Current genetic research supports the idea that people living in the Britain and Ireland are on average mainly descended from the indigenous European Paleolithic (Old Stone Age hunter gatherers) population (about 80%), with a smaller neolithic (New Stone Age farmers) input (about 20%).
From as far back as the 16th century, historians taught that the Irish are the descendants of the Celts, an Iron Age people who originated in the middle of Europe and invaded Ireland somewhere between 1000 B.C. and 500 B.C.
Modern Irish are the population most genetically similar to the Bronze Age remains, followed by Scottish and Welsh, and share more DNA with the three Bronze Age men from Rathlin Island than with the earlier Ballynahatty Neolithic woman.
New research shows that the Irish definitely have their fair share of Viking heritage–in fact, the Irish are more genetically diverse than most people may assume. The Irish have Viking and Norman ancestry in similar proportions to the English.
Irish ethnicity developed from multiple groups such as the Gaelic Celts and the Anglo-Normans, which included the English, the Vikings, and the French.
They are the Sidhe (pronounced “shee”) – mystical fairy-like people who supposedly inhabited Ireland prior to the arrival of the Celts (the Milesians). The Tuatha de Dannan are credited with naming Ireland.
The Lebor Gabála tells of Ireland being settled (or "taken") six times by six groups of people: the people of Cessair, the people of Partholón, the people of Nemed, the Fir Bolg, the Tuatha Dé Danann, and the Milesians.
United Kingdom: With around 500,000 people of Irish descent, the UK, Ireland's closest neighbor, is home to more people of Irish heritage than any country other than Ireland itself. Most live in Northern Island and surrounding British Isles. 2.
Scotland and Ireland are close neighbours, and it is no surprise that commercial ancestral Y-DNA testing and the resulting hundreds of Y-DNA Case Studies conducted at Scottish and Irish Origenes have revealed lots of shared ancestry among males with Scottish or Irish origins.
Who Are the Closest Genetic Relatives of the Irish? Today, people living in the north of Spain in the region known as the Basque Country share many DNA traits with the Irish. However, the Irish also share their DNA to a large extent with the people of Britain, especially the Scottish and Welsh.
While people from Ireland, Britain, or Scotland tend to be genetically similar, genetic clusters show that even within countries, there are distinct regional differences, and this update captures some of that.
In Mid-Ulster, about 1 in 150 people carry a genetic mutation to the AIP gene that leads to an overproduction of growth hormone resulting in acromegaly, also known as gigantism. The hormone disorder is spurred by a tumor on the pituitary gland, a pea-sized organ at the base of the brain.
Experts believe that a majority of Irish people have Celtic roots; however, a study published on Thursday found they may also have a great deal of influence from the Vikings, Anglo-Normans, and British.
The National Archives of Ireland's genealogy portal is one of the key websites for tracing Irish ancestry. It offers free access to the surviving census fragments from 1901/1911, as well as substitute sources. You can search raw census data, then view PDF copies of the original documents.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, the term "Black Irish" referred to Irish people with black hair and dark features who were considered to be descended from Spanish sailors as depicted in Black Irish (folklore).
The languages of Wales and Ireland belong to the same family; they are both classed as living Celtic languages, along with Breton and Scottish Gaelic. In Wales and Ireland, it's normal for schoolchildren to be taught their native language as part of the curriculum.
Modern Britons are descended mainly from the varied ethnic groups that settled in Great Britain in and before the 11th century: Prehistoric, Brittonic, Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Normans.
1 in 4 US adults have Irish ancestors or relatives. That's 25.75% of the adult population of the USA, equating to over 52 million people. 8.23% of US adults suspect they have Irish heritage, that's around 1 in every 12 people.
At the 2021 Australian census, 2,410,833 residents identified themselves as having Irish ancestry either alone or in combination with another ancestry. This nominated ancestry was third behind English and Australian in terms of the largest number of responses and represents 9.5% of the total population of Australia.
Irish migrants accounted for one-quarter of Australia's overseas-born population in 1871. Irish migration was influenced by the politics of colonial immigration which tended to favour those born in England and Scotland. Fluctuations in the economies of Australia and of other prospective destinations also had an effect.
Sydney, Melbourne and Perth – largest Irish-born populations.
Historians teach that they are mostly descended from different peoples: the Irish from the Celts, and the English from the Anglo-Saxons who invaded from northern Europe and drove the Celts to the country's western and northern fringes.
Currently, Ireland has a majority of “White Irish,” as 94.1% of the population. There are other sizable populations of Black citizens from African countries, such as Nigeria and Mauritius, plus Asian citizens with the majority from China, India, and some from Hong Kong.