Talk:Irish people
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Y- Chromosome analysis
Yet intriguingly, recent Y-chromosome (male descent) DNA studies have shown that most Irish people (in addition to the Welsh, some Scots and English) are close genetic relatives of the Basque people, setting them all apart from most European peoples (mtDNA, or female descent shows their maternal ancestors to be of broad north European origin)
My reading of the Nature paper does not indicate that the Y-chromosome work sets them all apart from most European peoples. In fact what it says is
we estimate that hg 1 (haplogroup 1) frequencies follow a cline within Europe, extending from the Near East (1.8% in Turkey) to a peak in the Spanish Basque country (89%) in the west. This cline mirrors other genetic gradients in Europe and is best explained by the migration of Neolithic farmers from the Near East.
My understanding of this is that certain genetic markers become more frequent the further west one travels in Europe, with a peak frequency in the far west. To state that this sets them appart from most European peoples is either a deliberate distortion of the science, or most likely a misunderstanding of it.
It does not necessarily make Irish men who possess these Y-chromosome markers more genetically similar to Basque people, it just means that their Y-chromosomes are more similar, but Y-chromosomes are a special case, which is why they are used for these studies. In fact the mitochondrial DNA data do not support the claim of Irish-Basque people being set appart from other Europeans either. The piece also says that there are highly significant differences in the frequency of hg 1 (haplogroup 1) between Irish gaelic and non gaelic Y-chromosomes, they mean Irish non-gaelic and Irish gaelic, based on their assumptions regarding surname and geography. That is that Irish men with Irish names appear to possess Y-chromosomes with hg 1 more frequently than Irish men without Irish names, but this is not supprising, as they point out that surnames are inherited patrilineally and so are Y-chromosomes. These sort of genetic data are highly specialised and specific and do not necessarily support the sort of conclusions non-experts might draw.Alun 14:28, 23 October 2005 (UTC)