'Irishmen are a pack of inbred hillbillies', says Science report

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaWWWWWW!

Hootenanny! Fetch me my banjo, but don't a Scientist say that 'as many as one in 12 Irish men could be descended from Niall of the Nine Hostages, a 5th-century warlord, according to research conducted at Trinity College Dublin.'

Yep. Apparently, me and every other bloke from Ireland are so inbred that our family tree is (in the words of Bill) 'a stump'. Damn, we're so inbred that Wookies are offended by our B.O.

Researchers at the Smurfit Institute of Genetics at Trinity estimate there could be as many as 3m men worldwide descended from Niall. The highest concentration of his progeny is in northwest Ireland, where one in five males have inherited his Y chromosome.

The High King at Tara from 379 to 405, Niall founded the dynasty Ui Neill, which means descendants of Niall, who ruled Ireland until the 11th century. He reputedly made raids on the coasts of Britain and France, including one that netted St Patrick, then a slave called Succat, who was brought to Ireland.

Ah well. Feel free to add your own 'Your so inbred that...' jokes to the comments section below.

More:

Niall of the Nine Sausages

The Most Fertile Man In Ireland

I thought Iceland had the inbred thing down bigger than Ireland?

Yeah, but Iceland was settled by people from Scandanavia, Scotland and Ireland in the 9th and 10th centuries. More »

This is quite interesting too »

As far as I know, Icelandic and Irish people are very closely genetically related - people from Iceland are genetically more Irish than Scandanavian. Can't remember where I saw that though, it was in the news a few years back

Just found this pdf: Estimating Scandinavian and Gaelic Ancestry in the Male Settlers of Iceland

Remember that the Y chromosome is just one of 46 chromosomes in the human genome. The Y chromosome is passed from father to son directly, whereas we inherit the rest of our chromosomes from both parents, and they got their chromosomes from both their parents, and so on... so even if 2 people have the same Y chromosome, they are still likely to be genetically very different. So I wouldn't worry about Irish men being too inbred!

When I was in Iceland they told me that Icelanders with dark hair were the decendants of slaves the Vikings took from Ireland

Bollocks. My clan wouldn't have shagged Ulster Ui Neill scum. We were the clan Caomhánach and our kingdom Ui Ceinnsealaigh was in Leinster. That's on my father's side. On the other side of the family, both Daev and I are descended from the O Deoradhains, the brehons (judges) of Ui Ceinnsealaigh. Science my arse! Sheer tribal ignorance is what it is!

It behoves me at this point to make clear that I too am a genetic johnny-come-lately. Indeed, by 12th century standards, I am a plastic.

My heirs were a pack of well-heeled, Anglo-Norman, thugs, rapists and murderers who got aspirations above their station. They came to Ireland with the first wave of Norman settlers.

They could have gone to Spain. But no. They went to Cork.

Don't worry too much you all sons of Rome!

Damn! I can't find a link to that recent(ish?) documentary that links the origins of man to one nomadic group of people who travelled 'round the globe over a matter of centuries... did anyone else see it?

son of rome my bollocks...

It would seem a pervese irony that a monumental undertaking like deciphering the genetic code, with all it's attended intellectual and brilliant scientific prowess should find itself devoted to determining which tree the human species fell out off, whilst at the same time hurtling forward hell bent on rendering the planet unfit for any life form as we know it, let alone trees