In honor of St. Patrick's Day...

... or perhaps dishonor, this was interesting. Apparently the current inhabitants of the British Isles (does Ireland resent being called a "British" Isle? I bet they do; can't they come up with a more, or would that be less, inclusive term?) Anyway, apparently, the British, Scottish, Welsh and Irish all share the majority of their genes, owing to a prehistoric population, speaking a language similar to Basque, that have lived there for the last 16,000 years.

Stephen Oppenheimer, a medical geneticist at the University of Oxford, introduces several theories that would turn long-held assumptions about British history on their head if they are further verified.

But he doesn't hold out much hope for shared ancestry healing old rivalries (maybe policymakers should take a hint from this kind of pessimism when considering other populations, say, in the Middle East):

If the people of the British Isles hold most of their genetic heritage in common, with their differences consisting only of a regional flavoring of Celtic in the west and of northern European in the east, might that perception draw them together? Geneticists see little prospect that their findings will reduce cultural and political differences.

The Celtic cultural myth “is very entrenched and has a lot to do with the Scottish, Welsh and Irish identity; their main identifying feature is that they are not English,” said Dr. Sykes, an Englishman who has traced his Y chromosome and surname to an ancestor who lived in the village of Flockton in Yorkshire in 1286.

Dr. Oppenheimer said genes “have no bearing on cultural history.” There is no significant genetic difference between the people of Northern Ireland, yet they have been fighting with each other for 400 years, he said.

As for his thesis that the British and Irish are genetically much alike, “It would be wonderful if it improved relations, but I somehow think it won’t.