Kipling used the term in "Soldiers Three," 1888: Those are the black Oirish and 'tis they that bring dishgrace upon the name of Oireland."
More recently, J. B. Priestly said "He was a black Irish type, with centuries of rebelliousness behind him."

The Oxford English Dictionary defines black Irish as Irish of Mediterranean appearance (This was the definition in the Irish section of my family).

I was told by an Ulsterman that it applied to the Catholics.

Lace-curtain Irish?
Shanty Irish ?
Bog Irish?
Nylon-curtain Irish ? Relatively new, applied in U. S.