not just that there were theories that the Irish were secretly black people
Fun fact: per DNA evidence at archeological sites, at least some peoples of Ireland several thousand years ago did have dark skin. And at least sometimes, blue eyes.
Doesn’t make the line you’re mentioning less dumb and racist, I just think it’s interesting that they could be slightly right about a part that really just reveals holocene humanity was more interesting and varied than we usually think.
All people on both british islands are decendants of king mil of galicia(spain). That is were the mame morarity comes from
Well, they all at least claim to have royal blood, lol.
The Irish in particular have stories about people from Spain coming over hundreds of years ago, part of the other legend around being Black Irish (in this case, meaning darker hair and brown eyes but still light skin).
That’s not surprising at all Europe has a long maritime history and is next to both Africa and the middle east.
Everyone was dark skinned 10k years ago. Ligth skin is an adaptation to the convination of a vitamin poor diet and low uv radiation. If your population lives way up north but have a good diet like eskimos or mongols or siberians you are not as white. If your population has a shity diet but live further south you are not as white.
