Is Shaquille O'neal irish?I've never heard of a black irish but his last name is irish.?

No he is not Irish though his adoptive father, whom his mother married shortly after his birth, may have had Irish roots. Shaquille's biological father's name was Toney





"Born on March 6, 1972, in a poor area of Newark as Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal, Shaq's childhood was spent with his parents, Lucille and Philip O'Neal."





"O'Neal, born in Newark, New Jersey, was named "Shaquille Rashaun" by his biological father, Joseph Toney."

Is Shaquille O'neal irish?I've never heard of a black irish but his last name is irish.?
Probably not...Most likely his ancestors were slaves of an Irishman and adopted the surname.
Reply:Former WBC Jr. Lightweight boxing Champion of the world "Irish" Leroy Haley was also a black dude, go figure!
Reply:Many turn of the century Americans doubted that Irish people were really of the same race. Though it seems perfectly clear to us that Irish people are white, it seemed less clear to our ancestors. Irish immigrants and free African Americans took many of the same jobs, and experienced similar degrees of predjudice. In America in the 1840s, an immigrant worker might be seen not as "white" but Irish. The prevalence of Irish surnames among African Americans (Shaquille O'Neal, for example) reflects to some extent the common situation African and irish Americans found themselves in. This image, from Harper's Weekly in 1871, reflects some of that ambiguity as well. The figure, which\ depicts Irish American rioters conforms to both Irish and black stereotypes--oversize feet, gangly, rubbery limbs, and a propensity to violence. A recent history of the Irish in America by Noel Ignatiev explains How the Irish Became White. His answer is that Irish Americans embraced racism. They adopted racial predjudice, in other words, so they would have someone to step on in their rise to economic and social assimilation.


But even as "whites," the Irish remained suspect. The second image, drawn by the the famous political cartoonist Thomas Nast for Harper's Weekly in 1876, manages to link both Irish and African Americans in "ignorance." One is white and one *****, but they are equals--equally grotesque in appearance, equally dangerous to the republic. Most immigrant groups have faced some form of bigotry or other. Most have also found a great deal of opportunity and embraced the "American Dream." Still, just how far can self making go?
Reply:good ?
Reply:Many african-americans have irish and scottish surnames, either because they ARE irish and scottish (there are plenty of black people in Great Britan), or because irish and scottish imigrants were plentiful in the american south prior to the civil war and the abolishment of slavery. Slave families often took their "owner's" name as their own when they were freed.
Reply:SEE PEOPLE, THIS IS WHY WE NEED REFORM IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS! WE HAVE FAILED THIS POOR CHAP, AND NOW SHE REAPS THE DIVIDENDS OF OUR FAILURE....
Reply:He was adopted.