Irish DNA isolated for first time ever

Responders appear to be clashing Irish machismo, energy better served by uniting to prime that beautiful Ireland economic pump! Elected leaders attemt devisive tactics. Show them. Unite. Think English and Roman empires; Who wasn't invaded? As for DNA & global warming, these are facts. Surely tracing the DNA of a man with 10 generations of proven Irish ancestry t'would be more valuable. Who makes these decisions? Get active and stop yer moaning. Also, I propose eliminating the polite meaningless term "Great Irish Famine" and replace it with the more historicaly accurate "Great Irish Starvation." By using correct labels, we face truths, and avoid the name calling, boys.

Finger prints and now DNA it is interesting isn't how unique each person is?All interesting stuff but will it make a difference to the Irish?

Agree with Seamusdhu - 3 generations is nothing in genetics and genealogy. I'd want to test a bloodline that goes a lot farther back than that.

Dompedro: I was just curious - no putdown intended - since you agreed with Citizenwhy more than with krissangel and jimgordo1. I thought they all had good posts. I've had a mitochondrial DNA test through a legitimate medical lab and have had some genetic courses in my medical training. You've provided an interesting post - just looking for info.

response to jamieLM-- I reviewed my post and didn't see where I claimed to be an expert in DNA testing and am not sure whether you are looking for information or a putdown -- but to answer your question, you could try reading books (Cunliffe, Rafterry, Sykes, Fagan, Oppenheimer, Ellis) or published papers on the subject from the past ten or fifteen years from various labs throughout Europe --- and krissangel is correct about the invasions into the British isles, but the Norse and Normans (root word is not a coincidence) and Anglo-Saxons apparently left remarkably little, although detectable, DNA inheritance in the islands' populations ------ and while lostgold (terrible calamity?) appears correct about the lack of henges and burial mounds like those in the Boyne Valley in the Basque country, there are huge dolmens in Gallicia which are remarkably similar to those such as Poulnabrone in the West of Ireland (which may well predate New Grange and Stonehenge) and whoever and however many migrants may have come from northern Spain , they also may have predated the henge and mound builders

There is a work on the market called "Erins Blood Royal"the Gaelic Noble Dynasties of Ireland " by Peter Beresford Ellis detailinf what happened and where are the descendants of many of Irelands aristocracy whose lands were held forfeit by the British crown. Some of these families can give evidence of their pedigree back centuries with real historic knowledge and even further to the time of the Milesians if you asses ancient legendary material as having any worth. Why didn't Dr.Loftus and his team do DNA sampling on these people not some individual from the streets of Dublin whose DNA goes back only three generations i.e 60 to 90 years. Why not someone like Samuel Trent McCarthy whose bloodline can rightly be called and I hope I have the Gaelic correct ;Priomhlittera nan derb na Eber" Head letter of the blood of Eber.Not some street fuzz from Dublin whose great grandfather could have wandered in from anywhere in Europe.

"My Y chromosome signature shows a relationship to Faeroe isles Norse Vikings and Dalriadic Scots" How do you distinguish between the Irish and Dalriadic Scots genetically?

"All Irleands problems are created by the cronyism and corruption of Ireland, no one else." This is the result of the post-colonial client state phenomenon which is still predominant in many third world states (i.e. South America). That Ireland has had much more stability and relative prosperity than most other post-colonial countries is telling given it's relative lack of natural resources and the fact that it's modern political origins result from a destructive civil war and artificial colonial division. Moreover, you ignore what was given up by Ireland with EU membership including currency autonomy and fishing rights.

"A better test for a "typical Irish DNA" would be to test someone who can document their family history a lot further back than 75-100 years. I would imagine that the majority of the Irish results would be Norse/Norman or Continental." Why even bother posting this completely unsubstantiated speculative nonsense. In the cases where the issue has been closely examined, results strongly suggest that the majority of the Irish in the regions tested suggest majority descent from ancient haplotypes such as Irish Type III or R-M222 Mutation. http://www.bowesonenamestudy.com/dna_project_pages/participants/haplogroup_r1b/r1b1b2a1b5b/ http://www.irishtype3dna.org/index.php A 2006 study found very little Viking blood in the Irish: http://www.nature.com/ejhg/journal/v14/n12/abs/5201709a.html Moreover, Norse/Norman and "continental" can be very different things. Even in the most general sense, it is undisputed that the RIb haplotype is most heavily concentrated in Ireland (and among the basque) and dilutes as you move east through britain into the continent.

naughtios I was not speaking about the EU I was speaking about Europe as it was during the Great Famine. Even so it strikes me as strange that ships from the Ottoman Empire reached Ireland before that of European states . Could they have bought into the British prejudice that the Irish are pigs so let them die anyway.They must have known what was happening before the Turks did. As for the idea that the Basques were the original people of the British isles perhaps and I assume that these were the Stonehenge and New Grange builders.Why do we not find anything like Stonehenge in Spain where Basque migrants came from. As for the DNA project itself I hope its not part of the National Geographic Genographic Project based upon mistakes like declaring and still sticking to the idea as far as I know that Robert Peary was first man at the north pole their track record isn't so hot.Books like "Peary at the Pole Fact or Fiction?"and "The Coldest March"by Solomon doubt this conclusion. In short I hope National Geographic doesn't do to the DNA based human migration project what they did to polar exploration.Many students of Polar exploration think Peary lied in his diaries.

Here's a good blog on a bit more info on Irish genetics if yo want to hear from people that know what they're talking about. hhttp://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2010/09/genetic-differences-within-european-populations/

Lostgold, you do know the Eu didn't exist the time of the famine. If it wasn't for EU money Ireland would be a bigger basket case than it is now. Some people seem to be thining of a country that only existed in DeValeras wet dream. All Irleands problems are created by the cronyism and corruption of Ireland, no one else.

George Dillon, irish peolpe will be gone in ageneration, give me a break, you almost manage to out Paisley Paisley. The only place they will be going is overseas because of Angloo.

Are these researchers doing serious work? Or are they going to start selling a test to find out how inbred Irish you are?

I agree with George Dillon completely but I also think that if an Irish government of the future tried to get rid of these foreign immigrants the first cry that would go up would be racism and who do these Irish think they are. However there was little or no help from other European nations when millions of Irish were dying of hunger during the great famine or when thousands of Irish girls had to sell themselves as whores on the streets of London and Birmingham to make a living.First ships to reach Ireland during the Great Famine with aid were from Islamic Turkey our European brothers stood strangely silent. Also while DNA knowledge is good according to E.Curtis in his "History of Ireland" the modern Irish people were formed when the old Norman stock that remained Catholic threw in their lot with the old Gaelic stock that remained Catholic As for that Basque genetic element hinted at in the book "Celts,Saxons and Vikings" so what nobody in our own country cares anymore that the first Americans were paleolithic people from Siberia.As a matter of fact it was the lowland Scotch plantation in Ulster that were given the former Irish Catholic lands is the origin of the present problem in the North of Ireland who when they migrated to the American continent became the great Indian fighters that helped drive native Americans off their land. See any good biography of Davy Crocket, Kit Carson, Daniel Boone they were all Scotch-Irish Has anyone checked Scotch-Irish DNA?