Harvard Prof Gates Is Half-Irish, Related to Cop Who Arrested Him

ABC Nuz ^ | July 28, 2009 | NIALL O'DOWD

[smokingfrog]

IrishCentral.com Publisher

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.

[smokingfrog]

On the PBS series, Gates visits Trinity College to find his roots, and says to the genealogist, “Do I look like an Irishman to you? I’m here to find my roots. I’ve been looking all over Africa and I couldn’t find anybody, so I ended up here.