The Blood Of The Irish...

They have started a new series on RTE, for those who don't know RTE is the company that provides shite television in Ireland for quite a while and they are very proud of it.
That series is called The Blood Of The Irish.
The goal of that series is to retrace the path of the first people that moved to Ireland for the very first time 60,000 years ago.
Thought it was a good idea.
Now, the series is presented and narrated by a... Gardener!!!
Yes...
Not an historian...
A feckin' gardener!!!
So the guy first explain a well known fact...
That the home of all civilization was in Africa, most precisely between what we call now Tanzania and Mozambique.
So here is a bit of history...

At the time the North part of Earth was pretty much covered with ice and the South part was like a bread oven so the people from there needed to move North. So started a very slow motion migration.
So they walked...
Generations after generations.
Then they hit what we know now as Europe.
The ice age wasn't finished yet.
So they couldn't go any further North.
So they started to go Westwards...
And they ended up in what we know now as Spain. The North of it actually.

So please keep that piece of history in mind...
Let's go back to the show...
So, the happy gardener is moving around the West coast of Ireland because the people who leave there are known to be the Real Irish. Like in Connemara, here is a nice painting from Paul Henry:


The people from the West coast of Ireland have, for most of them, black hair, curled hair but clear eyes.
Also during the summer, if they are lucky and the sun shows up, they will actually get a tan.
That doesn't really sound Irish doesn't it??
The typical Irish as we expect would look more like something like this...


And do not put them under the sun!!!
So why are the "Real Irish" from the West coast not looking like this?
Well...
I'm gonna give you the two ways to find out...
The RTE way...
And My way...

RTE Way:
Well, you spend many thousand Euros creating a series featuring a loopy gardener traveling around making people spit in small containers in Ireland, Spain and Italy.
And realize that the Irish are part of the people that came from the North of Spain.
5 or 6 episodes.
Lots of beer tokens.
Travel allowances.
For that result...
Go back planting roses buster!!!

My Way:
You sit down...
Examine the historic fact I mentioned before and start thinking...
Okay...
The people ended up in the North of Spain...
Let me see...
How is that part of Spain called?
Galicia or sometimes Galiza (because of the basque majority).
Where does that name come from?
Well after 5 minutes research here is what I found... I quote:
"The name Galicia comes from the Latin name Gallaecia, associated with the name of the ancient Celtic tribe that resided above the Douro river, the Gallaeci or Callaeci in Latin, and Kallaikoi in Greek (these tribes were mentioned by Herodotus)."

Now, here is an interesting development...
Galicia could be related to Gael...
The Gaels are an ethno-linguistic group which originated in Ireland and subsequently spread to Scotland and the Isle of Man.

Let's push this a bit further...
We know that the Basque country is Celt. The country expand from the North of Spain to the South West of France.
We also know that Brittany in France is Celt.
So it is more likely that the migration went from The North of Spain, up to Brittany moving along the West coast of France, better stay near the sea as these people were most likely better fishermen than hunters.
But...
What after Brittany?
Did they go straight to Ireland?
My guess is...
The hell no!!!
The trip would have been too long.
But we have to remember that they were fishermen.
My view on this is that by fishing from the North coast of Brittany, by good weather, the South West coast of England could be visible.
That became their next target.
The idea here was the same as in France, continue your way up to the North along the West coast, near the sea.
Then they arrived in Wales.
Why do I say that?
Remember the way that Galicia came from the Latin for the name of a Celt tribe?
Well French language derives from the Latin and in French Wales is called Pay De Galles...
Land of Gael?
Why not...
And Ireland is just a hop from there...
So there you go!!!
We know where they come from and what way they came...

So what is the story with the read heads then??
Well, according to the statistics, the most read heads can be found in the center of Ireland and the most Blonds can be found on the East coast of Ireland.
The reason for that is that when the first Irish implanted in Ireland they stayed on the East coast then came the Vikings and the Brits...
So they moved Westwards.
Which would explain why you have blonds on the East coast (Vikings and Brits), read heads in the middle (mix between Vikings, Brits and Irish) and dark on the West (Irish).

So there you go...
Gardener free...
Time free history.