Were the Irish considered aryan

Answer 1

Depends who you ask and why you are asking the question.

Linguistically, the Irish language belongs to the Celtic branch of the formerly called Indo-Aryan - now called Indo-European - language tree. Celtic is probably most closely related to the Romance branch (which includes Latin and Italian) and then to the Germanic (which includes English) language branch but there are also some similarities with the Slavic branch (which includes Russian). The people of Ireland are said to be descended from the Celts and later mixed with the Vikings, Normans and Anglo-Saxons who were all more or less Germanic peoples. But they are also descended from the pre-Celtic peoples who lived in Western Europe and have ties to the Basque in Spain who speak a non-European tongue.

The prefix "Ire" is believed by some to be a cognate of "Ary" in Aryan as is the "Eur" in Europe and "Ir" in Iran (Iranian is also an Indo-Aryan language) and is believed to mean "noble". If this is true, then "Ireland", "Iran" and "Europe" all mean basically the land of the nobles or Aryans. The Irish word "tuatha" which means "people" or "tribe" is also a cognate of the German root work "deut" from which the German word for themselves is derived - "Deutsch" basically meaning a people who understand each others language.

Aryan is the name given to an ancient people who most likely originated in what is today the steppes of southern Russia and Ukraine some 10,000 years ago and who spoke a proto-Aryan language. This ancient people who were considered to be a warrior nation eventually spread out all over Europe, Asia, and the Middle East and even invaded ancient Egypt. As they spread out they came into contact with other peoples and gradually their language began to break up into many branches. Aryan languages today are spoken in every corner of the world with English as the most prolific. Other Aryan languages include Hindu, Persian, Armenian, Greek, Russian, Polish, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Irish-Scottish Gealic, ect. Others have been lost to time.

From an ethnic point of view, the stereotypical Aryan was believed to be blond haired and blue eyed. This is supported somewhat that in India and Pakistan where the Ayrans by name in particular are strongly associated with portrayed as having blond hair and blue eyes. This may be but as the Aryans spread out over the ancient world they mixed with other peoples and these traits were then altered to varying degrees.

Therefore, the Irish have both Aryan and non Ayran heritage as do all Old World nations where an Aryan language is spoken and or not spoken today (such as Turkey). The word Aryan should also not convey any meaning of a superior master race. It is just a name applied to an ancient people that we do not know much about but from whom most of the world's dominant languages are derived. Unfortunately, the word itself now has negative connotations due to the racist policies of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich and its influence on post-War white supremist movements throughout the Western World. As a result of this the use of the word Aryan is now frowned upon.

Now the Irish have had a rough history and have encountered much discrimination from the Anglo-Saxon elites both in their homeland and in the United States. In nineteenth century America, many of the anti-immigrantion Nativist movement of the mid 1800's regarded the Irish Catholics to be lower on the social scale than the African slaves at the time. The Nativist also discriminated against the German Catholics who were arriving in America along with the Irish in large numbers. (An Irish and a German ancestor of mine met each other on the voyage to America circa 1840 and wedded upon their arrival.)

It is from this discrimination that much of the prejudice against the Irish can still be found in the United States today. Many white supremists are of Irish background who consider themselves Aryan while many other white supremists who are not of or not aware of their Irish background (the people of the American South has a large strain of Irish ancestry) do not consider the Irish to be Aryan. Either way they are both narrow minded and should realize the Aryan people long ago merged with other peoples and that no race or ethnic group is more pure or superior to another; and that there is currently only one race on this planet - the race of homo sapiens.