Quote Originally Posted by Zardoz View Post
This is very true, and not just with the Irish. It's become a symbol of Celtic identity for many folks. We see images all the time of Welsh, Manx, Cornish and Breton people at home and abroad expressing their Celtic heritage by wearing the kilt.
See, this whole "Celtic" thing is anither thing I and many others just don't get. The English Romantics started heaping this "Celtic" name on non-English inhabitants of Britain during the Romantic period in the late 18th century. In the late 1700s popular poetry spread the notion that you were either a Celt, an Anglo-Saxon or a Viking. Aye, that's right, poetry written in the drawing rooms of the stately homes of England without a thought toward fact.

Fact is there was no more a Celtic race than a north American race. In fact DNA testing has shown that the markers most commonly associated with the "Celts" are to be found more frequently in England than in Ireland or Scotland. Males in my family have been tested and we are members of the Y-DNA R1a1 Haplogroup, indicating Viking ancestry, despite us coming from a very boring, never went anywhere, when is it going to stop raining, Scottish lineage.

If you have the time, this article is quite explanatory. If you don't have the time, I suppose an attention grabbing quote from it would be “Celt” is now a term that sceptics consider so corrupted in the archaeological and popular literature that it is worthless.

Or; less controversially, The English still derive most of their current gene pool from the same early Basque source as the Irish, Welsh and Scots. These figures are at odds with the modern perceptions of Celtic and Anglo-Saxon ethnicity based on more recent invasions. There were many later invasions, as well as less violent immigrations, and each left a genetic signal, but no individual event contributed much more than 5 per cent to our modern genetic mix.
The first inhabitants of Britain and Ireland were the dark haired Iberians/Basques, and evidence of their linegage is still seen today in the "Black Irish" of the west coast and the dark haired Highlanders of the West Highlands and Western Isles. These people have DNA profiles that have strong similarities with the current Portugese, an old people pushed to the very Western fringes of Europe by an agressive expanding population.

Any "Celtic" DNA you may have could indicate Merrie Olde Engerland as your ancestral home, rather than Hibernia or Caledonia.

As a very astute Irishman once said, "Celtic" doesn't mean anything unless you are trying to sell someone something.

I'm sorry, but I just don't get the Celtic thing. The Scottish kilt appeared in the Highlands of Scotland in the 1700's and became fashionable among the toffs for two influential periods. Through this it became Scotland's national dress. I don't see how it's "Celtic".

If someone says I like wearing a kilt because I like the look\I like the feel\It's a laugh\it makes me feel different\I just like dressing up now and then\I just really like the bloody things, I have no problem with that at all. I just don't get the representing/honouring all Celtic nations/ancestors biz.

I just think that there may be a bit of confusion between the Scots and Irish. Doing business with Americans here and abroad, I have been asked if I am Irish more times than I can remember. If I say I am Scottish I have been told that I do not sound Scottish. This coming from individuals who have never been to Scotland. If I insist I am Scottish, I often get a reply along the lines of "Well, it's all Celtic, isn't it".

No, it isn't, there's quite a dreadful history between Scotland and Ireland for anyone who chooses to seek it out. Without being too obvious, it's easy to see why the introduction of the kilt in Ireland in 1900 failed, for many it was a symbol of something else, something negative. Thankfully times are changing, but the idea of some sort of Celtic unity remains a fantasy, (least of all because if you want some true Celtic unity you are going to have to include the English with their heavily "Celtic" DNA, like it or lump it). I have just reminded myself yet again why I do not post here too often.