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I think it's funny how dark hair and eyes and tan skin are viewed as so mysterious and mystical by people. I'm 99% European and almost half British and 99% of the people in my family on both sides have brown hair and either hazel or brown eyes with no ghost white skin to be seen.
There's nothing mysterious and nothing special about having dark hair, dark eyes, "dark" skin. It's just that within European populations are different frequencies dark hair, eyes and skin. "Ghost white" skin is only an expression for pale skin, I have that kind of skin tone as well. In early America, sometimes immigrants were stereotyped by their general look. So what was seen as "normal" for the Irish was a very pale skin complexion, often freckled, blue or green eyes, red or reddish hair and those who had a darker complexion, brown but many times hazel-eyed, very dark brown or black hair were tagged as "Black Irish". There was nothing peculiar about that, it was just that those Irish people did conform to the stereotype. Today many people who call themselves Black Irish are not even Black Irish.
Pictures to illustrate :
What was known as regular Irish Redirect Notice
I agree as who gives a rats ass one way or the other as northern european caucasian is northern european caucasian no matter what the hair or eye color is.
I heard the term used in a dashing complimentary fashion by people of my long dead grandparents' generation. I picture Colin Farrell as today's embodiment.
I always wished I look Black Irish. I love black hair with fair skin. They have the right sort of fair skin. In black hair I look like a hag, (even when I tried it as a teen)
Yes, I believe O'Donoghue is an even better example but I think kind of coloring is naturally much more common among men than women. However it is not the average Irish colouring, of which hair color is lighter than that of O'Donoghue. However for a long time, there was a belief of an "Irish race" of some sort, which combined very dark hair and light eyes. Some people are still living with that illusion. Today however we know that there no such a thing as "Irish race", just due to the high frequency of light eyes in that part of Europe that even those with very dark hair are commonly light-eyed. A similar has been observation was done when comparing southern with northern Swedish population.
I always thought of Black Irish as those who do not fit into the Irish stereotype. A lot of Irish people do not have red hair, pale skin, and light eyes. There are lots of brown/black haired, brown eyes, and olive skin. There is Pierce Brosnan and Colin Farrell as well known examples.
Where did you get the idea that Pierce Brosnan have olive skin? Don't just stare at the "Hollywood" look he's sporting, if you were well acquainted you should have seen pictures of Pierce Brosnan as a young man he was as naturally pale skin("ghost-white) and his eyes are blue not brown/hazel. Redirect Notice
Last edited by saxonwold; 12-23-2013 at 02:29 PM..
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