Genealogy and genetics indicate if you'll be a Fianna Fail or Fine Gael TD

Coolnabacky1873

It wasn't the treaty after all!

Just finished reading a very interesting paper and though I would share it on here.

The research showed that when using Y-chromosome tests and surname genealogy data it can be seen that TD's with Old Irish/Gaelic surnames are more likely to be Fianna Fail and TD's with Norman/New English names are more likely to be Fine Gael. Labour get a mention too.

Byrne, K. P. and O'Malley, E. (2012), Politics with Hidden Bases: Unearthing the Deep Roots of Party Systems. The British Journal of Politics & International Relations, 14: 613–629.

Abstract
The research presented here uses a novel method to show that contemporary party systems may originate much further back than is usually assumed or might be expected – in reality many centuries. Using data on Ireland, a country with a political system that poses significant challenges to the universality of many political science theories, by identifying the ancestry of current party elites we find ethnic bases for the Irish party system arising from population movements that took place from the 12th Century. Extensive Irish genealogical knowledge allows us to use surnames as a proxy for ethnic origin. Recent genetic analyses of Irish surnames corroborate Irish genealogical information. The results are particularly compelling given that Ireland is an extremely homogenous society and therefore provides a tough case for our approach.

pedroeibar1

They use the word 'cleavage' 29 times in that paper. When I was a student it was something quite different!