Irish people have ancestors from the Middle East, scientists find
A new study reveals more about the history of Irish genes.
After New Year’s, the next big (Boston) celebration is St. Patrick’s Day. Here’s a new fact you can share in anticipation: Ireland’s saints and scholars were descended from the Middle East and modern-day Ukraine, the Irish newspaper Independent reports.
Scientists have sequenced ancient Irish human genomes for the first time, and found that a mass migration played into significant genetic and cultural changes.
Researchers from Trinity College Dublin and Queen’s University Belfast studied four samples: one from a women farmer who lived 5,200 years ago and three men from 4,000 years ago, which is when metalworking began, according to Independent.
The female farmer had an ancestry that originated in the Middle East—where agriculture was invented, Independent reports. She had black hair and brown eyes. The men’s DNA was different, showing sources from near the Black Sea and modern-day Ukraine, and had the most common Irish trait: the blue eye gene variant.
The research showed how dramatically the genetic makeup of Irish people changed in the span of 1,000 years.
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