A00146 - A Side Trip to Dublin and an Exploration of Black Irish Roots

 A few years ago, I took a DNA test.  Quite expectedly,  the test results indicate that I am 73 percent of African (West African) heritage.  However, one surprise was that I was only two percent Native American, the same percentage as the two percent attributed to being Scandinavian out of my total twenty-five percent Northern European bloodline.  The twenty-five percent European American component was not surprising. After all, my surname "Jenkins" came from somewhere and I suspect that it came from a white progenitor from England or Wales

https://www.ancestry.com/name-origin?surname=jenkins

additionally, my paternal grandmother (my father's mother) and my Canadian cousins are from the Saunders bloodline

https://www.ancestry.com/name-origin?surname=saunders

and that bloodline is quite English.  However, one name that has stayed with me for many years is the name of a great great grandfather, a certain Arthur Conley, a white man who married a black woman to be part of my mother's blood line,  As indicated below, Conley is an Irish name and so, when I was informed that my return flight on Alaska Airlines affiliate Aer Lingus would include a 24 hour layover in Dublin, i jumped at the opportunity to travel to the homeland of Arthur Conley ... and to explore my Black Irish roots.  

https://www.ancestry.com/name-origin?surname=conley

After taking a tour of Trinity College (founded in 1592)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity_College_Dublin

including viewing the Book of Kells (one of the first North European books written) 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Kells

and visiting the Long Room Library

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Trinity_College_Dublin

I got a bite to eat at the local McDonalds (a subject for a future email) and decided to head back to the hotel (I am a bit older these days).  I caught a taxi and in somewhat typical fashion began a conversation with the driver about what was going on in his great city.  During our conversation I mentioned that one of my forefathers was named Arthur Conley.  To my surprise, the driver was not surprised.  He began to tell me about how the Irish were slaves (actually indentured servants) too and that mingling of black and Irish blood was a well known occurrence.  He pointed to the many prominent fair skinned Caribbean people as being evidence of the intermarriage between Black and Irish people and even noted the cultural exchange between the two peoples was more than just the tap dance and Irish dance scene from River Dance.

The conversation with my taxi cab drive caused me to think about this cultural exchange and in my initial Google query, I found this 

https://www.irishcentral.com/roots/genealogy/black-irish-identities

I know that there is more to learn about all this.  However, for now this will have to suffice.  After all, I have a plane to catch tomorrow morning.  It is time to leave my ancestral home and return to home that I call my own.

Peace,

Everett "Skip" Jenkins

Dublin, Ireland

April 9, 2023