A Chairde:
This subject has not been around for a few years, three to be exact, but I came across something that might be of interest. A posting by someone from Galiza, Spain, at http://www.mudcat.org/Detail.CFM?messages_Message_ID=1474708.

A Chairde,
Gabhaigi mo leithsceal. The Dark Irish Revisited
link is not correct. It should be http://www.mudcat.org/threads.cfm. Look under Folklore: Black Irish: Etymological Consensus. Look for GUEST, Galician (6 May 2005).

Here is a posting that caught my eye and "got my goat."

This thread caught my eye earlier this morning. Irish is predominant in my family "mix", and I was always told that we were "Black" or "Dark" Irish. My granny came from County Cork. She would say the Dark Irish were Gypsies, commonly called "Tinks (Tinkers)", and "Travelers." I've no idea, really, but the Spanish Armada connection makes sense to me. Anyway, I wanted to share something I came across just a few minutes ago while surfing the web researching Black Irish. (this is from the posting on website)

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The "Black Irish" myth of Spanish Armada has been so thoroughly debunked that I will not bore others or myself with details.

Any connection between Irish Travellers and the Armada and "Black Irish" is also total béal ónna. Historically, itinerants in Ireland (like many other European societies) were comprised of a wide variety of people: from poets and healers to musicians and tinkers and stone masons...and like many itinerants, in Ireland they developed their own cants, mainly based on Irish. MacAllister was one of the few scholars to write about some of the rarer ones like Béarlagair na Saor or Language of the Stonemasons. There was also the Secret Cant of the Poets, Tailor's Cant, Carnival or busker's cant, etc.

Anyway, as one of the writers put it on this site, the connections between Ireland and Spain were ancient and long-lasting. But the Armada myth is a myth.

Genetic tests show that Irish people share a lot of their ancestry with the Basque Country, where early Europeans huddled during the Ice Age. Irish myths also tell of King Milesius who came from Spain and conquered Ireland. This is the source of dark hair in Ireland.