Harvard prof Gates is half-Irish, related to cop who arrested him

Two men at center of controversy linked by Irish heritage

LATEST: OBAMA AND GATES MEETING FOR A PINT THURSDAY AT WHITE HOUSE: CLICK HERE

OBAMA REACHED CAMBRIDGE COP CROWLEY AT IRISH PUB: CLICK HERE

NIALL O'DOWD: WHY GUINNESS WOULD BE GOOD FOR OBAMA, GATES AND CROWLEY: CLICK HERE

PROF. HENRY GATES IS HALF-IRISH AND RELATED TO THE COP WHO ARRESTED HIM: CLICK HERE

MEET GATES' IRISH ANCESTOR, WARLORD KING NIALL OF THE NINE HOSTAGES: CLICK HERE

NIALL O'DOWD: OBAMA WRONG ABOUT INCIDENT BETWEEN BLACK SCHOLAR AND IRISH COP: CLICK HERE

NIALL O'DOWD: OBAMA NEEDS TO STICK TO 'JUST THE FACTS, MAAM': CLICK HERE

Henry Louis Gates Jr., the black professor at the center of the racial story involving his arrest outside his Harvard  house, has spoken proudly of his Irish roots.

Bizarrely, he and the Cambridge, MA, officer who arrested him, James Crowley, both trace their ancestry back to the legendary Niall of the Nine Hostages, a famous Irish chieftain. 

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 4th 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.

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Nster.com