On a visit to Ireland two years ago I could have sworn half the population had red hair. But they printed a story in a Dublin newspaper while we were there that only ten percent of the Irish are red-haired. The same thing when I go to the Milwaukee Irish Fest. You’ll never see so many red-haired people in one place.
C. Wesley Dupertuis conducted a survey of Irish people in the 1940s under the guidance of the Department of Anthropology of Harvard University, and gathered the following data:[13]
The hair color of the Irish is predominantly brown. Less than 15% have black or ashen hair; 50 % have dark brown hair. Medium brown hues make up another 15%. Persons with blond and light brown hair account for close to 5%, while approximately 10% have auburn or red hair. Both golden and dark brown shades can be seen in the southwestern counties of Ireland, but fairest hair in general is most common in the Central Plain.[14] Ulster has been evidenced to have the highest frequencies of red hair, with the lowest found in Wexford and Waterford.[13]
Studies have indicated the Irish are "almost uniquely pale skinned when unexposed, untanned parts of the body, are observed" and "40% of the entire group are freckled to some extent." Moreover, "in the proportion of pure light eyes", data shows that "Ireland competes successfully with the blondest regions of Scandinavia", as approximately 42% of the Irish population have pure blue eyes. Another 30% have been found to possess light-mixed eyes and "less than 1 half of 1% have pure brown".[13]