Suibhne, if we are talking about a modern construct then why do you feel the need to keep poking around in the past to dredge up a minstrel influence & the term niggering to somehow prove that the black-face in border always was racist, and by implication so must all border sides now be.

As Morris-ey has pointed out above there IS more than one reading into the black-face, which is the one that most of the public make, and it is one of fashion, whether to be gothic, spooky or to try & evoke the myth of ancient pagan routes (which is what our side does).