The Fomorians
There are many oblique references to the presence of Black people in ancient Ireland. Ancient Irish mythology refers to the original inhabitants of the island as being a giant, sea-faring people called the Fomorians (Fomors), which means “dark of the sea”. According to the ancient lore, they were a cushitic people from the African continent. Often depicted as demons, they defeated the first few incoming waves of invaders, but could not defeat the Firbolgs, who settled the land and lived side-by-side with the native Fomors.
Those myths may have a factual historical basis. It is proposed that the Formorians were a real people who were in all likelihood sailors from the African continent.
Two more invasions, the first led by the godly Tuatha de Danaan, and the second by the Celtic Milesians, took control of Ireland, mixing together with the Fomorians until they were no more.
There are credible sources for the African association with Ireland. The most likely of these is that they were Phoenicians and/or Egyptians. The Phoenicians were Canaanites, which came from the line of Ham. Ham is the mythological ancestor of the Black nation.
The Phoenicians were also well-known for their sailing skills, and are said to have traveled to the British Isles, which they called the “Tin Islands”. Perhaps, before Ireland was a Celtic domain, which it wasn’t until a few centuries BCE, the Phoenicians colonized it. It is noteworthy that the name Fomorians sounds a bit like Phoenicians.
There is also a legend that an Egyptian princess, Scota, left Egypt with some followers and journeyed to Ireland. Legend has it that Egyptians left many ancient tin mines all over Britain but especially Ireland which was their major source of the valuable metal.
Another idea is that they were Taureg Berbers. The Berber language is Hamitic, and the Berber people live in an area from which travel to Ireland would be easily accessible. The Berbers perhaps set sail from western Morocco, and settled on Ireland before the Celts, making it their new home.
Moorish Science Temple founder Drew Ali teaches that Ireland was once part of a Moorish empire, and that the Irish are a Moorish people. Perhaps there is a common root between the “moor” sound in Fomor and the word Moor?
Selkies and Half-Breeds
Another Irish legend tells of the Selkies, a sort-of “wereseal” that is a seal during day, but a human by nightfall. Sometimes, in an Irish family of fair-skinned, light-haired people, a child is born with dark hair eyes, and skin, and is called a Selkie.
The concept of the Selkies appears to make subliminal reference to the half-breed children that resulted from the extensive miscegenation that occurred between the Celts and the dark skinned original inhabitants that they had met upon their arrival in Ireland.
Many people of Irish descent have distant and recent African roots, and these features can still be seen in the people and in the culture. There are some Irish people with Afros (just like Andre the Giant a late continental European wrestler with afro-hair). In Southern Ireland, some people, referred to as “Black Irish”, are noted for their strikingly dark features, as opposed to the fair-skinned, light-haired north.
Although many Irish descendants are particularly pale, they do have pronounced Africoid facial features, as well as dark brown eyes, and dark brown hair that is sort-of kinky, especially in moist conditions. A sub race of the Irish called the Bronn are noticeably Mediterranean (read: African) in features especially their hair.
In addition to all of this, Celtic music is distinctly different from the rest of Europe, and easily comparable to African music.
Black, Viking and Irish
Unlike Scotland and England, Ireland was never colonized by the Romans. As a result, Ireland remained relatively isolated.
The Vikings established port cities like Dublin. The Viking texts left stories and descriptions of African soldiers captured in Ireland whom they called blaumen[blue-men].
Most Viking references to ”black” in Norse would have signified having black hair as opposed to skin color but blaumen meant black skinned. Most of these blaumen were captured soliders from Moorish Spain. It was observed that:
“A prominent Viking of the eleventh century was Thorhall, who was aboard the ship that carried the early Vikings to the shores of North America. Thorhall was “the huntsman in summer, and in winter the steward of Eric the Red. He was, it is said, a large man, and strong, black, and like a giant, silent, and foul-mouthed in his speech, and always egged on Eric to the worst; he was a bad Christian.””
“Another Viking, more notable than Thorhall, was Earl Thorfinn, “the most distinguished of all the earls in the Islands.” Thorfinn ruled over nine earldoms in Scotland and Ireland, and died at the age of seventy-five. His widow married the king of Scotland. Thorfinn was described as “one of the largest men in point of stature, and ugly, sharp featured, and somewhat tawny, and the most martial looking man… It has been related that he was the foremost of all his men.””
What about Scotland and Wales?
“Any comprehensive account of the African presence in early Europe should include England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Scandinavia. The history and legends of Scotland confirm the existence of “purely Black people.” We see one of them in the person of Kenneth the Niger. During the tenth century Kenneth the Niger ruled over three provinces in the Scottish Highlands.
The historical and literary traditions of Wales reflect similar beliefs. According to Gwyn Jones (perhaps the world’s leading authority on the subject), to the Welsh chroniclers, “The Danes coming in by way of England and the Norwegians by way of Ireland were pretty well all black: Black Gentiles, Black Norsemen, Black Host.””
Ogu Eji Ofo Annu
Sources:
Ancient And Modern Britons, by David Mac Ritchie
Nature Knows No Color-Line, by J.A. Rogers
Slava
Your issues are not with me but with the authorities I cited. Oxford Dictionary of English Language to start with has given a similar definition of Slavs (to mean slaves) in its older editions.
I am sorry if you feel I mean to belittle you. I just meant to highlight often obscured facts about European history.
I have nothing against Slavs. Maybe the English writers of Oxford Dictionary do. But address your concerns directly.
In any event, all Europeans outside the nobility were the slavs of the privileged. Euphemistically called SERFS. Until as late as 1890s.
True or false??
Jahdey
A little tired of the subject….., but I suggest that Jahdey reads some books on the subjects rather then quotes various online encyclopedias!!!!!It might correct some of his outlandish views.
The word “slave” is indeed derived from the name “Slav”, Jahdey, but the name “Slav” is Slavic in origin, derived from their name for themselves. Serfdom was like slavery in that a serf really had no choice regarding their niche in society, much as people of the Indian caste system, but the two, serfdom and slavery, are of decidedly differing natures.
The Huns, Vikings were black. I have proof. Also, did you know that the Gypsies were black too–The word comes form Egypt
Also…the tribe of Dan….Danes, Denmark and the Dantes…think about it….Who are the Tribe of Dan today….
The Irish as a people are more related to the Semitic tribes of North Africa than to the Celts of Europe. Ireland is an island of the Atlantic, and not an island of Europe, as modern archaeology would have us believe:
1. A visit to Ireland will confirm that the percentage of the population catogorized as the ‘tall, blond, blue-eyed Celt’ is most definitely in the minority, and their lineage most likely traces back to the Viking invasions of Ireland in the 4th-7th centuries. Thus the majority of the population, as verified by recent DNA evidence, do not have a bloodline back to the Celts of continental Europe.
2. The Celts arrived in Ireland (from Europe) around 700BC, yet Ireland had already been populated for at least 4000 years before their arrival. The antiquity of the amazing ancient monuments of Ireland (Newgrange, Tara) will attest to this. Archaeological dating confirms a steady building of astronomically-aligned stone monuments (dolmens, menhirs, barrows) from 4500BC to the present, yet we are led to believe the Celts (relative newcomers on the scene) are the sole identifying culture of Ireland.
3. Up to the early 20th century, historians made mention of the connections between Old Irish and Old Hebrew (Old Hebrew being the language of the Levant prior to Moses). Both languages are so similar it is possible to understand one if one is familiar with the other. The importance of this cannot be stressed enough, as it indicates a very strong cultural connection between the two regions – stronger than any cultural connection between Ireland and Continental Europe. Sadly, this connection is ignored (though not disproven) by today’s historians.
4. The Irish (Gaelic) words for a ‘black man’ (a man of dark skin tone) is ‘fear gorm’ which translates literally into a ‘blue man’. The Berbers of N Africa to this day are known as Blue Men, due to the traditional indigo robes which stain their skin. Berber tribes were an integral part of the evolution of commerce as we know it, originating in the Levant with the seafaring Phoneicians and following the Berber trade routes across North Africa.
5. The Levantine connection with Ireland is reinforced by the settlement in Ireland and Southwestern England by the Phoneicians in their search for tin. Tin mines dating back thousands of years dot southwestern Ireland and Cornwall, England. With steady mining from early ages over thousands of years it would be difficult to deny an import of Levantine cultural influences on the lands being mined.
6. The Levantine connection is yet further reinforced by music. In continental Europe, music evolved from the chanting of monks (point, counterpoint). Wind and string instruments dominated, and I am hard-pressed to find an example of a percussion instrument from Europe prior to the introduction of same during the Crusades in the 12th century. The musical history of Ireland, however, evolved in a very different way. The traditional musical instruments most associated with Ireland are the uileann pipes (put very simply – a leather bag of air from which reeds of different lengths protude) and the bodhran drum (a round wooden frame across which a goat’s skin is stretched, and played one-handed with a double-headed stick). The mizwid of the Levant is identical to the uilleann pipes in looks, sound and method of play. The bendir drum of the Berbers is identical to the bodhran. Why else would Ireland have North African instruments so connected to the Irish tradition of music if not for the fact that the aboriginal culture of Ireland was heavily impacted in the distant past by the culture of North Africa?
7. The musical connection continues with the traditional style of singing in Ireland. The style involves not holding a note, but running with the voice up and down the scale, quivering with emotion. The traditional ‘sean-nos’ (old-style) singing of Ireland and Qawwali singing of the Middle East are strikingly similar.
8. The ‘Black Irish’ of the Aran Islands. On these 3 small islands off the shores of Galway, on the rugged Atlantic west coast of Ireland, the people are Irish – they speak the language, they have learned to carve a living off the unworkable thin soil and the powerful ocean around them, and have been settled on the Islands for as long as anyone can remember. But among these Aran Islanders is a look unique to them alone in this country – a dark sallow skin and Semitic facial characteristics – a narrow face, high cheekbones and a narrow nose with fine nostrils. Interesting to note also, on Inismore, the largest of the Aran Isands, perched on the edge of a 300 foot cliff that shears straight down into the wild Atlantic, is an ancient fort – Dun Aenghus. The people who built it and its purpose have been lost in time, but it remains a peculiar remote stronghold watching over the Atlantic. Aenghus was a magician of the Tuatha de Danann tribe, a mythical race that once inhabited Ireland.
Bealtaine (Baal’s Fire) is still celebrated in Ireland.
Ireland is linked by language, music and cultire to North Africa. The Irish need to take a long hard look at the facts and stop labelling themselves as Celts.
Sigh… It appears as though some black people are so completely at a lost to answer Western power that they’ve resorted to trying to claim it as their own in mind-bogglingly awful acts of historical revisionism.