Black Irish as used by my father, who considered himself one, was an Irish person with black hair..usually pale skin..not sure of eye color. Various theories trace it to Spanish blood..in fact, if you looked at pictures of my great aunts you would wear they were Spanish. Although the name was Devery so on their father's side at least they were of some French descent. I have never heard it refer to skin color. Wikipedia said only 3% of Irish had black hair. This does not seem right to me..the ones I can think of growing up all seemed to have black curly hair. mg