Ancient bones discovered under an Irish pub are allegedly casting doubt on whether the Irish are Celtic at all, or so they say. This is all based upon DNA analysis of the three skeletons, plus a third Neolithic woman from Ballynahatty, supposedly indicating a Near East origin. Now that is possible, that a Near Eastern people may have come to Ireland 1,000 years before the Celts, or the skeletons of people that have been discovered could be a small sample of travellers who came to Ireland, then died out. But it is a long bow to pull to say that the Irish are not Celts, as there is a wealth of genetic analysis showing that they are quiet distinct from Near East populations. Anything for a headline.
