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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Ajwitney (talk | contribs) at 23:45, 11 May 2013 (→‎Hair, skin and eye colour statistics in Ireland). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

For the film by this name, see Black Irish (film). For black people in Ireland, see Black people in Ireland.

Black Irish is an ambiguous term sometimes used (mostly outside of Ireland) as a reference to a dark-haired phenotype appearing in people of Irish origin.[1] Opinions vary in regard to what is perceived as the usual physical characteristics of the so-called Black Irish: e.g., dark hair, brown eyes and medium skin tone; or dark hair, blue or green eyes and fair skin tone.[2] Some have suggested the Black Irish phenotype betrays the genetic legacy of seafarers from the Iberian peninsular, purportedly arriving in Ireland some hundreds or thousands of years ago.[3] These ideas remain largely speculative however, with some popular explanations persisting despite being logically discredited.[4]

Common attributions

Prehistory

The first clear evidence of human habitation in Ireland has been carbon dated to about 7000 BC.[5][6] Legends, such as those described in the Book of Invasions, refer to a number of pre-historical ethnic groups, including the Fomorians, Nemedians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha Dé Danann, and Milesians. Of particular interest is the Fir Bolg, whom Dennis O'Mullally, in his History of O'Mullally and Lally clan, refers to as "the aboriginal people of Ireland, smaller in stature than the Gaels, with jet-black hair and dark eyes, contrasting with unusually white skin".[7]

Spanish Armada

The genetic evidence is that the survivors of the Spanish Armada probably left no legacy, as the Irish have only minute amounts of Neolithic Italic Y chromosome genetic markers, such as G and J, which are present in trace levels throughout Spain. These results may be spurious as the Atlantic Modal Haplotype R1b is present in most Western European males including most Spanish and Irish males.[8]

Iberian connection

Genetic research shows a strong similarity between the Y chromosome haplotypes of males from north-western Spain and Portugal and Irish men with Gaelic surnames.[9] There is a significant difference between peoples of the west and the east of Ireland. Genetic marker R1b reaches frequencies as high as 98% in north-western Ireland and 95% in south-western Ireland,[10] but drops to 73% in north-eastern Ireland and 85% in south-eastern Ireland. Additionally, R1b averages between 90% and 95% in Y chromosomes of the Basques of northern Spain (and south-western France), considerably greater than levels of the same haplogroup found amongst the remaining Spanish genepool, where it varies from region to region in a range from 42% to 75%, but mostly with percentages in the 50s and 60s.[8][10][11][12][13]

In books published in 2006, (Blood of the Isles by Bryan Sykes and The Origins of the British - A Genetic Detective Story by Stephen Oppenheimer), both authors propose that ancient inhabitants of Ireland can be traced back to the Iberian Peninsula, as a result of a series of migrations that took place during the Mesolithic and to a lesser extent the Neolithic Age. The Ice Age caused the depopulation of the British Isles. After glaciers retreated, the islands were populated by migrations from the Iberian Peninsula. These migrations laid the foundations for present-day populations in the British Isles, contributing three-quarters of the ancestral population, according to Oppenheimer. Later migrations of Anglo-Saxons, and Normans appear to be much less significant in terms of genetic additions than previously thought.[14][15] Oppenheimer maintains there is a great lineal commonality between the Irish and British people. He also advances the controversial claim that a language closely related to Basque was long ago spoken by their shared ancestors.[16][17]

A similar theory is proposed by Bob Quinn in his trilogy of documentary films entitled Atlantean and accompanying book The Atlantean Irish: Ireland's Oriental And Maritime Heritage. In these works Quinn argues for the the existence of a west Atlantic continuum of people, linking the region of Connemara, in Ireland's West, with Iberian and Berber types who supposedly travelled by sea over a period spanning several thousand years.

Hair, skin and eye colour statistics in Ireland

C. Wesley Dupertuis conducted a survey of Irish people in the 1940s under the guidance of the Department of Anthropology of Harvard University, and gathered the following data:[18]At the time, the hair colour of the Irish was predominantly brown. Less than 15% had black or ashen hair; 50% had dark brown hair.[18] Medium brown hues made up another 15%. Persons with blonde and light brown hair accounted for close to 5%, while approximately 10% had auburn or red hair. Both golden and dark brown shades could be seen in the southwestern counties of Ireland, but fairest hair in general is most common in the Central Plain.[19] Ulster had been evidenced to have the highest frequencies of red and blonde hair, with the lowest found in Wexford and Waterford.

Other studies suggest the Irish are "almost uniquely pale skinned when unexposed, untanned parts of the body, are observed"[20] and "40% of the entire group are freckled to some extent".[21] Moreover, "in the proportion of pure light eyes", data shows that "Ireland competes successfully with the blondest regions of Scandinavia", as approximately 42% of the Irish population have pure blue eyes. Another 30% have been found to possess light-mixed eyes and "less than 1 half of 1% have pure brown".[18]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Who were the Black Irish? www.irishcentral.com. Retrieved 2013-05-08.
  2. ^ 'Who were the Black Irish?' An article provided by The Information about Ireland Site. Retrieved 2013-12-05.
  3. ^ Bob Quinn, 2005. The Altantean Irish: Ireland's Oriental and Maritime Heritage.] Dublin: Lilliput Press. See also [Kindle Edition]. Retrieved 2013-05-08.
  4. ^ T.P. Kunesh, 2001. The myth of the Black Irish: Spanish syntagonism and prethetical salvation. Retrieved 2013-12-05.
  5. ^ C. McCaffrey & L. Eaton, 2002. In Search of Ancient Ireland: the Origins of the Irish From Neolithic Times to the Coming of the English. New Amsterdam Books: Chicago. Accessed 2012-10-17.
  6. ^ Thomson, Tok Freeland, 2006. Ireland's pre-Celtic archeological and anthropological heritage. Edwin Mellen Press: New York.
  7. ^ Dennis O'Mullally, History of O'Mullally and Lally Clan, or The history of an Irish family through the ages intertwined with that of the Irish nation. Mid-West Printers & Publishers: Chicago, c.1941 & Provo: UT, 2005. Retrieved 2013-05-08.
  8. ^ a b J. D. McDonald, "World Haplogroup Maps", University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana
  9. ^ USA. "Brian McEvoy, et al., "The Longue Durée of Genetic Ancestry: Multiple Genetic Marker Systems and Celtic Origins on the Atlantic Facade of Europe", ''American Journal of Human Genetics'', October 2004". Pubmedcentral.gov. Retrieved 17 October 2012.
  10. ^ a b "Haplogroup R1b3 (Atlantic Modal Haplotype) Part I". Freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com. Retrieved 17 October 2012.
  11. ^ "WALES | Genes link Celts to Basques". BBC News. 3 April 2001. Retrieved 17 October 2012.
  12. ^ ""High-Resolution Phylogenetic Analysis of Southeastern Europe Traces Major Episodes of Paternal Gene Flow Among Slavic Populations" - Pericic et al. 22 (10): 1964 - ''Molecular Biology and Evolution''". Mbe.oxfordjournals.org. 8 June 2005. Retrieved 17 October 2012.
  13. ^ Reduced genetic structure of the Iberian peninsula revealed by Y-chromosome analysis: implications for population demography, Carlos Flores, Nicole Maca-Meyer, Ana M González, Peter J Oefner, Peidong Shen, Jose A Pérez, Antonio Rojas, Jose M Larruga and Peter A Underhill, European Journal of Human Genetics (2004) 12, 855–863, Nature Publishing Group
  14. ^ Stephen Oppenheimer, "Special report: Myths of British ancestry", Prospect Magazine, October 2006, No. 127.
  15. ^ Myths of British ancestry revisited, Stephen Oppenheimer, Prospect Magazine, June 30 2007.
  16. ^ Nicholas Wade, "A United Kingdom? Maybe", New York Times, 6 Mar 2007, accessed 5 Jul 2010
  17. ^ Science Daily[dead link]
  18. ^ a b c Hooton EA (1940). "Stature, head form, and pigmentation of adult male Irish". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 26 (1): 229–249. doi:10.1002/ajpa.1330260131. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  19. ^ "The Physical Landforms and Landscape of Ireland", Wesley Johnston
  20. ^ (Chapter X, section 2) - Ireland, Society for Nordish Physical Anthropology, The Apricity Forum: A European Cultural Community
  21. ^ Rees, J.L. (1999). Pigmentation, melanocortins and red hair. `Do freckles and red hair help Irishmen catch leprechauns?' Quarterly Journal of Medicine, 92, p.125-131. Retrieved 2013-05-08.

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