Irish people: Encyclopedia II - Irish people - Descent

Irish people - Descent

On the island of Ireland, most people consider themselves to be descended from a mixture of three broad groups: the nameless, prehistoric indigenous people(s) of the isles; the successive waves of Celtic tribes from continental Europe who arrived between 600 and 150 BC [8], and the assortment of subsequent groups (Vikings, Normans, English and Lowland Scots) who either invaded or settled in Ireland from the Middle Ages onwards.

The names the ancient peoples of Ireland (creators of the Ceide Fields and Newgrange) used for themselves are not known, nor are their language(s). As late as the middle centuries of the first millennium AD the inhabitants of Ireland did not appear to have a collective name for themselves. Ireland itself was known by a number of different names – Banba, Fódla, Ériu by the islanders; Hibernia to the Romans; Ierne to the Greeks.

Likewise, the terms for people from Ireland – all from Roman sources – in the late Roman era were varied. They included Attacotti, Scoti, and Gael. This last word, derived from the Welsh gwyddell (meaning raiders), was eventually adopted by the Irish for themselves. However as a term it is on a par with Viking, as it describes an activity (raiding, piracy) and its proponents, not their actual ethnic affiliations. The general term Briton was sometimes applied to all the indigenous inhabitants of Britannias and Britanniae (i.e. of the British Isles) by the Romans.

The term Irish and Ireland is derived from the Érainn, a people who once lived in what is now central and south Munster. Possibly their proximity to overseas trade with western Britain, Gaul and Hispania led to the name of this one people to be applied to the whole island and its inhabitants.

As may be perceived from the above, there was much ethnic diversity according to the historical inhabitants of Ireland. Or at the very least they perceived the situation as such. They included the Airgialla, Fir Ol nEchmacht, Delbhna, Fir Bolg, Érainn, Éoganacht, Mairtine, Conmaicne, Soghain and Ulaid. However, as the earliest Irish records demonstrate that they all shared a collective language and culture, in most cases these divisions may have been more apparent than real. Doubtless in many cases the divisions were of a purely dynastic or political dynamic.

The shared language and culture of these peoples is one that can be placed within the realm of the Celtic/Indo-European peoples. Recent Y-chromosome (male descent) DNA studies have shown that a very large majority of Irish men have Y-chromosomes genetically similar to those of other Europeans^[9]. These Y-chromosomes are putative European paleolithic Y-chromosomes, and occur all over Europe (about 80% of European men are now thought to have Y-chromosomes derived from the paleolithic inhabitants of Europe^[10]), however they occur in particularly high concentrations in men from Ireland, certain parts of Wales and the Basque Country^[11], and occur at relatively low concentrations in eastern Europe^[7]. This may indicate that neolithic and subsequent migrations did not have a large biological impact on western European people. Y-chromosome analysis also seems to indicate that the Vikings that settled in Dublin came from Norway rather than Denmark ^[9]. Mitochondrial DNA, or female descent shows part of their maternal ancestors to be of broad north European origin.

The Vikings were mainly Danes and Norwegians and despite their notorious reputation in Irish history, did not settle in particularly large numbers nor did they significantly alter the Irish polity. The arrival of the Normans brought Welsh, Flemish, Normans, Anglo-Saxons and Bretons, many of whom suffered the same fate as the Vikings, being assimilated in great numbers into Irish culture and polity by the 15th century. The late medieval era saw Scots gallowglass families of mixed Scots-Norse-Pictish descent settle, mainly in the north; due to similarities of language and culture they too were assimilated. The Plantation of Ulster in the 17th century introduced great numbers of Scots, English as well as French Huguenots. Despite these divergent backgrounds most of their descendants consider themselves Irish – even where they are aware of such ancestry – mainly due to their lengthy presence in Ireland. Samuel Thompson, the Bard of Carngranny, expressed the position of eighteenth century Irish people of Scottish descent in the following verse: -

"I love my native land, no doubt, Attach'd to her thro' thick and thin, Yet tho' I'm Irish all without, I'm every item Scotch within.".

Historically, religion and politics have played a more divisive role than ethnicity although connections between ethnicity and religion can still be observed.

It is thought that the majority of the Irish population is descended from the initial settlers who arrived after the end of the last Ice Age.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Descent", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki