God looked down upon ta earth and was saddened by what he saw his children doing. So He wept and his tears fell on ta green hills of Ireland and created ta Irish folk.
At least that’s what my wife told me.
My Dad said the Irish were Spaniards who didn’t know how to use a compass.
Part of the Spanish Armada shipwrecked on the west coast of Ireland in 1588. The Irish killed almost all of them right away. We haven’t changed much.
Lol
I have heard that the “black Irish” were Spanish refugees from the sinkings of the Spanish Armada ships. Perhaps some were killed when they landed in Ireland, but I am sure many others were rescued and hidden if that was needed. After all Ireland was a catholic country, not Protestant like England. Henry VIII was unkind to Catholics when he created the Church of England (Anglican), then his daughter “Bloody Mary” was cruel to Protestants since as Catherine of Aragon’s daughter she was devout catholic. While not as bloody minded as her late sister, Queen Elizabeth was known to have killed a few catholics including her Scottish cousin, Mary Queen of Scots. So, no, I don’t think a lot of the shipwrecked Spaniards were killed in Ireland, even if the Queens officers were seeking them as the catholic Irish would have been eager to thumb their noses at the Protestant authorities. Imagine the excitement for a simple Irish girl to have a brave foreign catholic deposited into her home. How many marriages might have resulted.