Posted on 12/27/2005 12:10:30 AM PST by neverdem
Legend has it that, while raiding England around 500 C.E., the Irish warlord Niall of the Nine Hostages took a young St. Patrick prisoner and brought him to Ireland. Historians disagree about whether Niall was really the kidnapper, but one thing is for certain: This ancient king went on to found the most powerful ruling dynasty in Irish medieval history, the Uí Néill (literally "descendants of Niall"). Now, a study reveals that this royal lineage may be imprinted in the genes of roughly a tenth of Irish men living today.
Although most of our genetic makeup comes from both parents, men inherit their Y chromosome exclusively from their fathers. As such, geneticists can trace paternal lineage by studying genetic markers on this chromosome. Small mutations creep in over generations, so the number of differences in the markers of any two men can reveal how long ago their common forefather lived. In 2003, a population study in East Asia discovered a set of Y chromosomes with very similar markers among men living in what had been the Mongol Empire. The scientists speculated that some 16 million men with these markers were all descendants of Genghis Khan (Science, 23 February 2003, p. 1179).
In the same spirit, geneticist Daniel Bradley and his colleagues from Trinity College in Dublin analyzed the Y chromosomes of 796 Irish men. Interestingly, quite a few shared the same markers--more than would be expected by chance. Looking for a historical explanation, the team realized that many of the men with this Y signature had family names that traced back to various offshoots of the Uí Néills. "Our research shows that these dynastic groups did have a common ancestor," Bradley says, thus providing a genetic underpinning to Ireland's rich genealogical tradition. This ancestor appears to have lived approximately 1700 years ago--consistent with the period of Niall's reign--the team reports 8 December in the American Journal of Human Genetics.
Some experts remain sceptical. Although the findings are compatible with the Niall hypothesis, geneticist Chris Tyler-Smith of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge, U.K., warns that the conclusion rests on uncertain assumptions about mutation rates and time between generations. He thinks the main significance of this work is that it shows--as did the earlier Genghis Khan study--how power and status can affect genetics. The Uí Néill Y chromosome owes its success not to a particular evolutionary advantage, he says, but rather to the fact that the high-ranking Uí Néill males in medieval Ireland could father many sons who later did the same.
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My husband is R1b M343 too.
Can't remember whether my mother is A2 or D.
Wish my brother would go ahead and submit his test so I can find out what my dad's side is. He promised to do it but he's not all that reliable, unfortunately.
"And the only reason the Irish like to fight among themselves is that they have yet to find a worthy opponent".
True.....until the Scots-Irish came along. We were "Born Fighting" as the book says.
So, if I ever go ape and take hostages, I can be found innocent because I have a genetic predisposition?
I'm Irish, the wif's Scottish....
Interesting, CS. My father and I both have many problems with kidney stones and we are Irish. I have stopped drinking milk and using many milk products but still pass part of a stone every 2 weeks or so.
Damn, I have to stay of the drink for a few months, because of the head injury I got a couple months ago!! (Boring drinking ginger ale in a pub....)
Its his parathyroid that dumps calcium into his kidney, no real cure, just pain. Its called Renal Tubular Acidosis.
I will have to throw this one at my doctor, thanks for that. The ER and morphine is getting old.
Funny, my dad's largely Irish, he has a congenital kidney defect that thankfully was not passed (sorry!) to any of us kids. It seems to have stopped with him, maybe it only is transmitted by the male line - he had only daughters.
Cranberry juice is the answer. It has REALLY helped my dad, it was recommended to him by his urologist after he lost a kidney. You need to drink lots of it though. He makes it up into popsicles in the summer.
The university of texas in Austin has done huge amounts of research on him and our genetic history.
He does have a teflon stint installed along most of the path the stone passes, which helps.
Well, that makes us cousins-in-law, perhaps as much as several hundred generations removed. A Cro-Magnon happy new year to you and yours!
Fascinating.
I'm willin' to try the cure.
Beggin' your dear father's pardon, but what does he mix with this juice of cranberrys for a tasty wee dram?
"All Guinness Stout is brewed in Ireland with water from the River Liffy."
actually diageo does license guinness production overseas now, apparently in markets where it isn't worth the trouble to import it. Panama is an example of this. It is made with local materials and tastes more like the local beers than anything resembling guinness.
It is a shame guinness quit bottle-conditioning their export stout 10-11 years ago; that was a truly complex drink, and the change non-bottle-conditioning was immediately notable, and a big change for the worse. I have a few bottles left of special export, but it doesn't taste bottle-conditioned either, and even worse does not have enough taste to cover the alcohol.
I have a sister with four kidneys--two aren't developed. Looking at your experience, this may not be a successful mutation.
If mumps did indeed make billyblytheclinton infertile, it is a tremendous gift the the world.
Irish is ATTITUDE. There are those who are Irish and those who want to be. Welcome one and all.
My grandpa came from Kentucky...as I understand it, that gives us a huge dose of ScottsIrish.
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