An Phuinseábach

An Irish blog centred on history, law, politics, and disability.

Sudan’s Cine Gorm

  1. Ancient links
  2. Fir Gorma, Léinte Gorma
  3. Further resources

Cine gorm, often translated as ‘blue race’, is the Irish term for Black people. Even after having been chosen as the standard Irish adjective for the Black race over its more literal sister dubh (‘black’) in the 20th century1, the complex history of the word gorm still remains largely under-explored, triggering much public debate over its use. People like Foras na Gaelige board member Ola Majekodunmi believe that dubh should supersede gorm2, while organisations like GORM Media reinforce the word’s presence in the public consciousness3.

One of the more interesting and unknown theories on the origin of the Irish word gorm has to do with the way many ancient peoples – including the Gaels, the Norse, and the Arabs – categorised colour. All these ancient peoples had a singular term that referred to a spectrum of cool dark shades including black, dark blue, and dark green. For the Gaels, this was gorm; the Norse, blár4; and the Arabs, azrag (أزرق)5. This ‘macro-term’ was useful in that it could refer to things as visually complex as the ocean, the twilight sky, bruised skin, bird plumage, algae, and gemstones.

It was through interaction with the Norse and the Arabs, this theory holds, that the Gaels first applied gorm to Black people. Fragmentary Annal 330, thought to have been composed at the height of the Viking slave trade in the 9th century, records the arrival in Ireland of captives from Arab-ruled ‘Mauritania’, what is modern Morocco and Algeria. It is thought that the Norse applied the word blár to the captives due to their dark skin taking on a “blue gloss” in direct light, much like raven feathers do, and that this application was borrowed for the word gorm6. The Annal itself refers to these Mauri captives as fir ghorma, and later clarifies them to be nigri, the Latin term for the darkest hue of skin7.

Indeed, it is not far from Morocco and Algeria that we find another country that, like Ireland, still applies their ancient ‘macro-term’ to people with the darkest hue of skin. This country, Sudan, uses the Arabic word azrag for certain groups of Sudanese who traditionally have the darkest skin, are the least assimilated into the Arab mainstream, and are stigmatised as the most ‘African’8. These azrag minorities, collectively known as the Zurga (زرقة), are the victims of yet another genocide amidst a brutal war that has been ongoing for over a thousand days.

Anok Yai is a South Sudanese-American supermodel who is of Dinka ethnicity9. Dinkas, like most South Sudanese, can be considered azrag10.

Fir Gorma, Léinte Gorma

Sudan’s current predicament is the result of foreign intervention, an ethnicity’s monopolisation of power, and an anti-Blackness derived from the slave trade11. Since independence in 1956, political power in the country has been monopolised by a handful of Riverine Arab tribes who, since the 1980s, have sponsored Nomadic Arab mercenaries to act as counterinsurgency forces against Zurga ethnicities whose lands – particularly Darfur – were resource-rich12. The Riverine Arab dictator Omar al-Bashir, who in 2013 created out of these Nomadic Arab mercenary groups the Rapid Support Forces (‘RSF’) as a counterweight to the power of the Riverine Arab-dominant Sudanese Armed Forces (‘SAF’), was ousted by a joint RSF–SAF operation in 2019. Al-Bashir’s ouster was motivated by a year of widespread pro-democracy civilian protests against his government’s policies.

….Sudanese activists called for inclusive citizenship by the widespread slogan “You [arrogant racists]… the whole country is Darfur” (yā al-ʿunṣurī al-maghrūr kull al-balad Dār Fūr).13

The RSF and SAF worked together for years to hijack state institutions and prevent the establishment of a civilian democracy until full-scale war broke out between the two in April 202314. At present, the RSF controls most of Darfur and western Kordofan. The SAF controls eastern Kordofan, the Nile states, and the Red Sea coast. Several azrag-led groups defend their traditional lands in Darfur and Kordofan15; some are independent, some are allied with the SAF, and some – including the government of the independent nation of South Sudan – cooperate with the RSF16.

This war, which has resulted in an incalculable number of civilian deaths, continues to be sustained by funding and weapons sales from foreign powers, particularly the United Arab Emirates (‘UAE’), the primary enabler of the RSF17 and a close ally of the United States and Israel18. Both the RSF19 and SAF20 have engaged in ethnic cleansing against azrag populations, though the RSF is markedly more genocidal and blatantly Arab supremacist; their current series of brutal massacres are described as the Second Darfur Genocide.

As a Sudanese, my only options should not be the Islamists or the RSF. No one supposed to ask me to choose between two disasters — under any circumstances. Both have Sudanese blood on their hands, and both have ruined Sudan.21

It is nothing other than opportunism that keeps this bloodshed going. Sudanese resources – including gold22 and gum arabic – are illegally smuggled out of Sudan and sold to Western multinationals like Nestlé, L’Oréal, and Coca-Cola23. Western arms manufacturers and emerging Asian powers like Pakistan24 have their products bought and used by both sides25. American26 and European27 politicians, who possess the most leverage, are bribed by Emirati actors in an effort to resist calls for boycotts and sanctions on the UAE as demanded by activists28 and politicians29 globally.

Minister Burke TD meeting the UAE Minister of Foreign Trade in December 202530.

Further resources

The Sudanese cause in Ireland is led by various civil society organisations including the Ireland–Sudan Solidarity Collective (‘ISSC’), the Sudanese Doctors’ Union of Ireland (‘SDUI’), and Belfast’s Anaka, which is itself connected to the British and Irish branch of the Sudanese Communist Party31. Politicians from Sinn Féin32, Fianna Fáil, the SDLP33, the Alliance Party34, and People Before Profit (‘PBP’) have shown public support. It was PBP in particular that enabled the pro-Sudan movement to successfully deliver a letter to the Government outlining 11 urgent demands in December 202535.

Below is a number of resources for Irish people regarding Sudan.

Boycotting
Donate
News sources
Sudan in Ireland
In-depth reading
  1. Ó Fionnáin, Mark. Colour Terminology in Modern Irish. Brill, 2023. 113–117. ↩︎
  2. Carroll, Rory. “Blue no longer: ‘person of colour’ added to Irish lexicon.” The Guardian, July 13, 2021. ↩︎
  3. Ogoro, Mamobo. “Why Black People are in Blue in Ireland | Black History Month.” Talking head video. Posted October 19, 2023, by GORM. ↩︎
  4. Viti, Carlotta. “Semantic variation and semantic change in the color lexicon.” Linguistics 63, no. 4 (2025): 974. doi.org/10.1515/ling-2023-0161 ↩︎
  5. Bender, M. Lionel. “Color Term Encoding in a Special Lexical Domain: Sudanese Arabic Skin Colors.” Anthropological Linguistics 25, no. 1 (1983): 19–27. www.jstor.org/stable/30027653 ↩︎
  6. Crawford, Jackson. “The Historical Development of Basic Color Terms in Old Norse-Icelandic.” PhD diss., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2014. 39–40. ↩︎
  7. Hood, Robert Earl. Begrimed and Black. Fortress Press, 1994. 36. ↩︎
  8. Ahmed Abdel Aziz, Azza. “Living an Embodied and Narrated Skin Tone.” Cahiers d’études africaines 240 (2020): 895–918. doi.org/10.4000/etudesafricaines.32427 ↩︎
  9. Abdulmajid, Iman, and Owen Meyers. “V130: Supernova Summer with Anok Yai.” V Magazine, May 7, 2021. ↩︎
  10. “Museveni claims South Sudanese are not black but ‘blue’.” Sudans Post, January 27, 2021. ↩︎
  11. Thomas, Edward. Islam’s Perfect Stranger. I.B. Tauris, 2011. 21. ↩︎
  12. Mamdani, Mahmood. Saviours and Survivors. HSRC Press, 2009. 199–223. ↩︎
  13. Vezzadini, Elena, et al. Ordinary Sudan, 1504–2019. Walter de Gruyter, 2023. 611. ↩︎
  14. IFPRI Sudan. Under the Gun. March 2025, discussion paper 02328. 8–9. ↩︎
  15. Thomas van Linge (@ThomasVLinge). “Sudan MAP UPDATE: the situation in Sudan as of 01/02/2026.” X/Twitter, February 1, 2026. ↩︎
  16. Tesfaye, Surafel. “Salva Kiir’s Heglig Nightmare.” Horn Review, 15 December, 2025. ↩︎
  17. Malsin, Jared, Benoit Faucon, and Robbie Gramer. “How U.A.E. Arms Bolstered a Sudanese Militia Accused of Genocide.” The Wall Street Journal, October 28, 2025. ↩︎
  18. Mahjoub, Husam. “The emerging sub-imperial role of the United Arab Emirates in Africa.” Transnational Institute, February 4, 2025. ↩︎
  19. Andersen, Daniel, et al. RSF Systematic Mass Killings and Body Disposal in El-Fasher, North Darfur 26 October – 28 November 2025 (Yale Humanitarian Research Lab, 2025). ↩︎
  20. Alnour, Aziz, et al. “The Kanabi Killings.” Lighthouse Reports, December 16, 2025. ↩︎
  21. Eiad Husham (@EyadHisham10). “As a Sudanese, my only options should not be the Islamists or the RSF.” X/Twitter, February 20, 2026. ↩︎
  22. Soliman, Ahmed, and Suliman Baldo. “Gold and the war in Sudan.” Chatham House, March 26, 2025. doi.org/10.55317/9781784136406 ↩︎
  23. Naidu, Richa, and Khalid Abdelaziz. “How a key ingredient in Coca-Cola, M&M’s is smuggled from war-torn Sudan.” Reuters, March 4, 2025. ↩︎
  24. Sayeed, Saad, and Mubasher Bukhari. “Exclusive: Pakistan nears $1.5 billion deal to supply weapons, jets to Sudan, sources say.” Reuters, January 9, 2026. ↩︎
  25. “Genocide in Sudan, the Role of the UAE, and the Complicity of the West.” Campaign Against Arms Trade, October 31, 2025. ↩︎
  26. “$6B arms deal to Israel bypassed Congress; U.S. signals “readiness” for Iran talks; Last U.S.-Russia nuclear treaty set to expire.” Drop Site News, February 2, 2026. ↩︎
  27. Joshi, Shraddha. “UAE launched ‘lobbying blitz’ on European Parliament over Sudan war resolution.” Middle East Eye, November 28, 2025. ↩︎
  28. TAGATU3. “For a Cultural and Academic Boycott of the UAE.” Spectre Journal, December 2, 2025. ↩︎
  29. Barry Andrews MEP. “We can’t champion Sudan as a priority in one breath and sign a free trade deal with the #UAE in the next…” Facebook, November 27, 2025. ↩︎
  30. peter.burke.fg. “➡️Meeting with UAE Minister Minister of Foreign Trade, Thani Al Zeyoudi.” Instagram photo, December 10, 2025. ↩︎
  31. Kirby, Dianne. “The Revolution is Not Over: Sudanese Female Asylum Seekers and Refugees in Belfast.” The Journal of Social Encounters 8, no. 2 (2024). 189. ↩︎
  32. Sinn Féin. “Flow of weapons to Sudan must stop and Irish Government must speak up – Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire TD.” Press release. November 9, 2025. ↩︎
  33. Sinead McLaughlin MLA. “The world cannot look away from Sudan.” Facebook, November 11, 2025. ↩︎
  34. kate_nicholl. “Very moving event organised by the Sudanese community…” Instagram post, November 27, 2025. ↩︎
  35. People Before Profit. “Sudan Demonstration at Dáil.” Press release. December 17, 2025. ↩︎

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