Just who are the Irish, anyway?

[Dughlas mor]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...mepage%2Fstory

I thought this article was interesting, and sums up pretty well the current thinking on the subject. Somehow, I am reminded of a Mark Twain quote, something like "Experts are looking into the subject and it is thought that soon nothing will be known about it at all." Happy St. Patrick`s Day!

[O'Callaghan]

Milidh (Milesius) came from Spain, according to legend. I see no reason to disbelieve that.

[Dughlas mor]

Milidh (Milesius) came from Spain, according to legend. I see no reason to disbelieve that.

Yes, it seems that the current research would lend more credence to the legend, but perhaps they arrived in Ireland a bit earlier than was previously thought to be the case.

[Reiver]

The latest research into migrations supports this...or it supports the latest theories.

That the Q and P Celt language and peoples came from the European continent south of England migrating northward thru England, Ireland, Scotland.

This is supported by numerous recent DNA studies and language names of places common to travel with migratory peoples.

This 'new' study indicate the Scots were not from Irish Island roots and the similarities in language simply indicated a normal trade 'language' to enhance commerce. It is easier to cross to Ireland than cross the terrain in many Scots areas...especially in that day of no roads and the hazards of being robbed of trade goods.
Try Ewan Campbell...."Were the Scots Irish" 2001 Antiquity 75 pp. 285-92

[GrainReaper]

My mothers side of the tree is Irish, traced back to around 940... There are a good number of olive skinned family members, with a constant hint of Mediterranean features that crop up quite often in old pics and texts. An interesting bag, ancestry is

[Reiver]

Yes, a literal mixed bag.

The old Irish invasion theory taken at face value for decades is of interest too.

Some conjecture, by those that support the non invasion thesis, contend that Scots (in the 10-1100's) claimed Irish roots at the same time claiming 'royal' Irish roots to underline a claim to specific thrones or to simply advance title.

Now, would a Scot BS for advantage.....say it ain't so.

[Michael Weatherhead]

In the book "The Story of the Irish Race," by Seamus MacManus, he tells the story of young Egyptian girl, who was the daughter of a pharoah. She was brought to Ireland (I don't remember how it supposedly happened), but she married a young ancient Irish noble. I'll have to go back, and get the facts straight.

[MacGumerait]

Dughlas , interesting news article .

Archaeology always has many messengers and rightly so .

Cheers , Mike

[John_Carrick]

There are megalithic tombs here in Sligo and evidence of settlements that go back to 3700 BC (older than Stonehenge). This was much earlier than the article mentions, so unless these people disappeared, the question of who the Irish are is even more complex.

[tripleblessed]

Recently I noted in a DNA thread having read an article on the DNA of red hair which said that the oldest FOUND
occurrence of red hair was the Takla Makan sites in what is now China, but once was the southern rim of what we think
of as southern Siberia/Mongolia. These are also the sites of the earliest tartan textiles found, appearing to more than
3,000 years in the ground. It went on to say that the Sami are the closest relatives of these people, and the Irish next. These sites and others north of there in Siberia have yielded people who look quite Celtic to the eyes of many who have seen them up close. The peoples of the Steppes appear to most to have been the domesticators of the horse, and related cultures and tribes covered vast areas.

I was taught long ago that Celts appeared to have originated where the Steppes met the mountains along their western limits, and that Celts pushed west taking the horse with them. Their initial push flowed along the Mediterranean basin into the Iberian Peninsula and thence into the British Isles, as well as the rest of Europe. This scenario fits well with the DNA. The statement in the linked article as to Celts originating in central Europe was a surprise to me, and doesn't fit as well.

But, what do I know? I can't verify having been there myself, and I learned long ago you can't believe everything you read.
Back to the Mark Twain quote above.