The Irish (and other foreigners)

About this book

"Where did the first Irish come from? Where have the Celts gone? What did the Vikings ever do for us? And why is it that chippers are run by Italians? The Irish (and Other Foreigners), Shane Hegarty's popular history of 10,000 years of immigration into Ireland, answers these and many other questions and reveals the mix of influences and genes that make up the modern Irish. He looks at what we think we know about the first Irish, where they came from and why they seem to have landed here long after they colonised our neighbours. He asks if the Celts ever landed in Ireland at all and could our genes reveal a twist to that story? The Vikings gave Ireland towns, a thriving slave trade, plenty of words and names. So how come they have left behind very little genetic trace? And how did a row over a woman lead to a band of down-on-their-luck cousins, from a French-Welsh-Norse background, to help conquer Ireland? The Irish (& Other Foreigners) also tells the curious and bloody story of the Plantations, a mass movement of people which convulsed the island, as well as looking at how other newcomers left their mark on the island and its people. And finally, there is a chapter on the recent wave of immigration and how quickly a country of mass emigration became host to people from across the globe."--Publisher's description.