Ancient Irish migration origins

[Sharur]

News appeared this evening regarding a paper actually published back in November in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (journalists catching up over the Christmas break, perhaps...) regarding the origins of the populations in Neolithic and Bronze Age Ireland. There seem to have been two main waves, one from the Near East, then a later one from the steppelands around the Black Sea.

News items came via the Guardian newspaper and BBC News websites, while the actual PNAS paper can be downloaded as a free PDF via this webpage, with additional material and data should you feel so inclined.

One interesting point is that oddly, this seems to chime with the early Irish origin tales recorded in the circa 11th century Lebor Gabála Érenn (aka Book of Invasions or The Book of the Taking of Ireland - Wikipedia link), with the first wave, led by Cessair escaping the biblical Flood, coming from the Near East, followed by various subsequent waves from the Greece-Anatolia-Scythia-Caspian Sea region. Nothing more than a happy coincidence, perhaps 

[aligern]

For traditions to be maintained there has to be some point to them. If your ancestors came over with the Conqueror and were granted land then you had a title to nobility and remembering your ancestors and their story was valuable. Hence Its not at all  impossible that a story of how you came to be kings in Ireland legitimised the current rights of your family. I suspect that this is particularly true where land was either held communally or was partitioned amongst sons thus making the remembrance the tangible conbection to your status when your actual wealth might not be more than that of the men around you.