I have always heard (and used) the term "black Irish" to mean Ulster Protestants (as distinct from Catholics) in the settlement of the eastern seaboard of the US. As I understand it, the predominant entry point was Chesaspeake Bay and the route was into the Shenandoah and Great Virginia Valley and thence southwest, thus settling the piedmont areas of the south eastern states because tidewater lands were already settled. Does this make sense? Or is it another kind of "Armada" myth?

Jon Bartlett