I wonder if the brand name for that wonderful premium Bushmills whiskey, "Black Bush," comes from it's purportedly black-hearted Protestant legacy? (Yeah, I know, it's just a reference to the black label -- but why black?)

Despite my Catholic/Gaelic ancestry, I much prefer Bushmills to Jameson, and occasinally take some ribbing for my preference. (Tullamore Dew is my favorite distilled-in-the-Republic brand.)

I still believe the theory that Spanish sailors figure in the ancestry of those dark-haired "Black Irish." Even though there may not have been signifcant numbers of survivors from a particular final battle between the Armada and the English Crown, there was a long natural alliance between the Catholic Spanish establishment and the downtrodden people of Ireland, as well as plenty of trade through a number of ports including Cork and Galway. I don't believe for a minute that no children were begotten of any individual "alliances" between traveling Spaniards and Irishwomen.