Genetics

So now the truth can be told. The Irish and the British are brothers under the skin. Way under the skin, all the way down to the DNA.

Botanists have taken to using DNA to sort out plant family lines, and evolutionists have made more progress with genetic analysis than they did with nothing more than their keen eyesight and thoughtful insight. Sooner or later, you had to expect some clever scientist to look at the ongoing battles in the north of Ireland and say, "Gee, wouldn't it be funny if those two groups of combatants found out they were actually related?"

Does Ian Paisley believe in evolution? Has anyone told him that both his Scottish ancestors and Gerry Adams' Irish clan all came from the same group of hardy Spaniards who trotted across the English Channel some 16,000 years ago?

Geologists know that the Channel and the Irish Sea were not the least bit wet back then, during an ice age when sea levels were much lower. What is now Ireland and England was covered by ice, and the people who lived there prior to glaciation made their way south, walking across the dry Channel for a sun holiday on the Spanish Riviera. It has been suggested that some of the vacationers went back as the glaciers retreated, to set up housekeeping and burn fossil fuels and make the ice sheets melt even more, exposing the land in Ireland and England.

The Celts were not the original Irish, according to scientists, but rather they were a group of people who moved to Ireland from Eastern Europe and brought along their knowledge of farming. Not only farming, but their native tongue became part and parcel of Ireland and the west of England as they intermingled with the natives. A few people from the Germanic tribes took advantage of some frequent roamer miles, came to visit England and Ireland, and overstayed their visas. Few in number, they liked the eastern and southern coasts so much that they put down roots and added their mother tongue to the language as spoken.

And then the sea began to rise as the climate grew warmer. (Sound familiar?) The Irish were eventually cut off from their English cousins, who would then be left to host the Romans, the Anglo-Saxons, and the Normans while the Irish were saved from the burden of so many guests calling unannounced. One can see how the animosity began, in ancient days, when the Brits were being eaten out of house and home by a bunch of guests who never left, while the Irish were merrily farming and keeping themselves to themselves.

Dr. Mark Thomas of University College London does not entirely agree with this thesis. He believes that most of the indigenous population in England was wiped out by the invading hordes, thus his genetic material is not so entirely Spanish at all. By implication, then, he is further removed from those bog trotters across the sea, and much closer to the wise and clever Scandinavians and progressive Dutch who supplied the Anglo-Saxon blood stock.

Looking at languages, the jury is very much out. There are those who believe that Celtic is the more ancient language and must have been spoken in both Ireland and England, but others will argue that the lack of Celtic place names in England indicates that English was spoken there much sooner than previously believed. Based on genetic evidence, however, it is accepted that the first to arrive in the British Isles at the end of the Ice Age provided the core population to both islands.

Expect Ian Paisley to side, most vehemently, with Dr. Thomas. Or better yet, perhaps his handlers should keep this news from him. To learn that he is genetically related to the Catholics in the north, at his age? Sure it'd kill him.