Blood of the Irish: DNA Proves Ancestry of the People of Ireland

marie-mckeown.hbpages.com ^

[Renfield]

Blood of the Irish

The Blood in Irish veins is Celtic, right? Well, not exactly. Although the history many Irish people were taught at school is the history of the Irish as a Celtic race, the truth is much more complicated, and much more interesting than that ...

Research done into the DNA of Irish males has shown that the old Anthropological attempts to define 'Irish' have been misguided. As late as the 1950s researchers were busy collecting data among Irish people such as hair colour and height, in order to categorise them as a 'race' and define them as different to the British. In fact British and Irish people are closely related in their ancestry.

Research into Irish DNA and ancestry has revealed close links with Scotland stretching back to before the Ulster Planation of the early 1600s. But the closest relatives to the Irish in DNA terms are actually from somewhere else entirely!

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Medieval map of Ireland, showing Irish tribes.

Irish origin myths confirmed by modern scientific evidence

One of the oldest texts composed in Ireland is the Leabhar Gabhla, the Book of Invasions. It tells a semi-mythical history of the waves of people who settled in Ireland in earliest time. It says the first settlers to arrive in Ireland were a small dark race called the Fir Bolg, followed by a magical super-race called the Tuatha de Danaan (the people of the goddess Dana).

Most interestingly, the book says that the group which then came to Ireland and fully established itself as rulers of the island were the Milesians - the sons of Mil, the soldier from Spain. Modern DNA research has actually confirmed that the Irish are close genetic relatives of the people of northern Spain.

While it might seem strange that Ireland was populated from Spain rather than Britain or France, it is worth remembering that in ancient times the sea was one of the fastest and easiest ways to travel. When the land was covered in thick forest, coastal settlements were common and people travlleled around the seaboard of Europe quite freely.

Irish Blood: origins of DNA

The earliest settlers came to Ireland around 10,000 years ago, in Stone Age times. There are still remnants of their presence scatter across the island. Mountsandel in Coleraine in the North of Ireland is the oldest known site of settlement in Ireland - remains of woven huts, stone tools and food such as berries and hazelnuts were discovered at the site in 1972.

But where did the early Irish come from? For a long time the myth of Irish history has been that the Irish are Celts. Many people still refer to Irish, Scottish and Welsh as Celtic culture - and the assumtion has been that they were Celts who migrated from central Europe around 500BCE. Keltoi was the name given by the Ancient Greeks to a 'barbaric' (in their eyes) people who lived to the north of them in central Europe. While early Irish art shows some similarities of style to central European art of the Keltoi, historians have also recognised many significant differences between the two cultures.

The latest research into Irish DNA has confirmed that the early inhabitants of Ireland were not directly descended from the Keltoi of central Europe. In fact the closest genetic relatives of the Irish in Europe are to be found in the north of Spain in the region known as the Basque Country. These same ancestors are shared to an extent with the people of Britain - especially the Scottish.

DNA testing through the male Y chromosome has shown that Irish males have the highest incidence of the haplogroup 1 gene in Europe. While other parts of Europe have integrated contiuous waves of new settlers from Asia, Ireland's remote geographical position has meant that the Irish gene-pool has been less susceptible to change. The same genes have been passed down from parents to children for thousands of years.

This is mirrored in genetic studies which have compared DNA analysis with Irish surnames. Many surnames in Irish are Gaelic surnames, suggesting that the holder of the surname is a descendant of people who lived in Ireland long before the English conquests of the Middle Ages. Men with Gaelic surnames, showed the highest incidences of Haplogroup 1 (or Rb1) gene. This means that those Irish whose ancestors pre-date English conquest of the island are direct descendants of early stone age settlers who migrated from Spain.

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The Kingdom of Dalriada c 500 AD is marked in green. Pictish areas marked yellow.

Irish and British DNA : a comparison

I live in Northern Ireland and in this small country the differences between the Irish and the British can still seem very important. Blood has been spilt over the question of national identity.

However, the lastest research into both British and Irish DNA suggests that people on the two islands have much genetically in common. Males in both islands have a strong predominance of Haplogroup 1 gene, meaning that most of us in the British Isles are descended from the same Spanish stone age settlers.

The main difference is the degree to which later migrations of people to the islands affected the population's DNA. Parts of Ireland (most notably the western seaboard) have been almost untouched by outside genetic influence since hunter-gatherer times. Men there with traditional Irish surnames have the highest incidence of the Haplogroup 1 gene - over 99%.

At the same time London, for example, has been a mutli-ethnic city for hundreds of years. Furthermore, England has seen more arrivals of new people from Europe - Anglo-Saxons and Normans - than Ireland. Therefore while the earliest English ancestors were very similar in DNA and culture to the tribes of Ireland, later arrivals to England have created more diversity between the two groups.

Irish and Scottish people share very similar DNA. The obvious similarities of culture, pale skin, tendancy to red hair have historically been prescribed to the two people's sharing a common celtic ancestry. Actually it now seems much more likely that the similarity results from the movement of people from the north of Ireland into Scotland in the centuries 400 - 800 AD. At this time the kingdom of Dalriada, based near Ballymoney in County Antrim extended far into Scotland. The Irish invaders brought Gaelic language and culture, and they also brought their genes.

How DNA reveals ancestry

This hub explains really well how DNA origins can be traced through the male Y chromosome:

The-Y-Chromosome-Ancestry-Genetics-and-the-Making-of-a-Man

Read more about the origins of the people of Ireland

Click on a title to read more about the history of the Irish people:

• First peoples of Ireland
• Life in Celtic Ireland

Irish Characteristics and DNA

The MC1R gene has been identified by researchers as the gene responsible for red hair as well as the accompanying fair skin and tendency towards freckles. According to recent research, genes for red hair first appeared in human beings about 40,000 to 50,000 years ago.

These genes were then brought to the British Isles by the original settlers, men and women who would have been relatively tall, with little body fat, athletic, fair-skinned and who would have had red hair. So red-heads may well be descended from the earliest ancestors of the Irish and British.

[OldNewYork]

The Normans conquered only England in 1066. In 1170 they invaded Ireland, less convincingly.

[Renfield]

I’ve been to Elgin, and all over the surrounding area (I attended a summer school term at Gordonstoun many years ago).

I disagree with your remark about the single malts. All of my favorites come from Islay. The single malt museum is in Elgin, though, so if I ever get back I’ll be sure to stop there.

[blam]

Thanks. I read that one too. The other one is much better, imo.

[concentric circles]

Susana Seivane, gaiteira from Galicia.

Open the link and the player will automatically load and begin playing a couple of her tunes.

[Bodleian_Girl]

Very interesting! Is this written by the same girl who was a singer in Lone Justice?

[Renfield]

Bagpipes are played as traditional instruments in Anatolia, Poland, Persia, the mountains of central Italy, northwestern France, and Romania (and probably other areas that I don’t know about). The instrument dates to neolithic times and was once common all across Europe.

And I wouldn’t call the pipes shrill. I love a good pipe tune. If I were wealthy I would have my own personal piper.

[Renfield]

Oh, and the Berbers in North Africa play the pipes too.

[abclily]

Some Jews in Spain and some Celts share a particular blood disease. I read this years ago. I was told that the Celts were the Lost Tribes.

[AUsome Joy]

This is so interesting since my ancestors came from County Antrim. Some others may have been Huguenots who passed through Ireland.

[sasportas]

Thanks for the info. I thought it was only the Scots and the Hibernerian Irish and Spanish types who made such a big deal about bagpipes.

As to their sound, glad you like it, though I am of Scots Irish ancestry I think I would have to be born in Scotland, where I guess they are accostomed to them from an early age on, for me to be so endeared.

[sasportas]

And not just the bagpipes, what of their kilts? Did they, like the bagpipes, as you say, come from Europe? Again, who else in the world but the Scots makes such a big deal about the wearing of kilts?

The kilts underscores my earlier comment: the Scots must be ultra conservative to preserve such ancient things as bagpipes and kilts - going back hundreds, if not thousands, of years.

[AmericanVictory]

Well, my remark was based on studying a map that is made available in Scotland showing where they are all made. I did not say that there were not single malts made elsewhere but on the map Elgin seems to have the by far the largest number of locations. By the way did you tour the remainder of the Elgin Cathedral, the “Lantern O’ the North,” that was partly destroyed by “the Wolf of Badenoch?” It was the old caretaker there who informed one of my brothers of what the name means.

[BlackElk]

ping for later

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Renfield. There's more of gravy than of grave about this.

[blam]

Interesting info. Thanks.

[ZULU]

Celt-Iberians

[Renfield]

Yes, I’ve been to Elgin Cathedral and heard tales of the Wolf of Badenoch. Scotland has a dramatic history, and my first trip there was filled with tales of mad lords, secret rooms in castles, ghosts, dungeons, wars, clan skirmishes, treachery, heroism, and all manner of skulduggery.

[moose07]

[Silentgypsy]

Yes! Let’s collect big-time! Reparations! Free food and communications! I knew if I lived long enough, my ship would come in!

[RedMDer]