Irish DNA: What’s the Genetic (DNA) History of Ireland?
Channel: Celtic History Decoded
Date: 2022-09-18

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Vikings and the Ulster Plantation: What’s the Genetic (DNA) History of Ireland?

What’s the genetic history of Ireland, and what impact did events such as the Viking invasion and the Ulster plantation have on its genetic makeup? A study called the Irish DNA Atlas: Revealing Fine-Scale Population Structure and History within Ireland, looked at these precise questions, using samples from almost 10,000 individuals across Ireland, the British Isles and Europe.  

The study notes that the modern Irish genetic landscape was established around 3,500 years ago in the Irish Bronze Age, and they sought to understand how invasions and plantations have changed this. A central finding of this study was that  the Irish population can be divided in 10 distinct geographically stratified genetic clusters; seven of ‘Gaelic’ Irish ancestry, and three of shared Irish-British ancestry. Unsurprisingly, there is an extremely low German influence in the Gaelic Irish clusters, with Orkney showing the second-least ‘Germanic’ proportion, and English clusters showing the highest.

Interestingly, the study also found that Ireland had high levels of Norwegian ancestry, a strong signal from the Norse Viking presence in Ireland. In fact, this Irish DNA Atlas study found that Ireland had the second highest Norwegian signal in their analysis, second only to Orkney which had the strongest Norse Viking ancestry. The Norse impact on Ireland extends across the country beyond areas of Norse settlement, such as Limerick or Dublin. They also detected high levels of Norwegian ancestry in Scottish clusters, and relatively low Norwegian ancestry in English and Welsh clusters.

Another finding was that there was a high level of France-like ancestry being driven by a single French cluster with high North-Western French membership. The North-West of France has previously been shown to have genetic links with Celtic populations in Britain. Therefore the large signal we observe within Ireland could reflect Ireland as a ‘sink’ of Celtic ancestry, considering its isolation compared to other British Celtic groups. Considering the links from north-west France to other Celtic populations, we do not interpret this as a ‘Norman’ signal.

Sources:

Gilbert, E., O’Reilly, S., Merrigan, M. et al. The Irish DNA Atlas: Revealing Fine-Scale Population Structure and History within Ireland. Sci Rep 7, 17199 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-17124-4 

#ireland #history #dna