black Irish

English

Alternative forms

• Black Irish

Noun

black Irish (plural black Irish)

1. An Irish person or person of Irish descent with dark hair, eyes, and skin
   • 1875 December, American Bibliopolist, p. 260:

     The same usage still prevails among the vulgar as in the phrases, ‘black Irish’, ‘black Dutch’, describing certain well known types of Celts and Teutons (Hollanders, probably), differing widely from the prevailing type of either race in respect of their black eyes and hair, and gypsy-like, tawny complexions.

   • 1888, Joseph Rudyard Kipling, Soldiers Three, page 84:

     Those are the Black Oirish an' 'tis they that bring dishgrace upon the name av Oireland.

Related terms

• Black Dutch

References

• “black, adj. and n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 2022.