The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #64952   Message #1067178
Posted By: Fiolar
07-Dec-03 - 08:35 AM
Thread Name: Folklore: Black Irish: Etymological Consensus?
Subject: RE: Folklore: Black Irish: Etymological Consensus?
Sorry Dave. Not all peat is black. Quite a fair amount of it is dark brown especially near the surface. It's only really black when you go fairly deep. The appelation "Bog Irish" was only ever meant as an insult. Very few Irish, if any, ever lived in a bog, which was only used as a source of fuel bearing in mind that coal mines as such are few and far between in Ireland.