[fieldmarshaldj]

"plantation owners required Irish female slaves to mate with African male slaves so that the resulting dark skinned babies could be kept as permanent slaves."

Hence the Black Irish.

[Venturer]

I am not a historian, but this sounds like BS to me.

Certainly not the reason for the term Black Irish.

I need to see more proof than this article to convince me that any plantation owner would force a white woman to breed with a black man. especially after Miscegenation laws came into being.

It may be true that a few bred with blacks of their own accord and it is certain that many plantation owners bred with their black slaves, some rapes and some with consent for favors granted them.

I have never heard of Plantation owners owning Irish women and forcing them to breed with blacks.
Interesting though, but I would like to see more evidence.

[Jack Black]

Hence the Black Irish.

According to my authority on things Irish, my 82 year old Irish-American mom, the term "Black Irish" is slang for "Protestant". And is also sometimes used as slang for "poor, lower class". The opposite being "lace curtain Irish".

Perhaps the term is used differently in the South.