But there is only one recorded instance of the killing of Spanish castaways by Irish not directly in English pay, and it aroused general reprobation. Usually the Irish sheltered the Spaniards, supplied their necessities, and, whenever they could, helped them out of the realm. Several hundred Spaniards did so escape, mostly to Scotland. … If one sees, time and again, the same physical types in Connaught and in Galicia, it must be for some other reason.

Garrett Mattingly, The Defeat of the Spanish A…, loc. 829