A fascinating article! My people came from Achill and were always referred to as "black" Irish. Dark to black hair, brown eyes and darker skin then the average Irishman. My uncle always told about when he was stationed in Hondo Texas during WWII - he looked so "Mexican" that if he went off base on a weekend pass in civilian clothes he had to make sure that he took along some "whiter" looking buddies so that he wouldn't get beaten up by the other guys from the base who would mistake him for a local. Oddly, if I remember right, a good many Spanish are very fair skinned and even red hair. At least it's good to have an idea where we originally came from. So many books I've read simply say that they have no idea where the Irish originally came from. Of course I've always secretly thought that we were the last remnants of Atlantis! (LOL) Paet On Tue, 8 Jan 2002 06:58:32 EST [email protected] writes: > In a message dated 1/7/2002 10:49:11 PM Eastern Standard Time, > [email protected] > writes: > > > > According to a New York Times article on 23 March, this discovery > also > > shows that these Irish came from pre-Ice Age Spain. > > boy...you'd think we'd get a tan out of at least one of those > spanish > genes! :( > >