Ancient DNA sheds light on Irish Origins

a reply to: scubagravy

That is the standard lineage mixed with leprechaun

a reply to: neo96

As beansidhe indicated, sometimes it's better not to know what your DNA shows.

As I recall, several years ago on 23&Me when I first took the test, they used to make you sign an agreement showing that you acknowledged the fact that you may find out things that you didn't expect.

A Non Paternal Event (NPE) was one of those things. We generally know who our mother is, but our fathers may not always be the one listed on our birth certificates. It can be a great shock. Take it from me, I know...

-dex

a reply to: beansidhe

The Irish are great for stories, poltics, war, insults and boasting. Makes for a complicated history, but I think there's an honesty to the mythological cycle which you don't seem to get in Hellenic traditions. I enjoy them but you need take it all with a liberal pinch salt

a reply to: mirthfull

My great-gran (paternal) was Irish, and the best word to describe her was gallus. All of your adjectives rolled into one!

There is an earthiness, an honesty like you say to their stories. Maybe it's a familiarity, or an ability to relate to the characters as like us - even the greatest warriors are flawed and all too human. There is something of our families in each of them, they have characteristics we can see today in the words and actions of friends or kin.

A bucket load of salt helps - as with all celtic tales, past and present - but at their core, the main message to be transmitted and passed down to the next generation, there is truth.
That is what I loved about this research, the idea that these stories are not myth or nonsense fairy tales to be dismissed out of hand. If we read and listen and pay attention, our own pecht, our ancestors, have something to teach us. They are still talking to us.

I'm Irish and I've absolutely no clue what you guys are talking about, are you telling me my uncle Tommy is Spanish. Is my great aunt Mary a Russian? Should i let them know?



Just kidding, great thread. My family goes back to both Scotland and Wales, so I'm told

a reply to: OnionHead



Thanks OnionHead.

Wait, I'm Middle Eastern?

Sweet! No worries y'all, I aint no ISIS

originally posted by: Butterfinger
Wait, I'm Middle Eastern?

Sweet! No worries y'all, I aint no ISIS

Al Quaeda ?


No conversation about the Irish would be complete without this

originally posted by: beansidhe
a reply to: mirthfull

My great-gran (paternal) was Irish, and the best word to describe her was gallus. All of your adjectives rolled into one!

There's an interesting word...

Gallus
gallus
(ga·luss) Dialect, chiefly Scot ~adj.
1. self-confident, daring, cheeky.
2. stylish, impressive (esp. Glasgow “He’s pure gallus, by the way“).
3. Orig. derogatory, meaning wild; a rascal; deserving to be hanged (from the gallows).

I'm a bit dubious about it deriving from "Gallows" though, given it's meaning, I reckon it is more likely to be from the Latin for Rooster, gallus, as it seems to mean the same kind of personality as a "Cock of the North".

Sorry to digress...but I do like a good word.

a reply to: Anaana

No problem, I'm a wordnerd from time to time.

You made me look that up, because it does mean 'cocky' - like a rooster. But then from the Dictionary of Scots:

2. With weakened meaning and somewhat wide application: wild, unmanageable, “tough,” bold, daring, high-spirited; perky, impish, mischievous, impudent (Inv.1, Mearns3, Ags.18, m.Sc., Rxb.4 1953.

w.Dmf. 1917 J. L. Waugh Cute McCheyne 65:
We should often ha'e been in the jile thegither, for he was a gallows falla was “Crafts,” an' aye made ithers galravitch wi' 'm.

Sc. 1921 G. Woden Money's the Thing 68: An awfu' thing, sic a gallous lad he was — an' me knowin' him from a bairn almost.

Mearns 1934 “L. G. Gibbon” Grey Granite ii. 113: She'll be able to sin as she likes and go free, with no need to marry the gallus childe.

Dictionary of the Scots Language

Gallows/gallus is interchangeable. Who knew?

a reply to: beansidhe

Hmmm...there is a curious merger going on there. Just looking at the etymology of "gallows" though...

gallows (n.) Look up gallows at Dictionary.com
c. 1300, plural of Middle English galwe "gallows" (mid-13c.), from Old Norse galgi "gallows," or from Old English galga (Mercian), gealga (West Saxon) "gallows;" all from Proto-Germanic *galgon "pole" (cognates: Old Frisian galga, Old Saxon galgo, Middle High German galge "gallows, cross," German Galgen "gallows," Gothic galga "cross"), from PIE *ghalgh- "branch, rod" (cognates: Lithuanian zalga "pole, perch," Armenian dzalk "pole"). In Old English, also used of the cross of the crucifixion. Plural because made of two poles. Gallows-tree is Old English galg-treow. Gallows humor (1881) translates German Galgenhumor.

www.etymonline.com...

...and I kind of see what's going on.

a reply to: Anaana

I've spent the last hour checking the etymology of both 'gallows' and 'cock' in numerous languages.
Far more entertaining than you might imagine.

originally posted by: beansidhe
a reply to: Anaana

I've spent the last hour checking the etymology of both 'gallows' and 'cock' in numerous languages.
Far more entertaining than you might imagine.

If you found that interesting, you should find this...

en.antiquitatem.com...

...fascinating.

Happy New Year, Hen

just wow

wow