Gene study reveals Irish Travellers' ancestry (2024)

FAQs

Gene study reveals Irish Travellers' ancestry? ›

Genetic research found that Irish Travellers are of Irish origin and have significant genetic makeup compared to their settled community. An estimated 40,000 Travellers (less than 1% of the population) are living in Ireland today. Although sometimes called gypsies, they have no genetic relation to Romani.

However, the Travellers are still genetically distinct from other Irish populations, which could reflect some external gene flow and/or the action of genetic drift in a small group that was descended from a small number of founders.

The study provided evidence that Irish Travellers are a genetically separate Irish ethnic minority which has been distinct from the settled Irish community for at least 1,000 years: The report claimed that Travellers are as distinct from the settled community as Icelanders are from Norwegians.

Irish Travellers are of Irish ancestral origin and have no particular genetic ties to European Roma groups, a DNA study has found. The research offers the first estimates of when the community split from the settled Irish population, giving a rare glimpse into their history and heritage.

Modern Irish are the population most genetically similar to the Bronze Age remains, followed by Scottish and Welsh, and share more DNA with the three Bronze Age men from Rathlin Island than with the earlier Ballynahatty Neolithic woman.

They used to live mostly in caravans or mobile homes in which they travelled all over the country or into England. They have Irish surnames – Ward, Connors, Carty, O'Brien, Cash, Coffey, Furey, MacDonagh, Mohan.

The Irish Traveller community has a long history, with its own traditions, language, practical skills, culture, arts and music, with distinctive patterns of living (e.g. nomadism, keeping of horses) and strong values built around families, care and extended families.

Talk to older relatives for clues and family stories. Old family photos can help to identify Gypsy heritage. Photographs taken at gatherings such as hop picking or fairs might be a sign, although these were often annual events which brought together families from many backgrounds, not just Gypsies and Travellers.

Irish Travellers are sometimes mistakenly called gypsies. They have no genetic relation with the Roma people. In Ireland Travellers were also commonly known as tinkers, derived from the sound their tools made hitting metal when many Travellers worked as tinsmiths.

White: Gypsy or Irish Traveller is an ethnicity classification used in the 2011 United Kingdom Census. In the 2011 census, the White: Gypsy or Irish Traveller population was 63,193 or about 0.1 per cent of the total population of the country.

How do you know if you have Irish Traveler ancestry? ›

Clues that can suggest Traveller ancestry include: Occupations: tinker, tinman, tinsmith, whitesmith, dealer, pedlar, horse dealer, basket maker, peg maker, knife grinder/ sharpener, hawker, musician, and sometimes labourer.

Ireland has increased at a relatively high rate during the last century, and the present level is higher than that in the rest of the U.K. It has been suggested that changes in the population structure have had adverse genetic consequences which, along with an increase in the level of inbreeding in certain areas, have ...

Religion. Irish travellers are usually catholic and a large proportion of Irish Travellers would Identify as Christian or Catholic. Other Travellers if they are religious will usually share the religion of the area they live. There is no set Traveller religion, and Travellers have a variety of spiritual beliefs.

And compared with the rest of Europe, the Irish have higher rates of cystic fibrosis, celiac disease, and galactosemia, a serious metabolic disorder that prevents the breakdown of sugars in dairy, legumes, and organ meats. (Find out how Neanderthal DNA may be affecting your health.)

What is their Irishness? Among these faces: Map of Ireland: big chin, thin upper lip, nose of topographical complexity and hooded eyes whose lids seem to cross the pupils on a slow diagonal -- features almost too big for the face, heavy and quaint like a 1954 Buick Roadmaster.

The Irish have Viking and Norman ancestry in similar proportions to the English. A comprehensive DNA map of the Irish has for the first time revealed lasting contributions from British, Scandinavian, and French invasions.

As the Roma traveled, they took the DNA and genetic history that they picked up along the way with them. Consequently, it's not uncommon for a Roma individual to get DNA results that reflect a mix that includes South Asian DNA, Middle Eastern DNA, and one or even several European ethnicities.

In the UK, it is common in data collections to differentiate between: Gypsies (including English Gypsies, Scottish Gypsies or Travellers, Welsh Gypsies and other Romany people) Irish Travellers (who have specific Irish roots) Roma, understood to be more recent migrants from Central and Eastern Europe.

For Traveller women it is 70.1 years, 11.5 years less than the general population. The life expectancy for Traveller men is 61.7 years, 15.1 years less than the general population.