I really must visit Ireland one of these days. It is the ancestral land of much of my family. (Though Scotland is probably the actual "motherland." In addition to a couple of distaff Scottish lines, the patrinomial line it's likely, if family tradition and the geographical area my great grandfather came from mean anything, more Ulster/Scots-Irish than Irish-Irish. Of course, the original Scots were an Irish tribe that merged with the Picts and invading Vikings to create what we think of as Scotland. And humans and their genetic material get about so much anyway that a thousand years ago my male-line ancestors may have been Russian Slavs!) But more importantly, there's old books just lying about!
(Via Bookninja)
2 comments:
Er, dude, you forgot the gauls.
Gallic refugees from Caesar's conquest did emigrate to Ireland, thus giving us "Gaelic," but they had no direct influence on Scotland. Unless you WERE talking about Ireland, in which case one must also reference both the Norman and Viking contribution to Irish genetics/culture. Come to think of it, there was some Norman influence on Scotland, too; a number of Scottish kings, forced to live in England for a time, imported Anglo-Norman nobles to their courts.
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