From Email Patrick O'Sullivan

Some quotations and references from an Unpublished Paper
Irish Blood: explorations in interdisciplinary practices - by Patrick
O'Sullivan
Some References

A. Blood of Aran

1. S. J. Connolly, Religion, Law and Power: The Making of Protestant
Ireland, 1660-1760, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1992, paperback 1995, p 113.
'Lower down the social scale, also, there were examples of persons of
Catholic and Irish descent being absorbed into the Protestant community, as
well as more common instances of isolated Protestant families being
assimilated over time - despite the loss of legal rights involved - into the
majority Catholic population.'*

* A Footnote gives the source... '...The most spectacular case is
of course the population of the Aran Islands, off the coast of Galway, a
last bastion of traditional Gaelic culture, whom blood tests suggest to be
in fact of English descent: A.T.Q. Stewart, The Narrow Ground, 27-28.'

So, to...

2. A.T.Q. Stewart, The Narrow Ground: Aspects of Ulster, 1609-1969, Faber
& Faber, London, 1977, pp 27-28. ' "A pure race is a nationalist myth,'
writes Professor E.E. Evans, "...We are all mongrels... Most paradoxical is
the physical make-up of the men of Aran, one of the strongest bulwarks of
Gaelic culture. Studies of both racial characteristics and blood-group
rstios suggest that they owe much to the infusion of the blood of
Cromwellian soldiers, who were recruited from the English Fenlands. But
Ireland has completely absorbed them."* Evidence of this kind may be
challenged or revised from time to time, but it is unlikely that the general
inference will be shaken.'

* A Footnote gives the source, an unpublished paper by E.Estyn Evans.
Evans, 'Irishness of the Irish', pp 2-3. [Irish Association for Cultural,
Economic and Social Relations, Belfast, 1967].

But the same material can be found in Evans' most famous book.

So, to...

3. E. Estyn Evans, The Personality of Ireland: Habitat, Heritage &
History, Cambridge University Press, 1973, p 44. 'If it were possible to
sort out the genes of the Irish people I would hazard a guess that those
coming from English settlers would exceed those deriving from "the Celts",
and that those coming from older stocks would constitute the largest
proportion.* The popular conception of race as an ideal quality which has
somehow lost its purity seems to spring from the biblical story of the
garden of Eden, and finds analogies in the grammarian's concept of an
original "common Celtic" and in the theories of the Grimm brothers... The
extension of these notions into the idealisation of Nordic man in Nazi
Germany should be a warning.'
'...stranger still, the Aran Islanders, popularly regarded as the purest of
the Gaels, have relatively high frequences of blood group A, thanks, it is
suggested, to Cromwell's garrison of Fensmen.'#
* This Footnote cites C.S.Coon, The Races of Europe (New York, 1939), pp
376-84, and A.E. Hooton and C.W. Dupertuis, The Physical Anthropology of
Ireland (Cambridge Mass, 1955).
# This Footnote cites E. Hackett and M. E. Folan, 'ABO and RH Blood groups
of the Aran Islands', Irish J. Medical Science, 390 (1958), 247-61.

So, to...

4. Earle Hackett and M. E. Folan, 'ABO and RH Blood groups of the Aran
Islands', Irish Journal of Medical Science, No. 390, June 1958, pp 247-61.
p. 251, they list 'evidence of the official presence of soldiers on Aran,
whose military history we have given in some detail because of a popular
belief sporadically found in the west of Ireland that some of the ancestors
of the Aran islanders (and also of the people of Inishbofin) were men of
"Cromwell's garrisons".
pp 254-5. 'It is possible, of course, that the blood group data presented
here indicate only that the settlement of the Aran Islands was by Irish
people who by chance were not good representative examples of the ABO and Rh
blood groups of the western mainland. Or perhaps the Aran people represent
the remnants of some prehistoric race. Perhaps, too, the operation of
natural selection has affected the blood group frequencies differently on
the islands than it has done on the mainland.
Such possibilities must qualify our interpretations, but we conclude at
present that these blood group findings add biological support to the theory
that the Aran islanders are of Irish and English stock which steadily mixed
in the 17th century.
...We spent one week on the islands in June, 1956...'
Sources include E.A. Hooton and C.W. Dupertuis, The Physical Anthropology
of Ireland, Peabody Museum Papers, 30, nos 1 and 2, Cambridge Mass., 1955,
Haddon & Browne, and Beddoe.

5. A. C. Haddon & C. R. Browne, 'The Ethnography of the Aran Islands,
Galway', p. 826.
Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, 2, 1893. 'We know that garrisons
were several times quartered on the islands, more particularly on Aranmore,
and it is not improbable that owing to wrecks and to possible occasional
immigrants from Galway of "foreigners," that mixture of blood may have
occurred during the lapse of the last 500 years. ...To what race or races
the Aranites belong, we do not pretend to say, but it is pretty evident that
they cannot be Firbolgs, if the latter are correctly described as "small,
dark-haired, and swarthy."'

6. But see... Carleton. S. Coon, The Races of Europe, Macmillan, New York,
1939, on Ireland...
'The regional differences are not great, with a single exception, that of
the Aran Isles. The hypermarginal, culturally conservative Gaelic speakers
of these islands seem to have formed, in isolation and by inbreeding, a
distinct local racial entity. They are the tallest Irish group... It is
impossible, at present at least, to discover a continental prototype for the
Aran Island racial dimensions. For the moment we must consider it a local
development of race-forming proportions.'
Source, the then 'yet unpublished' data collected by the Harvard
Anthropometric Laboratory, under the direction of Professor Earnest A.
Hooton and Mr. C. Wesley Dupertuis.

7. J. Beddoe, The Races of Britain, London, 1885. 'The people of the Aran
Islands have their own strongly marked type, in some respects an
exaggeration of the ordinary Gaelic one... We might be disposed, trusting
to Irish traditions regarding the islands, to accept these people as
representatives of the Firbolgs, had not Cromwell, that upsetter of all
things, left in Arranmore a small English garrison who subsequently
apostasised to Catholicism, intermarried with the natives and so vitiated
the Firbolgian pedigree.' [Beddoe visited Aran in 1861.]


B. Discourses of blood

1. William Z. Ripley, 'Races in the United States', The Atlantic Monthly,
December 1908; Volume 102, No. 6; pages 745-759. 'There are more than
two-thirds as many native-born Irish in Boston as in the capital city,
Dublin. With their children, mainly of pure Irish blood, they make Boston
indubitably the leading Irish city in the world.'

2. Conrad M. Arensberg, The Irish Countryman: An Anthropological Study,
Macmillan, London, 1937, pp 82-83. 'Though he has no elaborate terminology
of kinship in which to enmesh his relatives, the countryman has another
weapon, in appeal to common "blood"... He judges himself and his
contemporaries by their "blood". Like many another people, he makes a deus
ex machina of this verbal identification. "Good blood" explains success and
high position; "bad blood" failure and low estate. To insult a man it is
enough to suggest he has "tinker blood" or "robber blood" in his veins. One
damns thus a whole kindred by impugning its descent...'

3. Benjamin Disraeli, 'All is race; there is no other truth, and every race
must fall which carelessly suffers its blood to become mixed.'

My chapter on Captain Rock, in Swift & Gilley, The Irish in Britain, 1859,
gives some discussion of the use made of these names - on threatening
letters and in the minds of the ruling elite. (My chapter was given a
completely daft title by our dear editors - without consulting me. I
shudder every time I have to write the title down...)

The names become personifications. My chapter ends with Parnell's words, as
the British cabinet pondered his arrest: '... If I am arrested, Captain
Moonlight will take my place...' Meaning, of course, that the destruction
of open constitutional nationalism would leave the field to the secret
societies and to violence.

The popularising historians have discovered Michael Martin, a protegee in
Ireland of the highwayman Captain Thuderbolt. Martin, as Captain Lightfoot,
transferred his activities to early nineteenth century USA and was, in 1822,
'probably the last man hanged in Massachusetts for highway robbery...' That
last bit seems unlikely... See...
http://kilkenny.local.ie/content/31249.shtml/history/historical_people

I can't remember seeing anywhere any academic discussion of this. Not the
sort of emigrant to appeal to 'Irish-America'.

The 1974 Clint Eastwood movie, Thunderbolt And Lightfoot, has no Irish
Diaspora Studies content - apart from the association of ideas created in
the mind of this cinema-goer.

My chapter makes much use of Hobsbawn, Bandits, 1969, 1972 - wonderful book.
Interesting to see exactly the same stories coalesce around these bandit
figures, wherever they go.

On that note, I should mention the very brave chapter that Jim Sturgis wrote
for me..

Ned Kelly (Australia) and William Donnelly (Canada) in comparative
perspective
James Sturgis
in
Patrick O'Sullivan, ed., Patterns of Migration
Volume 1 of The Irish World Wide.

In Jim's chapter Kelly and Donnelly are sort of time twins, calling on a
similar repertoire of Irish 'bandit' behaviour and activities.

P.O'S.


- --
Patrick O'Sullivan
Head of the Irish Diaspora Research Unit

Email Patrick O'Sullivan
Email Patrick O'Sullivan
Personal Fax 0044 (0) 709 236 9050

Irish-Diaspora list
Irish Diaspora Studies http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/diaspora/
Irish Diaspora Net Archive http://www.irishdiaspora.net

Irish Diaspora Research Unit
Department of Social Sciences and Humanities
University of Bradford
Bradford BD7 1DP
Yorkshire
England

From Email Patrick O'Sullivan

I don't like to add to the general melee of emails carrying computer
viruses, emails generated by computer viruses and emails warning about
computer viruses...

And some email systems will reject this message, because it contains the
word 'virus'...

But...

There is a great deal of computer virus activity going on, mostly the Mydoom
virus...

This is from the McAfeee web site...

'W32/Mydoom[at]MM
This is a mass-mailing worm that arrives in an email message as follows:

From: (spoofed)
Subject: (Random)
Body: (Varies, such as)

The message cannot be represented in 7-bit ASCII encoding and has been sent
as a binary attachment.
The message contains Unicode characters and has been sent as a binary
attachment.
Mail transaction failed. Partial message is available.
Attachment: (varies [.exe, .pif, .cmd, .scr] - often arrives in a ZIP
archive) (22,528 bytes)

The icon used by the file tries to make it appear as if the attachment is a
text file.'

Further, do note please that there is evidence that amongst those 'spoofed'
email addresses in the FROM line are my own email addresses and the address
of the Irish-Diaspora list. Looking at the pattern of the messages, it does
look as if at least one of the virus-infected computers belongs to someone
known to me. So, please do a virus check.

A message from the Irish-Diaspora list will NEVER have an attachment. A
message from me personally might have an attachment, but only by prior
agreement.

P.O'S.


- --
Patrick O'Sullivan
Head of the Irish Diaspora Research Unit

Email Patrick O'Sullivan
Email Patrick O'Sullivan
Personal Fax 0044 (0) 709 236 9050

Irish-Diaspora list
Irish Diaspora Studies http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/diaspora/
Irish Diaspora Net Archive http://www.irishdiaspora.net

Irish Diaspora Research Unit
Department of Social Sciences and Humanities
University of Bradford
Bradford BD7 1DP
Yorkshire
England

From Email Patrick O'Sullivan

Interestung CFP, Gary...

Gary's message reminds me that last year I attended a conference in
Edinburgh...

MILITARY ACTIVITY IN THE NORTH IRISH SEA WORLD: CONTEXT AND RESPONSE, c.
1100- c. 1750 - organised by Wilson McLeod.
Looking at my notes... It was mostly about Gallowglasses. The preferred
spelling now seems to be Galloglass - which I think is a pity. One of the
things that such conferences do for me is that, when I am puzzled by the
ways in which a certain theme or period is written about, I can go and hear
the theme and period SPOKEN about. And now I know far more about the
Galloglass than I did heretofore. And I know why so much that is written
about Galloglasses is so odd.

I think there is a plan to publish a book based on the conference, published
by 4 Courts Press.

But I digress...

One of the not-quite-submerged, not-quite-emerged themes of the conference
was certainly history and databases.

Thus Katherine Simms could go to her database of bardic poetry, simply check
which bardic poems and poets dealt with galloglass families - and then give
us a paper on patterns, context and content. There was a presentation about
the Galloglass database - I rather felt that the researchers had lost
confidence in this project. There was some discussion of the two Wild Geese
projects, Wild Geese I: Irish Troops in the Service of Habsburg Spain in the
Seventeenth Century and
Wild Geese II Irish Troops in Eighteenth-Centuty France. There is some
information at...
http://www.tcd.ie/CISS/projects.php#P4

And, of course, RIISS, Aberdeen's database, Migration and Mobility from the
British Isles to Northern Europe, 1603-1707 http://www.abdn.ac.uk/ssne/ -
this seems to be currently offline.

Gary will know more about this than I do. And I guess someone will have
written about this - computer folk are generally good at establishing
protocols. But I felt there ought to be some ground rules about these
databases. Like, the databases ought to be able to generate questions and
answer questions that the raw research material could not. Just in this I
thought Katherine Simms' paper was a triumph - and a tribute to her long
lonely work, developing her database over changing platforms, over many
years.

Worth noting too that Thomas O'Connor and colleagues at Maynooth are
developing the Irish in Europe project, which involves a number of
databases.
http://www.irishineurope.com/

And, of course, Brian Lambkin's projects...

Paddy


- -----Original Message-----

From: Gary Peatling
Subject: CFP: Irish history and computing

CFP: special issue of Journal of the Association for History and Computing:
Irish history and computing

I am to guest edit a special issue of the Journal of the Association for
History and Computing (JAHC) which will be concerned with Irish history.
For this purpose Irish history is defined broadly, including the history of
the Irish people overseas, and Irish cultural, social, economic and/or
political history, not limited by period or specialisation.

From: Elizabeth Malcolm
Subject: Captain Moonlight

Paddy,

I've been reading a fair amount of Patrick O'Farrell of late for reasons
that I know you and others are aware of.

He has some interesting comments about bushrangers and Irish bushrangers in
particular. He says that a study of the 100 'most prominent' Australian
bushrangers between 1789 and 1901 indicates that 22 were Irish born, 29 were
English born and 30 were Australian born. Where the rest came from he
doesn't say. Of the 30 born in Australia, 15 were Catholic - including the
Kelly gang - which would suggest Irish descent. But 'several' of those of
Irish birth were Protestant.

I don't know where he got this information from as, unfortunately, his book
'The Irish in Australia' isn't footnoted. But he does make the point that
the majority of bushrangers were not Irish, as is sometimes assumed, and
that among Irish-born bushrangers there was a significant group of
Protestants.

There is a lot of popular and 'romantic' writing about bushrangers in
general. Some particular bushrangers, like Jack Donoghue, Frank Gardiner,
Ben Hall, Martin Cash, and of course Ned Kelly, have had books and articles
written about them.

But, as far as I can tell, there doesn't seem to be a scholarly general
study of Australian bushranging, which is somewhat surprising. Of course in
Ireland there's been a lot of work done over the last 20 years or so on
secret societies, especially whiteboys and ribbonmen. Jim Donnelly has
produced a string of major articles and I understand he plans to publish
them eventually in book form. Michael Beames and Tom Garvin also did
important work.

But there doesn't appear to be anything comparable done yet in Australia.
Might make a good topic for a PhD student, especially one interested in
comparing 'social banditry' in Ireland and OZ.

Elizabeth
- --
Professor Elizabeth Malcolm
Gerry Higgins Professor of Irish Studies

Department of History
University of Melbourne
Parkville, Victoria, 3010
AUSTRALIA

Telephone: +61-3-8344 3924
Fax: +61-3-8344 7894
Email: e.malcolm[at]unimelb.edu.au
Website: http://www.history.unimelb.edu.au/irish/index.htm

From Email Patrick O'Sullivan

Carmel,

A number of the protagonists have Irish family names - notably journalist
Gilligan and weapons expert Dr. Kelly, whose suicide sparked the Hutton
inquiry. I have seen no comment on this fact - and of course Irish family
names are spread throughout British society.

The person whose origins have attracted comment is Lord Hutton himself -
there have been mentions of his 'Ulster brogue', not meaning his shoe. He
started the week as a respected establishment figure - now the hunt is on to
find some way of undermining him. I would expect soon to see his report
described as 'Irish', in the English sense of irrational, perverse.

Of course, much of the discussion is being choreographed by journalists -
the group criticised in Hutton's report. Looking at the fine detail of the
time line, it looks to me as if Dr. Kelly's options closed down when
Gilligan leaked his name to a Parliamentary committee. It looks as if Dr.
Kelly decided on suicide when he learnt that journalist Susan Watts had
SECRETLY tape-recorded his conversation with her. The only way that Dr.
Kelly could then protect his pension and his family was through suicide.

I would add that, sad and important as events around the Hutton report are,
I was more perturbed by events earlier in the week, the further attack on
free education, the resolute determination to teach our children how to get
into debt. I find it difficult to see how people from my own background,
immigrant, working class, can be expected to find a way through to
university level education.

Paddy


- -----Original Message-----

From: Carmel McCaffrey
Subject: Is Gilligan diaspora?


Paddy,

What with all the hoopla this week over the Hutton report I have to ask
- - is Gilligan diaspora? Do you or anyone know how far back is his link to
his Irish ancestors?

I had wondered about this over the past few months but when I read that
Hutton had a 'unionist' background then I really got curious if there was
not yet another sub-text to this whole matter.

Carmel

From: patrick maume
Sender: P.Maume[at]Queens-Belfast.AC.UK
Subject: Re: Ir-D Captain Moonlight 5

From: Patrick Maume
Interesting thought - how much overlap is there between Irish secret society
terminology and popular British crime literature (on highwaymen etc)?
Certainly there is a sizable popular literature on highwaymen, British and
Irish (and in the Irish case there is a certain tendency to debate how far
eighteenth-century rapparees/highwaymen are political resisters as distinct
from criminals - a bit like the continuing debate about Ned Kelly. There
was an article on this in HISTORY IRELAND a few years ago. Remember also
the early C19 scare about hedgeschools using Captain Freney's memoirs as a
textbook.)
We shouldn't exclude the possibility that some of these Australian
"Captains" were thinking of themselves as Dick Turpin rather than as
Whiteboys.
Best wishes,
Patrick

On Thu, 29 Jan 2004 05:00:00 irish-diaspora[at]bradford.ac.uk wrote:

>
>
> My chapter on Captain Rock, in Swift & Gilley, The Irish in Britain,
> 1859, gives some discussion of the use made of these names - on
> threatening letters and in the minds of the ruling elite. (My chapter
> was given a completely daft title by our dear editors - without
> consulting me. I shudder every time I have to write the title
> down...)
>
> The names become personifications. My chapter ends with Parnell's
> words, as the British cabinet pondered his arrest: '... If I am
> arrested, Captain Moonlight will take my place...' Meaning, of
> course, that the destruction of open constitutional nationalism would
> leave the field to the secret societies and to violence.
>
> The popularising historians have discovered Michael Martin, a protegee
> in Ireland of the highwayman Captain Thuderbolt. Martin, as Captain
> Lightfoot, transferred his activities to early nineteenth century USA
> and was, in 1822, 'probably the last man hanged in Massachusetts for
> highway robbery...' That last bit seems unlikely... See...
> http://kilkenny.local.ie/content/31249.shtml/history/historical_people
>
> I can't remember seeing anywhere any academic discussion of this. Not
> the sort of emigrant to appeal to 'Irish-America'.
>
> The 1974 Clint Eastwood movie, Thunderbolt And Lightfoot, has no Irish
> Diaspora Studies content - apart from the association of ideas created
> in the mind of this cinema-goer.
>
> My chapter makes much use of Hobsbawn, Bandits, 1969, 1972 - wonderful
book.
> Interesting to see exactly the same stories coalesce around these
> bandit figures, wherever they go.
>
> On that note, I should mention the very brave chapter that Jim Sturgis
> wrote for me..
>
> Ned Kelly (Australia) and William Donnelly (Canada) in comparative
> perspective James Sturgis in Patrick O'Sullivan, ed., Patterns of
> Migration Volume 1 of The Irish World Wide.
>
> In Jim's chapter Kelly and Donnelly are sort of time twins, calling on
> a similar repertoire of Irish 'bandit' behaviour and activities.
>
> P.O'S.
>

From Email Patrick O'Sullivan

We have received the following email from Kathryn Walley.

Her email included 2 attachments which I cannot distribute further - a
petition and a leaflet about this campaign. If you want these attachments
contact her directly.

P.O'S.



- -----Original Message-----
From: kathryn walley
kathrynwalley[at]hotmail.com
Subject: Saving the Hill of Tara from Motorway Defacement

Hi,

Re: Saving the Hill of Tara from Motorway Defacement.

My name is Kathryn Walley. I am a member of Save the Tara-Skyrne Valley
Campaign in Co. Meath, Ireland. Our campaign was formed in September 2003
following a decision by An Bord Pleanala (Planning Appeals Board) to approve
a major motorway (M3) to be built within 2.5K of the world famous, Hill of
Tara.

Because of your special interest in Irish/Celtic Studies, I wanted to alert
you to this impending catastrophe for Irish Heritage and to ask for your
support in preserving the cultural integrity of Tara.

The M3 Motorway will slice right through the heart of the Tara-Skryne
valley, one of the richest and most famous archaeological landscapes in the
world and will include a 26 acre floodlit junction a mere 1,090 metres from
the core zone of the Hill of Tara monument itself. We are now engaged in a
two-pronged battle to prevent construction going ahead.

Firstly, through legal challenges, under the Nation Monuments Act, the Irish
Constitution, and through the European Union. Secondly, through a
promotional campaign to raise awareness of Tara's plight, and to generate
the political and moral pressure necessary to force Meath County Council to
change their plans.

We are asking for your HELP, in whatever way you can give it, from
circulation of the attached information flyer and petition to your
members/colleagues/affiliate organisations, to joining our campaign.

If you have any questions or comments feel free to e-mail me or Vincent
Salafia our PRO at: salafiam[at]tcd.ie. You can also check our website at
www.taraskryne.org (currently under construction).

Thank you for you time and consideration. I look forward to hearing from
you.

Kind regards,

Kathryn

From: Carmel McCaffrey
Subject: Is Gilligan diaspora?


Paddy,

What with all the hoopla this week over the Hutton report I have to ask
- - is Gilligan diaspora? Do you or anyone know how far back is his link to
his Irish ancestors?

I had wondered about this over the past few months but when I read that
Hutton had a 'unionist' background then I really got curious if there was
not yet another sub-text to this whole matter.

Carmel

From Email Patrick O'Sullivan

Further to recent discussions...

I know that a number of us have been tracking with interest recent
developments in DNA research - first having to get our heads round the
science - and the commercialisation thereof. Some of the commercial
services on offer do seem to hover on the edge of scam.

But I forward below - with permission - an email from historian and family
historian, Barra McCain, Lafayette County Mississippi. This is an
interesting development - a group of family historians who feel they have
exhausted the archive resources, and have started using DNA evidence.

I have already put Barra McCain in touch with interested scholars, and I
have discussed further with him the findings he reports here. I am sure
that Barra McCain would be interested in hearing from anyone who wants to
know more. He has written some articles for the family historian journals -
I will see if we can find some way to asccess these.

P.O'S.

- -----Original Message-----
From: failte[at]watervalley.net
Subject: Bann Valley Irish

Patrick, a chara....

Just a quick note for you. I am the McKane/Kane/O'Kane DNA project
coordinator. We are tracking down Irish family groups from the Bann and
Bush River Valleys, who came to Colonial America, quite early (circa 1718 to
1824). Doing this via Y Chromosome DNA project as we have plumbed the
depths of the primary sources available to us.

In fact we have exposed... discovered... etc. a whole groups of Antrim
families, native Irish, but curiously many Protestant converts among them,
who migrated en masse to the PA Colony Backsettlements. There were a line
of Irish speaking ministers who had a great impact upon the war devastated
Route district post 1650s. (The Route is the Bann and Bush River Valleys,
the area between the two rivers, down to Kilrea.) Hence the conversions.
Our particular study is concerned with the Ó Catháin family (anglicised in a
stunning variety of ways). We have participants in both in Ireland and
around the world throughout the Diaspora.

Our project has been very successful. As you might expect, our project has
also come face to face with 'modern' social and political both in northern
Ireland and in the Diaspora. Our research is very much resented in some
circles in northern Ireland, despite the complete emphasis on family
history.

The Ó Catháin family and their blood relations underwent radical change post
1653. Almost all the military age males killed off, many of the young
males were 'converted' to various Protestant faiths (CofI and Presbyterian)
as were their in-laws (the Ó hEara family of the Route and the Mac Colla Mac
Dónaill family of Colonsay and the Route). In short we have a dandy and
complex story on our hands... which runs square into the situation in Ulster
in 2004.

I am a native Mississippian, my family in the New World since 1730. My
first high resolution DNA match was with a native Irishman, born in
Ballyrashane Parish on the Derry/Antrim border. So via Y chromosome DNA we
have confirmed out earlier primary source research... i.e. proven the link
between the McCains of the US South and the McKanes in the Route of today.
We have made many such matches now connecting McKeens in Canada, to McCains
in the US South, to McKains in Arizona, etc., all descending from an Irish
family in the Bann River valley... etc. fascinating really.

Should our humble project be of any service to you, please do not hesitate
to contact me.

Is fearr mall ná go brách.

Barra McCain
Lafayette County Mississippi

From Email Patrick O'Sullivan

This message from Hans Storhaug will interest, as will the web site of the
Norwegian Emigration Center in Stavanger...

Note a little subtlety on that web site - you don't just click on the button
marked DOCUMENTS. You have to click on the little label that appears below
the button.

P.O'S.


- -----Original Message-----
Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2004 14:03:49 +0100
From: Hans Storhaug

Dear editor;

Please notice that a new journal on migration now is available on the
Internet.

The Association of European Migration Institutions has published its first
journal, called AEMI Journal.

The AEMI Journal 2003 is a special issue on Emigrants Agents and Return
Migration in European History.

As editor I am happy to present the articles in the journal on the Internet
as seperate pdf-files.

You will find the articles at our website www.emigrationcenter.com under
DOCUMENTS.

Please notice that you can also easily subscribe to our news to be regularly
up-dated about our activities.


Best regards,
Hans Storhaug

AEMI Journal
editor

From: Michael Donnelly
Subject: Ned Kelly
To: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk

NED KELLY

(as recorded by Johnny Cash)

In Australia a bandit or an outlaw was called a bushranger

One of Australia's most infamous bushranger was a man named Ned Kelly



Ned Kelly was a wild young bushranger from Victoria he rode with his brother
Dan

He loved his people and he loved his freedom and he loved to ride the wide
open land

Ned Kelly was a victim of the changes that came when this land was a sprout
and seed

And the wrongs he did were multiplied in legend

With young Australia growing like a weed

Ned Kelly took the blame Ned Kelly won the fame

Ned Kelly brought the shame and then Ned Kelly hanged



Well he hid out in the bush and in the forest

And he loved to hear the wind blow in the trees

While the men behind the badge were coming for him

Ned said they'll never bring me to my knees

But everything must change and run in cycles

And Ned knew that his day was at an end

He made a suit of armour out of ploughshares

But Ned was brought down by the trooper's men

Ned Kelly took the blame Ned Kelly won the fame

Ned Kelly brought the shame and then Ned Kelly hanged

From: "Bruce Stewart"
To:
Subject: Re: Ir-D Blood Groups 2


Surely we were reading in the newspaper a year ago that the preliminary
genome study in the West of Ireland established that there was a remarkable
conformity of DNA in all those bearing Irish surnames (i.e., descended from
Irish fathers) and that the former 'theory' about Cromwellian admixture was
based on a coincidental resemblance of broad blood types between Aran and a
Yorkshire region?

There was an extraordinary genome survey in a primary school in Cheddar some
time ago which turned up only one individual who shared DNA with the bone
specimens removed from nearby passage graves. And that specimen belonged to
the history teacher who was not intended to be included in the test but
volunteered to show the children that the cheek-swab did not hurt! It might
be interesting if the same could be attempted at Carrowdore.

Spatial and temporality changes in demographic composition certainly occur
less often in some regions than others but they do occur, even in Aran:
witness Liam O'Flaherty's novel Skerritt - though there, alas, the child of
the 'blow-in' school-teacher and his wife tragically died without adding his
mainland genes to the local melting pot.

Bruce

From: "Padraic Finn"
To:
Subject: Lord Hutton

According to today's Independent, Lord Hutton represented the British Army
at the infamous Widgery Tribunal investigating the Bloody Sunday killings
by British paratroops on January 30, 1972.

Widgery's report, by general consent, "whitewashed" the British Army and it
wasn't until more than 30 years later, after ceaseless campaigning by the
relatives of those who died and were injured, that another inquiry led by
Lord Saville was set up to re-examine the evidence.

Evidence has been given to the Tribunal that authorisation for the Army's
acions went all the way up to the highest levels of the British government.

Given Hutton's narrow, legalistic and, in the context of the context of the
totality of the evidence, misleading, report in the Kelly case, we shouldn't
hold our breaths.

Padraic Finn

From: Jones.Irwin[at]spd.dcu.ie
Subject: RE: Ir-D Hutton Report 2

Dear All,

With regard to the Irish connections in the Hutton enquiry, I read in the
Sligo Champion recently that Andrew Gilligan's grandfather hailed from
Aclare, Co. Sligo. Aclare is definitely getting its moment of fame, having
also been the birthplace of the mother of the US soldier who captured
Saddam.

On a slightly different note, John Lydon's autobiography Rotten, No Blacks,
No Dogs, No Irish is being republished on the back on his new found fame in
the Celebrity programme. Profiles in today's papers have all mentioned his
diaspora background alongside reference to his crucial contribution to the
development of 'British' popular culture.

Regards,

Jones Irwin

From Email Patrick O'Sullivan

I thought that these links and references might be of interest. Note that
recent research has questioned some assumptions about mitochondrial DNA.

P.O'S.

1.
The Y chromosome as a marker for the history and structure of human
populations
http://www.le.ac.uk/genetics/maj4/project.html

2.
Nature 404, 351 - 352 (23 March 2000); doi:10.1038/35006158

Y-chromosome variation and Irish origins

EMMELINE W. HILL*, MARK A. JOBLING? & DANIEL G. BRADLEY*

* Department of Genetics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland
? Department of Genetics, University of Leicester, University Road,
Leicester LE1 7RH, UK

e-mail: dbradley[at]mail.tcd.ie

Ireland's position on the western edge of Europe suggests that the genetics
of its population should have been relatively undisturbed by the demographic
movements that have shaped variation on the mainland. We have typed 221 Y
chromosomes from Irish males for seven (slowly evolving) biallelic and six
(quickly evolving) simple tandem-repeat markers. When these samples are
partitioned by surname, we find significant differences in genetic frequency
between those of Irish Gaelic and of foreign origin, and also between those
of eastern and western Irish origin. Connaught, the westernmost Irish
province, lies at the geographical and genetic extreme of a Europe-wide
cline.


3.
Kevin Duerinck's web site gives a helpful outline of the general position
regarding this kind of family history. Note especially his list of DNA
Surname projects....

KEVIN DUERINCK
GENEALOGY HOME PAGE
http://www.duerinck.com/

http://www.duerinck.com/mystory.html
"Why DNA Testing For Genealogy and How To Manage It"
by Kevin F. Duerinck, Esq.
3 March 2001

http://www.duerinck.com/surname.html
y-CHROMOSOME DNA SURNAME PROJECTS--includes Geographical and Ethnic Projects


http://www.duerinck.com/genetic.html
"GENETICS AND GENEALOGY: Y Polymorphism and mtDNA Analyses", by Kevin F.
Duerinck, Esq.


4.
This is the formal report of the research that was the basis of the BBC
television series, Blood of the Vikings... (Note that use of the word
'Blood'...) The BBC is thanked in this academic article but the television
series is not mentioned.

Current Biology
Volume 13, Issue 11 , 27 May 2003, Pages 979-984

Copyright © 2003 Cell Press. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.

A Y Chromosome Census of the British Isles

Cristian Capelli1, 8, Nicola Redhead1, Julia K. Abernethy1, Fiona Gratrix1,
James F. Wilson1, Torolf Moen3, Tor Hervig4, Martin Richards5, Michael P. H.
Stumpf1, 9, Peter A. Underhill6, Paul Bradshaw7, Alom Shaha7, Mark G.
Thomas1, 2, Neal Bradman1, 2 and David B. Goldstein1, ,

1 Department of Biology, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom
2 The Centre for Genetic Anthropology, University College London, UK, Gower
Street, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom
3 Trondheim University Hospital, N-7006, Trondheim, Norway
4 Haukeland University Hospital Blood Bank, N-5021, Haukeland, Denmark
5 Department of Chemical and Biological Sciences, University of
Huddersfield, Huddersfield HD1 3DH, United Kingdom
6 Department of Genetics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-5120, USA
7 BBC Archaeology, London, United Kingdom
8 Istituto di Medicina Legale, Università Cattolica di Roma, Roma I-00168,
Italy
9 Department of Zoology, Oxford University, Oxford OX1 3PS, United Kingdom

Received 29 October 2002; revised 7 March 2003; accepted 16 April 2003;
Published: May 27, 2003 Available online 29 May 2003.

Abstract
The degree of population replacement in the British Isles associated with
cultural changes has been extensively debated [1, 2 and 3]. Recent work has
demonstrated that comparisons of genetic variation in the British Isles and
on the European Continent can illuminate specific demographic processes in
the history of the British Isles. For example, Wilson et al. [4] used the
similarity of Basque and Celtic Y chromosomes to argue for genetic
continuity from the Upper Palaeolithic to the present in the paternal
history of these populations (see also [5]). Differences in the Y chromosome
composition of these groups also suggested genetic signatures of Norwegian
influence in the Orkney Islands north of the Scottish mainland, an important
center of Viking activities between 800 and 1300 A.D. [6]. More recently,
Weale et al. [7] argued for substantial Anglo-Saxon male migration into
central England based on the analysis of eight British sample sets collected
on an east-west transect across England and Wales. To provide a more
complete assessment of the paternal genetic history of the British Isles, we
have compared the Y chromosome composition of multiple geographically
distant British sample sets with collections from Norway (two sites),
Denmark, and Germany and with collections from central Ireland,
representing, respectively, the putative invading and the indigenous
populations. By analyzing 1772 Y chromosomes from 25 predominantly small
urban locations, we found that different parts of the British Isles have
sharply different paternal histories; the degree of population replacement
and genetic continuity shows systematic variation across the sampled areas.

From: patrick maume
Sender: P.Maume[at]Queens-Belfast.AC.UK
To: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
Subject: Re: Ir-D DNA and Bann Valley Irish

From: Patrick Maume
This raises an interesting possibility - is Senator John McCain of Arizona,
who made such a splash in the Republican presidential primaries in 2000,
"really" an O Cahain of Co.
Londonderry descent? Funny I never considered this before - I always
assumed the name was Scots.
[PS For anyone who's inclined to raise a point about placenames, I follw
the convention of referring to the city as Derry because "Doire" was an
ancient pre-plantation monastic settlement, and calling the county
"Londonderry" because it
dates from the Plantation. Let's agree to differ.]
Best wishes,
Patrick


> >From Email Patrick O'Sullivan
>
> Further to recent discussions...
>
> I know that a number of us have been tracking with interest recent
> developments in DNA research - first having to get our heads round the
> science - and the commercialisation thereof. Some of the commercial
> services on offer do seem to hover on the edge of scam.
>
> But I forward below - with permission - an email from historian and
> family historian, Barra McCain, Lafayette County Mississippi. This is
> an interesting development - a group of family historians who feel
> they have exhausted the archive resources, and have started using DNA
evidence.
>
> I have already put Barra McCain in touch with interested scholars, and
> I have discussed further with him the findings he reports here. I am
> sure that Barra McCain would be interested in hearing from anyone who
> wants to know more. He has written some articles for the family
> historian journals - I will see if we can find some way to asccess these.
>
> P.O'S.
>
>

From: patrick maume
Sender: P.Maume[at]Queens-Belfast.AC.UK
To: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
Subject: Ir-D Hutton Report 2

From: Patrick Maume
I wouldn't think the stereotype of Hutton is that he is an irrational wild
Irishman - quite the reverse; his critics are suggesting that he is an
example of colonial authoritarianism being deployed in the metropolis to
crush critics of the government. This is now called "blowback" but it's a
longstanding fear of the "Brits out of Ireland" left who saw Northern
Ireland as a testing-ground for the British security state - indeed it can
be found in British Liberal critics of the Black and Tans, and as far back
among critics of empire as Burke's claim that for Warren Hastings to escape
unpunished would open the British body politic to corruption and seizure by
ruthless proconsuls on the Roman model.
How far thsi is fair to Hutton I don't know - I believe as a Northern
Ireland judge he ruled against the Government fairly often and certainly
wasn't a kneejerk authoritarian. (Oddly enough, as some of the papers have
pointed out, he did engage in one genuine innovation - publishing all the
documentation, to the government's great embarrassment - and that was what
made many observers excessively confident that he was going to give Mr.
Blair a bloody nose.)
Dr.Kelly originally came from South Wales, which might suggest fairly
recent Irish migrant descent. He was brought up in the Church of England,
of which his family are still members though he converted to Baha'ism some
time ago. Given that if you encountered a South Wales Kelly born fifty
years ago you would - perhaps stereotypically - expect them to be Catholic
or ex-Catholic, I wonder when the family became Anglican- it might be an
interesting marker of assimilation.
Best wishes,
Patrick

On Sun, 01 Feb 2004 05:00:00 irish-diaspora[at]bradford.ac.uk wrote:

>
> >From Email Patrick O'Sullivan
>
> Carmel,
>
> A number of the protagonists have Irish family names - notably
> journalist Gilligan and weapons expert Dr. Kelly, whose suicide
> sparked the Hutton inquiry. I have seen no comment on this fact - and
> of course Irish family names are spread throughout British society.
>
> The person whose origins have attracted comment is Lord Hutton himself
> - there have been mentions of his 'Ulster brogue', not meaning his
> shoe. He started the week as a respected establishment figure - now
> the hunt is on to find some way of undermining him. I would expect
> soon to see his report described as 'Irish', in the English sense of
irrational, perverse.
>
> Of course, much of the discussion is being choreographed by
> journalists - the group criticised in Hutton's report. Looking at the
> fine detail of the time line, it looks to me as if Dr. Kelly's options
> closed down when Gilligan leaked his name to a Parliamentary committee.
It looks as if Dr.
> Kelly decided on suicide when he learnt that journalist Susan Watts
> had SECRETLY tape-recorded his conversation with her. The only way that
Dr.
> Kelly could then protect his pension and his family was through suicide.
>
> I would add that, sad and important as events around the Hutton report
> are, I was more perturbed by events earlier in the week, the further
> attack on free education, the resolute determination to teach our
> children how to get into debt. I find it difficult to see how people
> from my own background, immigrant, working class, can be expected to
> find a way through to university level education.
>
> Paddy
>

From: "Sean Campbell"
To:
Subject: Re: Ir-D Lament for Johnny Rotten

Lydon's 1994 autobiography was actually reprinted and repackaged some time
last year in the context of the book being picked up for development by a
film production company. I can't comment on the previous message's reference
to Lydon's sexuality (though he has never, to my knowledge, been described
as 'overtly gay'). I have, however, written about the disjuncture between
Lydon's self-representation (in the late 1970s) as London-Irish and the
academic tendency, amongst British cultural critics, to characterize him as
archetypally English.

See Sean Campbell, 'Sounding Out the Margins: Ethnicity and Popular Music in
British Cultural Studies', in Across the Margins: Cultural Identities and
Change in the Atlantic Archipelago eds. Gerry Smyth and Glenda Norquay
(Manchester University Press, 2002), pp. 117-136.


Best,

Sean.



- ----- Original Message -----
From: ; "James A. Lundon"

To: ;
Sent: Monday, February 02, 2004 5:00 AM
Subject: Ir-D Lament for Johnny Rotten


> John Lydon? Is he the overtly gay man on I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out Of
> Here?
>
> Oh my gawd, he's Johnny Rotten. Has he completely lost his marbles?
>
> James.
>

From: "Maria McGarrity"
To:
Subject: Re: Ir-D Hutton Report 5

Padraic Finn mentioned the Widgery report in his posting regarding Hutton.
Ir-D members may be interested to know that the International League for
Human Rights (ILHR) has reprinted their response to Widgery report, by
Samuel Dash, called Justice Denied: a Challenge to Lord Widgery's Report on
'Bloody Sunday.' The ILHR reprinted it in support of the new documentary,
An Unreliable Witness: a Story of One Journalist and Bloody Sunday. The
film is directed by Michael McHugh. I believe he is marketing it towards
the festival circuit and looking for a distribution deal. (I saw the film
last week at a United Nations screening. It is worthwhile in its
acknowledgement of individual perspectives and the challenges of individual
memory and experience).

In any event, you may have a brief window in which to contact the ILHR to
purchase a copy of the Dash response. ($10).

The International League for Human Rights

228 East 45th Street, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10017
Tel: 212.661.0480
Fax: 212.661.0416
www.ilhr.org

The film is being put out by Grace Pictures, 307 Spruce Street, Boonton, NJ
07005


Regards to all,

Maria McGarrity

Long Island University
Brooklyn, NY


- ----- Original Message -----

> From: "Padraic Finn"
> To:
> Subject: Lord Hutton
>
> According to today's Independent, Lord Hutton represented the British
> Army at the infamous Widgery Tribunal investigating the Bloody Sunday
> killings by British paratroops on January 30, 1972.
>
> Widgery's report, by general consent, "whitewashed" the British Army
> and
it
> wasn't until more than 30 years later, after ceaseless campaigning by
> the relatives of those who died and were injured, that another inquiry
> led by Lord Saville was set up to re-examine the evidence.
>
> Evidence has been given to the Tribunal that authorisation for the
> Army's acions went all the way up to the highest levels of the British
government.
>
> Given Hutton's narrow, legalistic and, in the context of the context
> of
the
> totality of the evidence, misleading, report in the Kelly case, we
shouldn't
> hold our breaths.
>
> Padraic Finn
>
>