Black Irish (folklore)

This article is about an ethnonym. For Black citizens of Ireland, see Black people in Ireland.

The term "Black Irish" was initially used in the 19th and 20th centuries by Irish-Americans to describe people of Irish descent who have black or dark-coloured hair, blue or dark eyes, or otherwise dark colouring.[1][2] This meaning is not used in modern Ireland,[3] where "Black Irish" refers to Irish people of African descent.[4]

The first use of the term "Black Irish" is tied to the myth that they were descended from Spanish sailors shipwrecked during the Spanish Armada of 1588.[5][6][7][8][9][10] However, no anthropological, historical, or genetic research supports this story. 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.[11][12][13] Likewise, the concept of "Black Irish" was also used by some Aboriginal Australians to racially pass themselves into Australian society.[14] 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.[9][10]

By the 20th century, "Black Irish" had become a performative identity played out by Irish-Americans authors such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Robert E. Howard. In Ireland, in the 21st century, Black Irish is used primarily to refer to Irish nationals of African descent, and the American meaning is not used.[4]

  1. ^ "Black Irish". Oxford English Dictionary. Retrieved 8 December 2023.
  2. ^ Keefe, Nancy Q. (14 March 1975). "Irishisms". The Berkshire Eagle. Some readers...took these to be racist slurs.... Black Irish, properly so-called, are characterized by black hair, deep blue eyes, ruddy complexion and a streak of melancholy, which manifests itself in rage or sadness.
  3. ^ Burke, Mary M. (1 March 2023). Race, Politics, and Irish America: A Gothic History. Oxford University Press. pp. 91–93.
  4. ^ a b "Population Usually Resident and Present in the State FY023". Central Statistics Office. Retrieved 7 December 2023. Black or Black Irish - African Number 67,546. Black or Black Irish - any other Black background Number 8,699
  5. ^ Everett, C. S. (Summer 1999). "Melungeon History and Myth". Appalachian Journal. 26 (4): 358–409. JSTOR 40933999. Retrieved 23 January 2024. The "Black Dutch", like the fictive "Black Irish", are a genealogical flight of fancy...Kunesh argues that Black Irish are a U.S. phenomenon with a background rooted only in the early 20th century. At the time of internet posting, Kunesh noted the lack of any mythical variants prior to the 20th century as well as a complete dearth of historical sources mentioning such a phenotype anywhere in Ireland.
  6. ^ Fintan O'Toole (30 July 1999). "Alluring myth of 'Black Irish' may be a sign of hope". Irish Times. One sign of it might be the persistence, largely in oral tradition, of the myth of the 'Black Irish', the supposed offspring of Spanish sailors thrown by the wreck of the Armada onto the Irish coast. The idea, for which there is little historical evidence, is still used in Ireland and in Irish America to explain the fact that some Irish people have a dark, swarthy appearance. It was celebrated a few years ago by the poet Paul Durcan in his long dramatic poem Nights in the Gardens of Spain.
  7. ^ Scott, Yarbrough (2017). "Cormac McCarthy's Literary Evolution: Editors, Agents, and the Crafting of a Prolific American Author". The Cormac McCarthy Journal. 15 (2): 204–207. ProQuest 1989487158. Retrieved 24 January 2024. Well, perhaps. It seems much more likely that McCarthy was originally drawing upon the creation-myth origins of the so-called Black Irish: sailors who survived the destruction of the Spanish Armada swam to Irish shores and intermarried, thus introducing strains of dark hair and eyes into the fairhaired Irish gene pool.
  8. ^ Van Vossole, Jonas (2016). "Framing PIGS: patterns of racism and neocolonialism in the Euro crisis". Patterns of Prejudice. 50 (1): 7. doi:10.1080/0031322X.2015.1128056. hdl:10316/41783. Retrieved 6 December 2023. While not having the same history of Mediterraneanization, the Irish people have undergone a long period of racialization, and religious and racial discrimination, mainly by the British. Its history is marked by emigration waves associated with famines and economic hardship, often making them second-class citizens in the British Empire. Even the Irish have a 'black' identity: according to a widespread popular myth, the 'Black Irish' are descendants of Spanish sailors.
  9. ^ a b Tate, Claudia (1998). Psychoanalysis and Black Novels: Desire and the Protocols of Race. Oxford University Press. p. 24. ISBN 978-0-19-509683-5.
  10. ^ a b Pramaggiore, Maria (2015). "Review: The Black Irish Onscreen: Representing Black and Mixed Race Identities on Irish Film and Television By Zélie Asava". Estudios Irlandeses. 10: 176–178. Retrieved 8 November 2023. Fairly late in the book's introduction the author mentions the traditional understanding of the term 'black Irish' as the descendants of the survivors of the wreck of the Spanish Armada in 1588. In an attempt to privilege 'the new Irish' the author misses an opportunity to historicize contemporary ideologies and practices. A concept of black Irishness existed before the twentieth century, prior to the inaugural event that the author points to as a frame for the historical situation of the black Irish̶ the first deportation of a black man in an independent Ireland in 1925.
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference Vande Brake was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ Cite error: The named reference Estes was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference Podber was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ Cite error: The named reference Hughes was invoked but never defined (see the help page).