"Blood of the Irish" RTE Programme

Rigobert wrote:

Oh yeah and the Niall of the Nine Hostages stuff was very dubious. If they don't have Niall's DNA how do they know these people are descended from him?

Well, they did say he may not have existed, which makes any connection fairly tenuous.

Rigobert wrote:

Oh yeah and the Niall of the Nine Hostages stuff was very dubious. If they don't have Niall's DNA how do they know these people are descended from him?

This particular claim was complete rubbish and as such entirely in line with the farcical standard of programming that RTÉ specialises in.

905 wrote:

SeathrúnCeitinn wrote:

Well done Dan Bradley on the Niall Naoighiallach y-chromosone discovery. Oul' Niall was a quare one for the breedin'.

Were they actually suggesting that Niall Noigiallach was the direct ancestor of a shower of Donegal men? As far as I’m aware there’s a big question mark over the man’s very existence.

What was their basis for that again? That the men with the marked gene had a randy ancestor from that time and that his fecundity might be explained by his being a king with plenty of access to wimmin? That’s a b it of a leap. If so, why are the other areas of Niall’s children not similarly marked? He had a kid out in Tyrone, and some out in Meath and Westmeath unless I’m mistaken.

SeathrúnCeitinn wrote:

Atticus wrote:

Can't watch this prog obviously, but is Bob Quinn's old Atlantean thesis finding respectability?!

Bob didn't get a mention but from the first part shown tonight there was strong indications that we're from Africa via the Basque country

He said the bear had genetic links to Spain. It was also inferred that the bears were imported by the incoming groups. Importing bears from Spain is not a job I'd relish.


On the programme overall, not great. Great from an anthropological point of view, we can have a good sneer at what people think of their ancestry and what genetics mean. I loved the Armada stuff.

The question of the Celticity of the Irish came up. They seem to be judging Celts on looks alone, God knows what a Celt’s supposed to look like. (Did anyone else find his habit of wandering around guessing people’s background by their appearance slightly creepy? Borderline Lombroso stuff.) The Celts are generally categorized in three ways: by language, culture and race. Of them all, language is the only reliable one. No one can doubt that there was a distinct group of languages in Europe at one stage (called Celtic by us) and that Irish Gaelic is the offshoot of these. By that standard we are Celtic. Culture is a bit iffy; I think the Classical writers differed widely in their accounts of the Celts/Gauls. The idea of a distinct Celtic genetic group is very problematic indeed.

They didn't state that there was any proof that it was Niall and I apologise for the lazy inaccurate way I put that. What Dan Bradley said was that they were able to trace a particular y-chromosone back to a time when Niall, according to accounts would have been alive. According to him one in ten in Ireland have this y-chromosone and when you reduce this down to Donegal, Tyrone and Derry , it's one in five.

A person unknown but spuriously claimed by me to be Niall Naoighiallach was a quare wan for the breedin'.

But whoever this dude was, he didn't have the same stamina as Genghis Khan

Rigobert wrote:

... could we not have Mr. T instead ...

LOL.

"I ain't gettin' in no currach ... fool!"

SeathrúnCeitinn wrote:

They didn't state that there was any proof that it was Niall and I apologise for the lazy inaccurate way I put that. What Dan Bradley said was that they were able to trace a particular y-chromosone back to a time when Niall, according to accounts would have been alive. According to him one in ten in Ireland have this y-chromosone and when you reduce this down to Donegal, Tyrone and Derry , it's one in five.

A person unknown but spuriously claimed by me to be Niall Naoighiallach was a quare wan for the breedin'.

But whoever this dude was, he didn't have the same stamina as Genghis Khan

It wasn't you, they seemed pretty certain in the programme that he was the ancestor. I rememebr Daniel O'Donnell being particularly smug about it.

cactus flower wrote:

Rigobert wrote:

Oh yeah and the Niall of the Nine Hostages stuff was very dubious. If they don't have Niall's DNA how do they know these people are descended from him?

Well, they did say he may not have existed, which makes any connection fairly tenuous.

Sorry, I didn't realise that they said he may not have existed. I was cringing at and cursing at the television so much I may have missed a detail like that. So am I right in thinking that they have found a distinctive Y chromosome marker and they have just picked some quasi-mythical character from the past as the originator of this marker? That's bonkers science. Is the reasoning behind this that a person of royalty must have more progeny than a normal man? Bollocks!

There was a guy on my road that had 12 children. 8 boys and 4 girls. They were fairly mutated by the looks of their heads but they all shagged liked bunnies. By the rationale above, in a thousand years this Y chromosome will be found and the future 'historians' will say they are all the decendents of Brian Cowan as he was the most powerful king at the time.

Rigobert wrote:

cactus flower wrote:

Rigobert wrote:

Oh yeah and the Niall of the Nine Hostages stuff was very dubious. If they don't have Niall's DNA how do they know these people are descended from him?

Well, they did say he may not have existed, which makes any connection fairly tenuous.

Sorry, I didn't realise that they said he may not have existed. I was cringing at and cursing at the television so much I may have missed a detail like that. So am I right in thinking that they have found a distinctive Y chromosome marker and they have just picked some quasi-mythical character from the past as the originator of this marker? That's bonkers science. Is the reasoning behind this that a person of royalty must have more progeny than a normal man? Bollocks!

There was a guy on my road that had 12 children. 8 boys and 4 girls. They were fairly mutated by the looks of their heads but they all shagged liked bunnies. By the rationale above, in a thousand years this Y chromosome will be found and the future 'historians' will say they are all the decendents of Brian Cowan as he was the most powerful king at the time.

Hmm. I was remembering as I was listening to this a nice Alsation bitch I knew that was impregnated by a tiny terrier who was the only dog in the area small enough to get under the yard door.

They said Niall may not have existed, and then ploughed on regardless to make exactly the assumption that you thought they did.

It's back for part 2.

It really is a warm-up show for Time Team on Discovery Knowledge +14 at 2 O'Clock on a day between Tuesday and Wednesday....

My nephew hasn't stopped talking about "Niall of the Nine Sausages" since he saw Episode One.

Dreadfully slow. An infuriating amount of meaningless visuals and constant repetition. One hour was more than enough for this programme.

cactus flower wrote:

My nephew hasn't stopped talking about "Niall of the Nine Sausages" since he saw Episode One.

LOL

EvotingMachine0197 wrote:

Dreadfully slow. An infuriating amount of meaningless visuals and constant repetition. One hour was more than enough for this programme.

Agreed. Another fine piece of broadcasting from the ever-mediocre RTÉ. Although at least the second episode did not include some of the more problematic blood and the soil and pseudo-history moments. The concluding comments at least put the issue of ethnic identity in a more appropriate context with the gardener's comments about ethicity as choice. Hurray for the last 30 seconds.

I loved the way they had a good sneer at the childish notions of Celtic ancestors and then gave serious credence to the Book of Invasions and Basque stories about travelling northwards long ago.

I couldn't believe they spent a good twenty minutes going into how people crossed the Irish sea, ten minutes of which we knew there was no land bridge.

The conclusion as I understand it was that we did come from Britain after all, which must come as a shock to all. I couldn't give a shite where our genetic stock comes from. The only time I identified with anything in the show was when they had a fellow with a thick Meath accent on. None of my grandparents came from Meath but what do I care?

I thought we all came from Africa originally.

Meh, sure half my Irish ancestors came over with Cromwell and the other half came a while after they got kicked out of France owing to the Edict of Fontainebleau. Then my English ancestors are naturally all Scottish, as most tend to be. My grandparents lived in France for most of my Mother's teenage years whilst she boarded in England and then went to University in Ireland. I have family living in Ireland, Britain, France, Canada, USA, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Thailand.

I don't exactly have a defined character running through my bloodstream .

Desmond O'Toole wrote:

EvotingMachine0197 wrote:

Dreadfully slow. An infuriating amount of meaningless visuals and constant repetition. One hour was more than enough for this programme.

Agreed. Another fine piece of broadcasting from the ever-mediocre RTÉ. Although at least the second episode did not include some of the more problematic blood and the soil and pseudo-history moments. The concluding comments at least put the issue of ethnic identity in a more appropriate context with the gardener's comments about ethicity as choice. Hurray for the last 30 seconds.

I cant' remember the last 30 seconds. Maybe I went to check if I had paid my TV licence.

It was about how we all came out of Africa. Love reminding Joel of that