Talk:Blood of the Irish

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A fact from Blood of the Irish appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 15 January 2009, and was viewed approximately 3,612 times (disclaimer) (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that in Blood of the Irish, presenter Diarmuid Gavin examined the claim that 20% of men in the north-west of Ireland are descended from Niall of the Nine Hostages, an ancient High King of Ireland?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2009/January.

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True origins or true Irish

Seems to me this programme is ambiguous on what it was trying to demonstrate. If it was about discovering where the first settlers on this island came from, then fine. But there was also a subtext about 'authentic' Irish, and a questionable link between who is authentically Irish and a biological connection with these early settlers. 'Identity' especially national identity, is socially/politically constructed - as when the Old English became "more Irish than the Irish themselves" - rather than biologically determined. Too closely related to Galton, Hooton and "The Anthropometric Laboratory of Ireland" and associated scientific racism. See Modernism and the Celtic Revival By Gregory Castle for a critique of this type of pseudo-science in the Irish historical context.RashersTierney (talk) 14:44, 13 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

One of the problems presented by Professor Bradley's study of the genetic origins of the Irish Race was that it implied we were no different to the vast majority of indigenous people in England, Scotland and Wales. Dan has never directly suggested we originated in the Basque region; this suggestion came about from a member of his staff who fielded a call from a journalist around the time the study was published and this conclusion became popular. The obvious conclusion, that we are no different from the vast majority of peoples in the British Isles is less acceptable in Ireland, having spent 800 years opposing this idea and attempting not to become part of the United Kingdom. Spanish we are then!

There have been waves of people migrating between Great Britain and Ireland for centuries. It should be understood that when we examine the Y-DNA and Mitochondrial DNA all we are checking is 2 lines of descent, the direct paternal line of descent and the direct maternal line of descent respectfully. Niall of the Nine Hostages lived roughly between 30 and 40 generations ago. There are over a billion lines of descent to 30 generations and over a trillion lines of descent to 40 generations for each and every one of us. It is likely that everyone in Great Britain and Ireland, apart from some recent immigrants from far away, descends directly from Niall of the Nine Hostages. Because of the destuction of a lot of Irish records it is easier for most English people to prove descent from Brian Boro and Niall of the Nine Hostages than it is for most Irish. See this site for a clearer explaination: http://humphrysfamilytree.com/famous.descents.html AlwynJPie (talk) 01:46, 13 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Balaresque paper

Sadly this 2010 paper has undermined the programme's main argument of a male-lineage migration from Spain to Ireland soon after the Ice Age. The thesis has been worked on for years and by chance was published just before BOTI won its award. The bigger picture, looking at thousands of genes from all the chromosomes, can be seen in the diagrams at Bauchet et al (2007), co-authored by Dan Bradley, and we Irish are miles from the Basques or Spanish samples. But why would anyone spoil a publicly-funded TV documentary with such embarrassing results? Truly the spirit of the Seanchaí lives on.86.42.203.54 (talk) 12:05, 9 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Political correctness

The "1930s Physical Anthropology" section seems to be political correctness, putting across a cultural Marxist view. It also seems to be synthesis since the sources are not in reference to this documentary. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.221.144.227 (talk) 17:05, 9 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Domesticated Bears

I haven't seen the show, but I would really love a source for the sentence about domesticated bears being brought on canoes from Spain to Ireland. Madreterra (talk) 15:29, 9 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]