newsletter. (1) It refers to a mixture of Irish and Spanish blood dating from the time of the Spanish Armada, when many shipwrecked Spanish sailors were washed up on the Irish coastline and wound up staying. The rebel's son, Maurice Fitzmaurice, had died on board, and was cast into the sea in a cypress chest. The wildest notion is that black hair is evidence of Spaniards marooned in Ireland following the wreck of the Armada. Did a state legislature once pass a law saying pi equals 3? Also, the Armada commanders made a large navigational error that brought the fleet too close to the dangerous Atlantic coasts of Scotland and Ireland. How did “nuts” and “bananas” come to mean “crazy”? What does the Chicago lyric “25 or 6 to 4” mean? La Rata Santa Maria Encoronada was skillfully handled along the northern coast of Mayo, but could not clear the Mullet Peninsula, and so anchored in Blacksod Bay on 7 September. Southerly winds blew from 21 August to 3 September, stirred up by an anticyclone over Scandinavia, which prevented the fleet from running west-south-west as ordered. The wrecking of La Girona was commemorated in illustrations of the Armada and the Antrim coast which appear on the reverse side of sterling banknotes issued by the First Trust Bank in Northern Ireland. One report reflects the frustration of the navigators: "We sailed without knowing whither through constant fogs, storms and squalls". Of the estimated 1300 people on board, only nine survived. The Spanish Armada was a fleet of 130 ships that sailed from A Coruña in August 1588 under the command of the Duke of Medina Sidonia with the purpose of escorting an army from Flanders to invade England. This allowed passage outside the northern tip of Shetland, clearing the coast of Scotland at a distance of 160 km. The 24 men on board were taken into custody and marched to Tralee Castle. One saves the big guns for last. [1], The fleet was to approach the coast of Norway, before steering to the meridian of the Shetland Islands and on to Rockall. His galleon made it through to calm water and dropped anchor over a sandy bottom beneath sheer cliffs. During a seven-day march inland, the column of survivors met a force of cavalry under the command of Richard Hovenden and Henry Hovenden[9] foster-brothers of Hugh O'Neill, 3rd Earl of Tyrone. (3) It refers to a mixture of Irish and Italian blood from the time of the Roman Empire. An example of Black Irish is a person from Ireland with black hair and brown eyes. the Spanish Armada of the mid-1500s). We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from. The weather was difficult. How did some crime fiction come to be described as “hard-boiled”? Please also read our Privacy Notice and Terms of Use, which became effective December 20, 2019. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Spanish_Armada_in_Ireland&oldid=980470585, Articles needing additional references from August 2018, All articles needing additional references, Articles lacking in-text citations from June 2015, Articles with multiple maintenance issues, All Wikipedia articles written in Irish English, Articles with unsourced statements from May 2017, Articles with unsourced statements from July 2009, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 26 September 2020, at 18:22. The definition of black Irish is used to describe Irish people with dark hair and dark eyes thought to be decedents of the Spanish Armada of the mid-1500s, or it is a term used in the United States by mixed-race descendants of Europeans and African Americans or Native Americans to hide their heritage. After some days two ships of the Armada entered Blacksod Bay — the merchantman Nuestra Señora de Begoña (750 tons, 297 men) and the transport Duquesa Santa Ana (900 tons, 23 guns, 357 men). Two more ships entered the sound — San Juan de Ragusa (650 tons, 285 men), the other unidentified. There were nine survivors, who were sent on to Scotland by Sorley Boy MacDonnell; 260 bodies were washed ashore. Having inquired of several Irish natives, either in person or via the Internet, I’d say the answer is no — the black Irish are strictly an American hangup.