The magazine ,"Ireland of the Welcomes", has just run its second article on the Spanish in the Republic. I have followed earlier discussions on the "Black Irish". The following are exerpts from the article entitled "O'NEILL and O'DONNELL on the march". This will show that the Spanish were in Ireland amd had contact with the northern cheiftans. "The Battle of Kinsale in 1601, when the gallant Northern earls, O'NEILL and O'DONNELL, fighting side by side with their Spanish allies, lost to the English. It was as a result of that battle that the English Crown decided to take permanent steps to ensure nothing similar happened again, and drew up plans for the wholesale plantation of Ulster with Scots lowlanders." "Duneill Castle, Dromore West, Co. Sligo, of Red Hugh O'DONNELL's last Christmas in his native land. It was here that O'DONNELL sighted five Spanish ships off the coast on their way to Killary Harbour, and signalled them to join him at Killybegs instead, so that plans could be made of Spanish assistance later in the year in a final attempt to rid Ireland of its conquerors. "O'DONNELL was the only one of the chieftans that knew anything about the sea," explains John THUILLER, a local historian who has made the study of this period in Irish history his life's work. "Of course neither he nor O'NEILL ever intended the Spaniards to come into Kinsale. That was absolutely the last place they wanted them to land. The Spanish fleet should have sailed up to the north west, and met up with the Irish chieftains there."" As seen in the historical context, the Spainish were allies with the Irish. To be an ally there had to be contact with them, so in this light it would appear that the Spanish were in Ireland and possibly intermarried with the Irish. (nothing like a man in uniform!) ;-) Mary McG in Tennessee