[Olog-hai]

“Spanish”? Wrong tribes, I think.

[Does so]

Many washed up in Ireland from Spain’s “Invincible Armada”.

[Former Fetus]

Actually, the Basque people in northern Spain and southern France are vastly different from the rest of the people in Spain and France. Different culture, different language (Euskera). It was "common knowledge" in Spain when I was growing up that the Basques were the Lost Tribes, LOL. I don't believe that, but it shows that everybody knew they were different!

[katana]

The Basques are a unique people with a language unrelated to anything else in Europe who happen to live and have lived since before recorded history at the top of the Iberian Peninsula. Whether some of their ancestors migrated north to Ireland or are simply related to the Irish because both peoples migrated in from someplace else is a question that gets brought up under the "will get you laughed at" topic of "Atlantis". But the genetic similarities are well established.

I happened upon a site that scrolls through pictures of native Basques. They bear a striking resemblance to the faces one can see walking down a street in Cork or Limerick. Not at all like the Moorish and Mediterranean look one associates with "Spaniard". They certainly do not believe themselves to be Spanish and have fought just as viciously at times for their independence as the Irish have from Britain.

[kabumpo]

This has been known for decades; Robert Graves wrote about it.