Posted on 07/29/2009 11:29:14 AM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
Henry Louis Gates Jr., the black professor at the center of the racial story involving his arrest outside his Harvard University-owned house, has spoken proudly of his Irish roots.
Strangely enough, he and the Cambridge, Mass., police officer who arrested him, Sgt. James Crowley, both trace their ancestry back to the legendary Niall of the Nine Hostages.
In a PBS series on African-American ancestry that he hosted in 2008, Gates discovered his Irish roots when he found he was descended from an Irish immigrant and a slave girl.
He went to Trinity College in Dublin to have his DNA analyzed. There he found that he shared 10 of the 11 DNA matches with offspring of Niall of the Nine Hostages, the fourth century warlord who created one of the dominant strains of Irish genealogy because he had so many offspring.
Ironically, James Crowley, whose name in Gaelic means "hardy warrior," is also descended from the same line as Gates, having very close links to Niall of the Nine Hostages.
So the two men who took part in what is now an infamous confrontation outside the Gates home near Harvard this month are actually related through common Irish lineage -- one of the more extraordinary aspects of the incident that has sparked worldwide headlines.
Gates is one of many famous African-Americans with Irish heritage, including President Barack Obama and award-winning author Alice Walker.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Well, that explains his temper.
Are we sure we want to see these guys get liquored up tomorrow night?
“one of the more extraordinary aspects of the incident that has sparked worldwide headlines”
Not really extraordinary at all. Whoever their common ancestor might have been, it was long enough ago to be meaningless. Plus, you could already tell Gates was mixed-race just by looking at him.
No wonder they chose beer!
Who cares if he’s Half-Irish, Gates hates white people. Period.
Yes we do, you could sell tickets for this, imagine Gates on one of his “I hate Whitey” tears.
the legendary Niall of the Nine Hostages ??????
He’s only “half” Irish if you believe, as ABC apparently does, that having one Irish great-great-grandparent out of 16 somehow adds up to half...........
http://justoneminute.typepad.com/main/2009/07/so-that-would-be-black-irish.html
Just as you can tell that virtually ALL ‘African-Americans’ are mixed race just by looking at them.
VERY FEW of them bear ANYTHING like the classic African tribal physiognomy, and increasingly, probably fewer and fewer Africans do too. So it makes NO sense for A-As to try to make a point about being “African”. They are ONE HUNDRED PERCENT AMERICAN, and they got that way by miscegenation. As such, they make PERFECT Americans, since America is Mutt Central. And all of us should be PROUD of that status, especially when we look at the monoracial cultures that exist now in the world, like China and Japan, ancient indeed, and “just starting” to get into the swing of things that America has been pioneering for 300 plus years.
Those that become [so-called] journalists are usually far from being the best and certainly not the brightest.
Must be Black Irish.
Or the black sheep of the family.....
Chairman O should make it a real farce by serving corned beef and cabbage. . . even though people really eat bacon and cabbage back in Eire.
So what if he’s half whatever. Doesn’t excuse him being an anal orifice.
Actually,he only hates the white half.
Sure. First thing that came to mind when I saw Gates’ picture—another Irishman. So, ABC, anything ELSE you can do to pacify, defuse and generally get Hussein off the hook for being a racist?
As for someone who lived in the 4th century A.D., do you realize how many descendants that person would have living today? Probably in the billions. Certainly in the millions. Pretty much everyone of Irish descent.
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