A Reply from the Republic of Ireland talk page Paul the Celts never occupied Ireland You are confuseing a culture with a people and or ethnic group The peoples notice the plural who called themselves Celts as we know them principly lived in what is now central southern and eastern France parts of western Germany Switzerland the far north of Italy and one or two other places such as Spain and Galatia In what s now France they were bounded in the north and east by the Belgae and Germanic peoples and in the south by the Vascones There are the names of maybe half a dozen peoples or nations known to inhabit Britain and Ireland either side of the first century A D Menapii Atrebates Belgae Fir Bolg who did come from the Celtic Belgae Germanic borders but only in very small numbers Certainly there is no trace whatsoever in the archaeological record that such an occupation of Ireland by anyone took place at that time let alone the Celts England later completely Saxonised by the Viking ethnic cleansing That s one humdinger you are going to have to explain How could the British be Saxonised by Vikings Our culture our language and our descent are Celtic Like all things Celtic it has been enhanced by the interaction and assimilation of Viking Norman Roman Greek and Arabic concepts culture and genes Paul frankly this sounds disturbingly racist Your comparison to language is also misleading A majority of Irish speak English fluently yet the specified quote does not sugest that they are of English ethnicity Exactly I would point out that the English are a mix of Viking and Norman actually the English were up to c 1066 mainly of British and Anglo Saxon descent with the culture and language of the latter being dominant there is little evidence for Welsh Irish interbreeding Actually there is Check out the Attacotti the Desi Irish kingdoms in Dark Age Wales not to mention them returning the favor from 1169 onwards hence surnames like Bhreanach Brannagh Walsh and Welsh the Scots are descendents of Irish colonists known as the Picts from before the submergence of the landbridge between Scotland and Ulster Sorry no cigar The Picts were in what we now call Scotland long before the Scotti turned up in force from c 498 onwards All the best in 2006