Well,

I've lived in Ireland most of my life. I can honestly say that most people here would not be at all familiar with the term Black Irish. Having said that, it seems to have entered into popular debate quite recently in certain circles. The truth is that there is no Irish "race" and there are no single strand theories as to the genetic/heriditary makeup of Irish people. The American perception of lots of red haired people seems so strange to me as when I was growing up there were so few red heads that they did get taunted and singled out quite a lot, called things like duracell, rusty etc - horrible that this was. Certainly it's a characteristic that does exist here and it's most likely due to various lines of nordic settlement throughout the ages, from the early viking invasions to anglo-norman plantations and everything in between. I'm dark haired and tan quite easily, both my parents are black haired and my dad is quite dark complexioned. It never entered my mind that these physical characteristcs may be seen as somewhat "un-irish" until a few years ago when things like this started to enter the public imagination. I guess the whole mini cultural revolution we've had here recently, with it's origins in the 60's folk revival has created a lot of these things, in parallel with the need for identity etc......so much of what we see now as "traditional" or "authentic" especially concerning music, doesn't really stretch back very far......but thats a whole other debate......anyways I guess I'm trying to say that this country is not unique in european terms as regards genetic heritage, there are many crayons in the box