any surprises. Among its more startling conclusions:1. The Irish Celts mostly came to Ireland from Spain, either from the Basque region or Galicia sometime in the first millennium BC.
...2. The Scots came to "Scotland" from northern Ireland.
...3. The Welsh too are Celts - like the Irish - from northern Spain and southwestern France.
...4. The native Celtic and Gaulic speaking English population was not massacred or displaced by the Anglo-Saxons as I was taught in school and college. (We were told the natives fled to Wales, Cornwall and Cumbria and disappeared everywhere else.) In fact Anglo-Saxons only contribute about 5 percent of English DNA which means that the native Celts and Gauls stayed put but gradually began speaking a different language. In others words the Irish, Welsh, Scots and English are virtually indistinguishable genetically.
...
5. The neolithic pre Celtic people who came to Britain and Ireland after the Ice Age (the makers of Stonehenge, Newgrange etc.) also seem to have come from northern Spain which is exactly the story told in Irish mythology.
...
6. All that crap people talk about on both sides of the Irish Sea about the Irish "race" being a romantic and dreamy one and the English "race" being level headed and dull - is precisely that: total crap. The concept of "race" itself is virtually meaningless and genetically everyone in the British Isles is basically the same.
54 comments:
Wait a minute--so everyone is Spanish? Somehow I think this is going to shock the Brits more than the fact that they have more in common with the Irish than they sometimes like to think.
Well, I never really saw myself as a maurauding Viking. Far too much faff!
Sounds good to me!
I tell you, I'm popping over to New York to celibrate St Patricks's Day with my fellow Irishmen!
Next you'll be telling me that my Mexican roots are really Serbo-Croatian.
good news. we're all mutts.
That would be perros, HardB.
Historians keep confusing linguistic change with ethnic change, we have plenty of that in India.
If they do the DNA tests at Anfield of course everyone is going to turn out to be Spanish.
This explains more than a few destination choices for Holiday.
Girish, I hope you're prepared for the fact that you are going to turn out to be Celto-Spanish too.
But where did the Celts come from before they settled Spain, eh? They were English and Irish ex-pats.
Genetically identical and yet so different. Put a Londoner, a Brummie, a Geordie and a Scouser in the same room and not only will they have little in common, they'll probably end up belting each other. Toss in a Scot, and Irishman and Welshman and the situation becomes volcanic. Driving from London, where I lived for too many years, up to the north-east, where my wife's family comes from, is like traversing a tiny, dense contintent, such is the diversity. But then that's half the charm. Unless they're trying to belt you.
Seana
I dont know - the cultural elite are always trying to get us to eat like the Med, dress like the Med, relax like the Med. As Jonathan Meades pointed out in his great series Magnetic North its actually a bit depressing that the British cultural compass only ever points south.
Paul
Thats the best move by the way. Saint Patrick's Day in Dublin and Belfast are half so interesting.
Holden
The DNA boffins would probably say that they were east Siberian.
HB
I agree with that.
Girish
That does seem to be the difficulty. For instance the Picts apparently didnt vanish at all (as I was told in primary school) they just started speaking Gaelic (and then English).
Uriah
When Liverpool goes into bankruptcy (along with Man U) sometime in the next two or three years lets you and I buy the team and I'll play #7 Kenny Dalglish's old position.
Malachy
Well there are big parts of Southern Spain now where you can't throw a lemon without hitting a Queen Victoria pub or a jellied eel stand.
Mike
They were all "retired" East London gangsters and cabbies.
David
Its funny because its true. There is a density of cultural types and accents in the British Isles that exists nowhere else. In a tiny place like Northern Ireland there are half a dozen regional accents.
I spent 3 years in the Midlands and I have a fondness for Brummies which isnt apparently shared by the rest of the country. I like the accent and the people and I dont really know where the loathing (and self loathing) comes from.
Oh, yeah--that Meades series. Now I can finally watch it. Thanks for the link.
Adrian, I know you aren't particularly fond of the felicitous v word, but others might like it. Mine is "emates". to
Buenos dias, Paddy.
I think the trend in historical thinking has been away from the old invasion hypotheses, which, perhaps not so coincidentally, were more popular during a more imperialistic age. Recent theories tend to emphasize economics and culture as media of transmission, which means a culture could change, say, from "Celtic" to "Anglo-Saxon" by absorbing ideas rather than being slaughtered or uprooted.
The more we learn about genes, the more we'll realize that they may be good for transmitting hair color or diseases, but not much more than that.
==========================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
I'm Welsh and always enjoyed my holidays in Spain.
Finally, I have a scientific explanation why!
I'd love to see how Nick Griffin deals with this.
ps: My wife has just started reading Dead I May Well Be. Her opinion so far: 'fucking ace'
As well as bankruptcy for Liverpool and Man U, can we have Abramovich banged up in chokey where he belongs? Then perhaps the Villa will have a Champions League chance and the Brummies might, just might, put aside some of that self-loathing.
Seana
All the Meades series are good, but I particularly rec Magnetic North and the Scottish one: Off Kilter.
Peter
Yes I think that's true. The language changes but not much else. Its funny how reluctant the traditional historians are to accept this. They prefer to think that every Celt or Gaul in England was slaughtered by Anglo Saxons when really this was always an unlikely proposition.
Rob
Nick Griffin will deal the way he always deals by retreating into a fantasy world that never existed or just making stuff up.
Glad the missus is enjoying Dead. Hope she stays on board for the elaborate broadway musical number at the end when everyone realises that they should all be friends - sorry if thats spoiled it.
David
Abramovich in jail? No chance. I have a feeling he'll be made Minister for Sport under the Tories.
I scored a goal once at Villa Park under circumstances that I prefer not to elaborate on.
Funnily enough, I told her that there was a lovely tap dance number at the end of Zatoichi but she refused to believe me until the tap dancing samurais appeared
Sounds like an own goal. Either that or it's a euphemism and you scored on the Holte End or something. When I first went there as a young Aussie on what we know call a gap year, it was one of England's great old grounds, between the Jacobean splendour of Aston Hall and the disgusting Ansells Brewery. Even the stench from the urinals seemed somehow to add to the mystique. The newer grounds seem antiseptic by comparison but they're safer, I suppose. But after the Taylor Report, I hated having to sit through a game.
Oddly enough, I just spent the evening listening to a discussion about the making of novels into musicals. Or mainly, Wicked the book and Wicked the Musical. And oddlier enough, I am going to attempt to write a musical in April. And oddliest enough, one of the themes of the discussion was the limitlessness of adaptation to musical. Witness "Oliver!" Anyway, after my musical makes it to Broadway, I'll get back to you about Dead!--the Musical. You probably won't want to see it as it's bound to be heartwarming. By the way, what rhymes with Belfast Sixpack? Never mind--it will probably be a tap number.
Seana, do you plan to write your own songs for "Dead! The Musical," or would you be willing to appropriate songs already written and make a kind of revue? If the latter, may I suggest "The First Cut is the Deepest" and "Flay Me to the Moon"?
==========================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
I thought I'd take the lyrical parts of the book and just sort of rhyme them. Belfast Confetti would make real big number signature kind of opening, don't you think?
This brings my mind back to a PBS documentary aired some years back. It tracked DNA samples of USA blacks to find out where they were from originally. Some were prominent people and others weren't. There were a number of surprises. Turns out that head of African Studies at Harvard is from the British Isles. He was big supporter of the program and rather chagrined to find out he isn't as black as looks. Now I'm thinking maybe all the black folks in the USA are Spaniards.
The Spanish, or the Iberian race, is one of the theories behind the whole Black Irish theories. Which I've heard is only called Black Irish in the United States. Basically, Irish people with dark hair and dark eyes and whatnot, like yourself, Colin Farrell, Pierce Brosnan, and John O'Shea, just to name a few. It's really interesting stuff. This was just a theory, and it was a far-fetched one. But, with your new post, makes me think it could be more real than I thought.
Rob
Thats my whole problem with Singing in the Rain too: you know all the tap dancing samurai at the end.
David
Not a euphemism and it was a real goal, I assure you. I just cant talk about it...
For a big proud city they really dont do that well in the old football do they? And its not like Bath or somewhere where they play rugby instead.
Seana
I look forward to the cutting off the foot scene to a lively salsa number.
Peter
Stephen Fry, he of the multi talents, became rich by writing Me and My Girl a musical that took a lot of old songs and strung them into a kind of story. It was a brilliant move. I havent seen or heard the musical, but I imagine its pretty much like all the others.
John
Was that Henry Louis Gates? I remember a PBS documentary where he took his teenage daughters to Africa to find their roots and while he was going "wow, look at that" his kids were rolling ther eyes and moaning about the heat and the flies and repeatedly asking when they could go back to America. The whole thing was unintentionally hilarious.
Liam
Yeah, except that the Black Irish theorists seem to think that its somehow to do with the Spanish Armada which of course it isnt.
I've been thinking of your post for a while when I saw a spat had broken out between two "Irish" stage writers, Conor McPherson and Martin McDonagh.
Absurdity, absurdity.
http://playgoer.blogspot.com/2010/03/quote-of-day_12.html
Mal
I dont know Conor's work, but I am a fan of McDonagh.
A couple of years ago there was a lot of criticism of McDonagh in Ireland for his supposedly negative stereotyping of Micks. I dont have a problem with McDonagh calling himself Irish. Some first generation Micks call themself Irish some English - its all the same to me. For every Shane McGowan or Martin McDonagh there are the brothers Gallagher (from Oasis) who insist upon their Englishness. Personally I'd rather have Martin McDonagh over Liam Gallagher any day of the week.
Adrian, I'm seeing the musical as being very lively up to the foot cutting off part and then limping along to the end. It may not sell tickets but it's appropriate.
And I'm changing the title to "Dead? Well, Maybe."
Actually, while we're on that foot subject, I was wondered while I was reading the Third Policeman if there was any sort of tribute in that aspect.
Both Conor and Martin are great writers (I particularly love Martin's BEAUTY QUEEN OF LEENANE). I find it funny though that either of them would really care how "Irish" they may be. Or that anybody would care about it at all.
Stephen Fry, he of the multi talents, became rich by writing Me and My Girl a musical that took a lot of old songs and strung them into a kind of story. It was a brilliant move. I havent seen or heard the musical, but I imagine its pretty much like all the others.
Isn't that what Dennis Potter did?
==========================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Mal
Well you know me - personally I found In Bruges hilarious and funny forgives everything in my book.
Peter
I havent actually seen Pennies From Heaven, but The Singing Detective which I have seen uses the songs as a counterpoint to the three different stories going on.
I remember thinking at the time that The Singing Detective was as good as TV gets - I wonder how it stands up after all these years.
Hi Adrian,
certainly noticing some shared DNA amongst Belfast writers! Ghosts of Belfast has a McGinty as a central character...can I assume some common heritage here?
Bloody good book too.
Cheers,
Joe.
Joe
Surprisingly not.
The McGintys are from Donegal. The McKintys are from Armagh and come from the name McEntee.
But yeah its a great book. His next one's good too.
Welsh, Scots and English are virtually indistinguishable genetically. ...
Maybe, but the Irish have a smattering of unexplained Leprechaun genes. Your photo proves it.
and I have a fondness for Brummies which isnt apparently shared by the rest of the country.
and yet you pandered to common stereotypes in your novels
I scored a goal once at Villa Park under circumstances that I prefer not to elaborate on.
Ha!
I just cant talk about it...
Ha Ha!
Sounds like an own goal.
That's what I thought as well...
Marco
Long time no hear!
Ahh wouldnt you like to know...
Yes I do regret a little bit teasing the Brums. I like to think that I wouldnt go for such a cheap shot now.
Adrian, I like to believe that you can always call forth Marco's presence just by uttering the magic words "Villa Park".
Adrian, I like to believe that you can always call forth Marco's presence just by uttering the magic words "Villa Park".
Yeah, I felt an irresistible force drawing me forth from the nether reaalms to the mortal plane.
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