The Irish DNA Atlas: Revealing Fine-Scale Population Structure and History Within Ireland
11th December 2017
Located off the North-Western seaboard of Europe, Ireland’s geographic situation is conducive to genetic homogeneity and isolation. Indeed, several traits are found to be at high frequencies within the Irish, compared to the mainland European populations, including; cystic fibrosis, lactase persistence, coeliac disease, galactosaemia, and multiple sclerosis. Studies of ancient Irish genomes suggest that the modern Irish genetic landscape was established about 3,500 years ago in the Irish Bronze Age. There have since been a number of significant historical migrations into Ireland; the Norse Vikings in the late first millennium, the Norman invasion of the 12th century, and the Plantations of the 16th and 17th centuries. The impact of these migrations on the modern Irish genome is largely unknown.