Ya. I digress on that one. The Spanish Armada DID in fact invade the Southern Ireland area. That’s why the dark ones are down south. The redheads are up north…that is where the viking blood comes in.
Now…as far as the Irish over in Ireland referring to the term “Black Irish”…um…I think you may be right. Most of my friends from Ireland refer to people like me who are dark as “Gypsies”…so, my guess is that many of the dark ones are the gypsy irish.
Welcome to the SDMB, and thank thee for posting thy comment.
Please include a link to Cecil’s column if it’s on the Straight Dope web site.
To include a link, it can be as simple as including the web page location in thy post (make sure there is a space before and after the text of the URL).
Cecil’s columns can be found on-line at these links:
Who are the “black Irish”? (30-Jul-1993)
The column (including Slug Signorino’s illustration) can also be found on pages 77-78 of Cecil Adams’ book «Triumph of the Straight Dope (1999)».
and
Do some Irish names come from Spanish Armada survivors?
The column can also be found on pages 111-113 of Cecil Adams’ book «The Straight Dope (1984; reissued 1986, 1998)».
moderator, «Comments on Cecil’s Columns»
Hi! 
Welcome to the SDMB.
Around here we have a tradition. If a person asserts something is true, we ask for a cite. That is, for example, if you say the people who live on a certain island are all 3 feet tall, we ask you to mention a book or link to a website that supports your claim. This isn’t just for you , we more or less expect it from everybody.
Please provide cites for your ideas that:
[list=a]
[li]The Spanish invaded Ireland, ever.[/li][li]The involvement of , if any, Gypsies in Irish ancestory.[/li][/list=a]
thank you.
There were a few threads concerning that column which we did previous to now.http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=78133&highlight=black+irish
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=1826&highlight=black+irish
I didn’t go back and read them, but quite often new questions have been answered in old threads about old columns.
Give it a try.
Bosda - I suspect the OP was probably referring to the mythical ‘Milesian Hypothesis’ as below:
http://www.historyireland.com/magazine/current.html
The OP said “The Spanish Armada invaded Ireland.”
I don’t think that has anything to do with Milesius.
Nametag: Right you are, I must have had a mental hiccup there :).
hookmom: So okay, I guess the question still stands - What’s your cite for the Armada landing in Ireland? If they did why would you suppose large numbers of the sailors would have interbred with the locals? And they had, why would such a minuscule addition to the genetic diversity of the population have a profound effect on local physiognomy?
http://communities.msn.com/SpanishArmadaIrelandCountySligo
Apparently, there were 3 armada vessels wrecked off the coast of Sligo, which is in the north east of Ireland
http://www.historybuff.com/library/refspain.html
Another reference to Armada vessels sunk near Ireland.
There would have been a lot of trade and contact between Ireland and Spain pre Armada.
I myself am black Irish and it dosen’t refer to gypsies at all.
My bf refers to his heritage as “black Irish” and IMO the black refers to his moods… 
Not really.
We go back to the Milesian Hypothesis. According to the myth, the “Sons of Miled” were the last race to invade Ireland, the ones who subdued the Tuatha de Danaan and consequently became the ancestors of the “modern” Irish (bear in mind that the myths in their recorded form date from the 1st millennium AD, so terms like “modern” are extremely relative). Celticists in the 19th-20th Centuries, seeking to prove that the Irish invasion cycle was a record of real events, argued long and hard about where these Milesians could have come from, with Iberia being only one possibility.
A more obvious, and intriguing, option is that they came from the Phoenician city-state of Miletus. We know from archaeological evidence that the Phoenicians travelled all across Europe during the 1st millennium BC, trading for Cornish tin and other exotica. It’s quite possible that a colony existed in Ireland - and these people, of course, would have been dark-haired sub-Caucasian types rather than the blond- and red-haired Teutons of inland and northeastern Europe.
In short, whether the Red Irish are remnants of the Aes Sidhe or later Viking invaders, it’s the Black Irish who share a racial origin with other inhabitants of the West European Celtic Fringe - Galicians, Catalans, Bretons, Cornish, Manx, Welsh and Gaels.
Except that I believe that Miletus was mostly Ionian Greek, rather than Phoenician. They were active as colony builders, though. But I believe their focus, naturally enough, was primarily the Black Sea region. Regardless, maintaining a substantial ( substantial enough to significantly impact native bloodlines ) colony, as opposed to a trading post, in southern Ireland, would have been extremely difficult. No impossible, perhaps, but difficult. Would the benefit be significant enough?
http://www.turizm.net/cities/miletus/
Wasn’t it the French who invaded the south of Ireland? I believe it was in the 18th century, in supprt of one of the rebellions.
Whether or not the Spanish, French or even Gypsies invaded Ireland, I doubt that it has any influence over the prevailence of black hair among the Irish.
After all, black hair is found on every continent, among all of the world’s ethnic groups. It’s too common to represent anything in particular.
What’s remarkable about the European gene pool, though, is the variety of hair colours OTHER than black/dark brown. Maybe it’s something in the water, or maybe at some point in the distant past a distinct racial group migrated into territory previously dominated by people whose hair was a different colour. Some palaeontologists have hypothesised, for example, that Neanderthal Man might have had red hair - which would push the Black Irish Invasion theory even further back than anyone’s suggested thus far.
Eek. Sorry about the multiple post above. My connection’s playing up for some reason.
Hello
I’m new, and saw a show on the History Channel about
the Spanish Armada, which prompted me to research
things and, well, I was led here. I have a question
about my background that I REALLY need an answer
to.
I am Irish and English. My question is about my (late)
Grandfather, who came to America at age 4 from
Southern England - sorry, I do not know which town.
He had dark, tan skin, black hair, and dark brown
(almost black) eyes. His son, my father, looks
exactly like him, as does my sister. I have thick
dark brown hair and green eyes (from my Mother,
who is 100% Irish, and burns all the time )
but I get very tan in the Summer-to the suprise of
others LOL…and it’s not hard forme to get one,
either.
So, my question to you is - WHAT’S UP WITH THAT?
Is it the Spanish thing, or what? Did the Spanish
invade Southern England? If not, then WHY do
people in my family have this appearance??
Thank you in advance for any theory/answer(s)
you may have.
Okay, random guessing without knowing your own heritage. Yep, I’m sure we’ll be able to do better.
Consider that Africans have been cross-bred into European stock since the time of the Romans (if not before), and I think you can see there’s plenty of opportunity for your English ancestors to have some residual African traits. Most likely within a dozen generations.
Not to mention, certain elements of the French are darker haired and skinned. This would allow influx from the Norman invasion of England.
And of course there’s possible Spanish or Greek or italian influences in the last few generations.
Have you done any geneology? That would provide a more conclusive answer than asking us what the possibilities might be.
Um, excuse me - but my family HAS tried to do a
Genealogy on our family, and the records only go
so far.
I just thought I’d throw this question out there, since
it seemed like the people on here were very
intelligent and knew about this subject.
Whatever.
Oh, and I could’ve done WITHOUT your sarcasm.
Have a nice day.