What Do Irish People Look Like? Do They Look Different From English People?

So, you might have read about an Irish person from the novels, or you might have just heard about an Irish guy that wants to meet you. No matter the case, you might be intrigued to know what do Irish people look like, right?

Well, you just came to the right place. Our team consists of five Irish persons that we personally know about. We can offer you details about what they look like and what they sound like and provide you with insight regarding their culture.

So, if you want to know them all, we would suggest going through the entire article because there is some information that not many know about.

Why Do Irish People Look Different Than English People?

We are going to state right away that they look a lot different from an average English person. None of the Irish team members and we have any similarities in terms of physical appearance. And upon notice that, we decided to do a bit of digging. We found multiple sources that explain why do they look so different.

Firstly, having different looks compared to an English person can be explained through genetics and history. According to history, Ireland and England were mostly inhabited by Celtic-speaking people. However, both the region faced tremendous waves of the German invasion.

For how tremendous the invasion was, the English language descended in comparison to the Frisian language. However, Ireland, at this moment, is basically an English-speaking country. But that was adopted after the language was introduced much later by the British.

But what about the Irish language? Well, it is one of the native Celtic languages that survived.

Nonetheless, let us focus more on looks now. Genetic-wise, the female haplogroup is not that different in comparison to an English person. The real difference lies in the male group. They have the L1, which is definitely from the Germans. In fact, the Irish and Scotland people have the highest percentage of L1 in the world.

The other common one is R1b, which is more of a Western Europe thing. And it is present in the English people too. Due to having this crucial difference, they do not have any physical traits as English people.

What Do Irish People Look Like?

Most of the Irish people will have a light skin color. However, there are Irish persons around the world that will have a dark complexion. But even that dark is not completely black. It is more leaning towards the olive color.

Considering that, we can categorize the looks into two groups. One group consists of people that have dark hair, light skin tones, and light eyes. But the hair of the group will not be entirely black.

The other group will have an olive skin tone, dark hair, and dark eyes. But the most noticeable difference is the eye color. You will notice that group number two will have fairly dark eyes, whereas group one will have reasonably light eyes. And the hair might seem a lot similar in between these two groups.

On that note, the people of group one will usually have blue eyes. That is the most common Irish eye color. Over half of the total population have this feature. Hazel and brown eyes are also common, but they are not that common compared to blue eyes. The least common eye color is green. Not many of the Irish have that.

Common Irish Words

As we have a couple of Irish team members as co-workers, we often catch them communicating using the Irish language. Upon insisting them to let us know the common terms that most of the Irish people use on a daily basis, we got to know these words:

Mucker: This is a term that most Irish people in the USA use. Even though it might sound like slang, it is not one. What it actually means is “friend” or “pal” or “mate.” So, whenever you catch an Irish guy calling you a mucker, that person is basically referring to you as a friend.
Craic: “Let’s do something craic.” This phrase is something we hear a lot from our co-workers. But what does the word “craic” mean? Well, it means fun. What they usually refer to here is they want to do something that is fun.
Additionally, the word can sometimes refer to gossiping. “We were just craicing” would mean that the group of people were just gossiping.
Fanny: Even though in the English dictionary, fanny would mean backside, it is not the same for the Irish language. It means women’s genitals. Yes, you read that right. This word is often used as slang.

And we believe that now you will not have the same thinking as you had when you think about fanny packs. Welcome to the club!

Feck: This word is another slang that most Irish would use. It basically means “throw.” “Feck that thing out of here” means to throw to that specific thing.

However, sometimes, they might use it as a verb, which would mean to steal. “We have fecked this idea” means that the idea is stolen. It might also refer to finding out a safe method of cheating or stealing.

Slán Go Fóill: Our Irish team members often use this phrase when they are saying bye. We found out it means “stay safe.”
Tabhair aire: This is another phrase that the team member says when they are going out. And this phrase means “take care.”
Grand: If you have an Irish friend, you might have caught them using the term “grand” in sentences. What does that actually mean? Well, it means “superb.” “The idea is grand” means that the idea is fine or superb.
Eejit: Before we tell you the meaning of the word, we will let you guess what it could actually mean. Found any words that sound similar to it? Yes, it does sound a lot like “idiot,” doesn’t it? Well, it is exactly what that means. People might use the word to mean “idiot, moron, nitwit, nincompop,” and so on.
Bally: The word bally is one of the most common prefixes that most of the Ireland people have in their name. It is derived from the phrase ‘Baile na.’

The phrase is Gaelic, and it means “place of.” You would not be entirely wrong if you refer to it as “town of,” but that would not give you the actual meaning.

However, the actual meaning in a word would mean “small.” So, if your Irish friend says that the object is bally, that person means that the object is small.

Dub Linn: This word does not really have a meaning. Do you know why? Again, guess what it sounds like. If the word Dublin is going through your mind, you are entirely correct. Irish people would use this term instead of the usual word.

What Does Irish Goodbye Mean?

You might have caught people saying that some have said Irish goodbye at the party. But does that mean that the person is saying goodbye in the Irish language? Not really. It is a slang phrase that originated in the Northeast region. And it refers to a person ducking out of a social gathering or party.

For example, if a friend of yours shows up at your birthday party but leaves without saying bye or bidding farewell, that person had said the Irish Goodbye. Again, this phrase is slang. Irish people are not that rude that they would just simply leave a social gathering without saying bye properly.

Why Do People Call Ireland Hibernia?

The classical name of Ireland is Hibernia. And the reason behind the naming would be the Greek geographical accounts. This is what the region was called before it got named Ireland. We believe that the name had a massive influence on the Latin word “hibernus.”

But what does “hibernus” mean? Well, according to the Latin translation, it means the land of winter. And the translation fits perfectly right.

In Ireland, winter lasts longer than the other seasons. Maybe for that reason, the Latins of the area called it the land of winter, which stayed for a certain amount of time that people started using it on a regular basis.

Final Words

To conclude, if you are still wondering what do Irish people look like, they will either have light or dark eyes, with light to olive skin tone and dark hair. And they will surely look a lot different than an average English person.

Additionally, we hope that the words and phrases we went through will make it easier for you to understand what they are actually talking about when they use those specific phrases and words.