair and blue eyes (yes, he’s handsome, and smart, too!). I’ve always thought of him as “Black Irish” in terms of looks and I assume I got the term from Dad it was either him or Mum, and she was born and raised in Surrey. Maybe it’s a British-ism, not an Irish-ism? 
hmm. while i do happen to be an ‘orangeman’ (protestant) myself and actually don’t wear green on st. patrick’s day, i was always told the black irish ancestry referred to very pale skin and very dark hair. my eyes are hazel, though, not blue. gotta say the african descent thing is a totally new wrinkle! 
Shirley Ujest, Ireland was raided repeatedly, and the east of Ireland was settled by, the Vikings (“Dublin” is “Dubh Linn” from old Norse), so it’s not particularly outlandish.
lol I remember making fun of my brother when he was younger because he thought we had black-african in our blood (we had some ancestors referred to as black-irish). My Mom made me explain and convince him that it meant pale skin w/black hair… not black skin!
She always took away my fun (sniffsniff)