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From: "DONALD MILLIGAN" <>
Subject: Re: [DNA] Colla vs Dalriata
Date: Wed, 8 Feb 2006 17:55:49 -0800
References: <19b.4518d423.311bb3bb@aol.com>


Excellent John! O Rahilly was far ahead of his time! Thank you
----- Original Message -----
From: <mailto:>
To: <mailto:>
Sent: Wednesday, February 08, 2006 12:51 PM
Subject: Re: [DNA] Colla vs Dalriata



In a message dated 2/8/2006 2:04:20 A.M. Central Standard Time,
<mailto:> writes:

Put simply, the DNA is not doing what it was expected to do. It is not yet
showing a strong link between the old families of Argyll and Northern
Ireland, and indeed Argyll and Ulster may be as different from each other as
any two regions in the British Isles.



Andrew, I don't think this would surprise anyone who's read O Rahilly's
"Early Irish History and Mythology." In it he discusses the waves of Celtic
tribes who invaded Ireland, based on remnants of authentic tribal lore preserved
in the ancient pedigrees and mythology of Ireland. Succeeding waves of small
Celtic tribes came to Ireland from Britain and Gaul and these can be
identified fairly well in historical sources. Yet throughout all these various waves
of conquest and settlement there must have been an indigenous population
that never disappeared and was simply incorporated into the new ruling
chiefdoms. I think those studies showing links between the Irish in the west of
Ireland and the Basques illustrates the phenomenon.
On a macro scale, that's exactly what happened in the Irish pedigrees
linking every tribe in Ireland to the Sons of Mil. The diverse Celtic tribes
such as the Erainn, Belgae, Lagin, and Cruithin were all said to descend from
one of the sons of Mil. I wouldn't in the least be surprised to find (in the
case of the Ui Neill, for example) that after their conquest of the North
unrelated tribes in the territories they conquered were simply "adopted" into
the clan structure by fabricated pedigrees. The same thing might have occurred
in Argyll after the "invasion" of the Dal Riata. The bulk of the native
population might have remained the same despite the influx of new chieftains.
Most writers, based on Ptolemy's map of Scotland, place the Epidii in Argyll
prior to the Dal Riatic invasion. But there were other tribes mentioned in the
vicinity as well and no one seems to know exactly who they were or what
their ancestry was as a population group. To label them all Picts or Cruithin
might be too simplistic.

In the case of the Three Collas, O Rahilly made no attempt to link them to
a specific population group in Ireland. Instead he just described them as
mercerneries to the Ui Neill of Tara and stated their common descent was a
fiction.

What's that old saying about history being written by the conquerors? It
probably doesn't tell us much that is reliable about the conquered themselves.

John




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