RTE program - origins of the Irish

sweet-rasmus

A landmark series for RTÉ One, Blood of the Irish explores the most fundamental questions about the Irish population; who were the first people to settle here and where did they come from? Why are the oldest Irish human remains less than 10,000 years old when just 100 kms away in Britain, human traces go back 700,000 years? Did the first Irish arrive overland on an ice bridge, or on a small fragile boat blown ashore by the winds of chance?

On tonight. See http://www.rte.ie/tv/bloodoftheirish/ for details

mike65

Should be worth watching, its a two parter.

McArmalite

Yeah, this has got to be a MUST see programme. Appearently what I read on another forum by someone with who seen a preview of it or was invovled with it, that the genetic makeup of many of the people in the west of Ireland is very similair to the Basques. We'll see if the programme will confirm this.
I rememeber watching a programme about the Vikings and they did a similiar study and they surprisingly found very little common traits in Dubliners and virtually none in the west.

So, the Westies will be feeling superior to the rest of the country, pity they cann't produce a good hurling or football team

Hookey

McArmalite wrote: »

So, the Westies will be feeling superior to the rest of the country, pity they cann't produce a good hurling or football team

Why? What's so superior about sharing genes with the Basques? I don't get it. Nothing wrong with the Basques, but other than having a language not related to anyone else's, nothing special either.

I'm reading a book called The Tribes of Britain at the moment, which covers similar ground; the short version is that most of us have ancestors who are "from here" going back to the Upper Palaeolithic period at least, and that there were no Celtic invaders ("celtic" is a group of languages and a Roman grab-bag of peoples rather than a distinct genetic group), and that the impact of Vikings and Normans (and Romans and Saxons in Britain) was far more cultural than genetic.

professore

Just watched the first part .... must say was very disappointed, it dragged on with lots of irrelevant stuff and very little substance, I hope second part is better.

Found it particularly cringeworthy when Diarmuid Gavin was in the basque town and kept saying how Irish the people looked when in fact to me they didn't look anything like Irish people. Also Daniel O'Donnell was his usual self.

silverharp

professore wrote: »

Found it particularly cringeworthy when Diarmuid Gavin was in the basque town and kept saying how Irish the people looked when in fact to me they didn't look anything like Irish people. Also Daniel O'Donnell was his usual self.

I disagree, the older men seemed to look "Irish" , I thought it was funny that he seemed to consider himself a prehistoric art critic:rolleyes:

jaxy999

I though this was interesting and I also think some of the basque people looked like they could be from any Irish town or village. I'd love to get my DNA tested to find out where my ancesters come from. It's amazing to think that the cave in Leitrim contained undisturbed bear bones for all those thousands of years until 1997. I was never in Leitrim but they should show the scenary from the cave on a Bord Failte ad! It looked great.:)
Looking forward to part II of the programme.

death1234567

jaxy999 wrote: »

I was never in Leitrim but they should show the scenary from the cave on a Bord Failte ad! It looked great.:)

That was the best part of the show. Looked fantastic, made me want to get on my hiking boots. The rest of the show was just really dragged out though and Gavin is a plonker.

Svenolsen

The Irish get everywhere.

Icelandic women came from Ireland and Scotland whereas Icelandic men are Norwegians.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/genes-show-women-were-the-true-adventurers-680178.html

Quote:
"This is shown in the genetic make-up of today's Icelanders, whose maternal ancestors are just as likely to have come from Britain and Ireland as they are to have come from Scandinavia."
.

McArmalite

jaxy999 wrote: »

I though this was interesting and I also think some of the basque people looked like they could be from any Irish town or village. I'd love to get my DNA tested to find out where my ancesters come from. It's amazing to think that the cave in Leitrim contained undisturbed bear bones for all those thousands of years until 1997. I was never in Leitrim but they should show the scenary from the cave on a Bord Failte ad! It looked great.:)
Looking forward to part II of the programme.

Agreed. And I thought Diarmuid Gavin handled the program well. Maybe it was a bit light for someone who has knowledge about genetics etc, but I'm looking foward to the next one.

lostexpectation

did they really say that people hunted the bear to extincition9 in ireland0 10,000 years, aog how many people bears would there have been?

gabigeist

He mentioned that West Cork and Kerry have the largest brown eye populations. It is something I always notice and it always intrigued me that gaelgoir friends of mine with a long history in Dingle (and an Irish surname) all had brown eyes.
Anyone any suggestions as to where this local trait came from?

Tristram

professore wrote: »

Just watched the first part .... must say was very disappointed, it dragged on with lots of irrelevant stuff and very little substance, I hope second part is better.

Found it particularly cringeworthy when Diarmuid Gavin was in the basque town and kept saying how Irish the people looked when in fact to me they didn't look anything like Irish people. Also Daniel O'Donnell was his usual self.

+1

Why was this a "landmark program" btw?

getz

silverharp wrote: »

I disagree, the older men seemed to look "Irish" , I thought it was funny that he seemed to consider himself a prehistoric art critic:rolleyes:

i dont think i am stupid but how do they know what the basque people looked like 1000 years ago ? there was more intergrated blood lines in the basque countrys than any of these islands

pepsicokeacola

id have to watch the show but as i said in another thread, europe is fairly small relative to other continents and ireland is the most western country(or one of them) so its fairly obvious since we were one of the last to be populated that there is all sorts of people origins.

i also said if you put a basque person in irish culture with an irish accent you wouldnt think twice.

leon76

I missed this show last Monday. Does anyone know if it can be downloaded of the internet or its been repeated on tv. Much appreciate if anyone can help.

pepsicokeacola

Ok I just watched. Its available on the RTE website. Just type in 'blood of the irish' into google and then you will see video at the far left. Click on it and voila.

Anyway I don't quite get the problem with the show, t'is grand. It really sucks tho we have a wet climate, the country would be epic if we didn't, could we ever just explode us down to madeira or something?:D(I thought this when they showed the westerners chilling out in the sun)

I thought its cool if they actually do say 'the armada' when asked about their origin. I just hope it ends up coming to pass. Would destroy all their dreams if not:). But like your man had a curly head of hair. Don't think he looked dark or anything but I'd be suprised if they don't link him with Spanish.

Is it just me or is 1,600 years a redicously short time to spawn that much of a population from one man?


Edit: Why couldnt our feckin ancestors stay in the fecking basque region???

i hope now that they show they are from the basques. id like to think the west is linked some way.

leon76

I tried to google it but it is only bringing me to the rte website etc. Can you give me the link for the video which I can watch. regards Leon.

anladmór

i watched this heres the link


http://www.rte.ie/tv/bloodoftheirish/av_index.html

pepsicokeacola

we we're inbred.:P but at least we share this with the basques, all be it 20,000 years ago:pac:

leon76

Thanks for the link.Watched both parts last night. It s alot of info to digest but its explains alot of unanswered questions I had. I'm from Leitrim and my wife is Basque so she was proud last night.

donaghs

I only saw part of the program. It seemed very speculative. Did they make a link between DNA of prehistoric people found in Ireland, and those found in parts of Spain?

The way people are describing the program, it sounds as if they actually made a DNA link to show that people now living in Ireland are most closely related to people who are now living in some part of Spain.

"thought the program was a bit silly when it went looking at old toothless weather-beaten character-faced basques and proclaimed surprise that they looked at old toothless weather-beaten character faced people from western Ireland. Old toothless weather beaten rural people with character faces look the same everywhere from the Portugal to Russia and from the Orkneys to Sicily lol"

interesting debate going on here, which disputes much of what Gavin had to say the other night.

http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/GENEALOGY-DNA/2009-01/1231845590

lostexpectation

anybody have link tothe work of the trinity sciencitist they kept name checking...?

lostexpectation

ew.re still lacking some sort of programme that could allow them to do an update/correction, perhaps that investiagtors programme, but on the bbc they could have used newsnight or horizon.

Svenolsen

Deleted User wrote: »

"Thought the program was a bit silly when it went looking at old toothless weather-beaten character-faced basques and proclaimed surprise that they looked at old toothless weather-beaten character faced people from western Ireland. Old toothless weather beaten rural people with character faces look the same everywhere from the Portugal to Russia and from the Orkneys to Sicily lol"

True.

Also not mentioned was the fact that the the overwhelming majority of the Irish have blue eyes.

Blue eyes are unusual in the Basques.

The gene for blue eyes is "new"..less than 10,000 years old.
And it originated in Northern Europe, not Southern Europe:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22934464/

We have not heard the FULL story of the Irish yet, by a long shot.

.

europerson

lostexpectation wrote: »

anybody have link tothe work of the trinity sciencitist they kept name checking...?

Prof Dan Bradley... mostly works on cattle.

lostexpectation

well looking for some genetics site from tcd for the public

europerson

lostexpectation wrote: »

well looking for some genetics site from tcd for the public

There was a supplement in The Irish Times last September.

lostexpectation

europerson wrote: »

There was a supplement in The Irish Times last September.

ah that just industry spin nothing about genetic migration.

europerson

lostexpectation wrote: »

ah that just industry spin nothing about genetic migration.

I wasn't sure what level you were looking at, sorry. Probably best to get yourself to a library and look up some journals. That's where most of the up-to-date research is going to be.