Of Mice & Viking Men (Cathy Swift)

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• published: 17 Dec 2015
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It may have something to do with current Zeitgeist (one thinks of the Wolf of Wall Street - a good Scandinavian moniker!) but Viking ancestry is very popular throughout the Anglophone world including Ireland. The Department of Genetics in TCD published an important paper on the Vikings of Ireland back in 2006 but with the avalanche of new data available, the time is ripe to revisit their conclusions. Their methodology was to look at surnames showing Norse language elements; we are now more aware that many Norse words and names were absorbed into the Irish language and used therefore by pre-existing Irish inhabitants. Similarly, archaeologists and historians are now much keener than they were to stress Norse settlement in rural lreland, particularly in the north and west instead of simply around the Scandinavian urban enclaves on the coast. This paper examines the conclusions of the TCD paper in the light of new archaeological surveys and excavations, new studies in Scandinavian and Irish linguistics and onomastics , new information on the DNA of animals associated with Viking settlement and, of course, recent SNP developments. It shocked Irish archaeology (or at least the medievalists amongst them) to the core when the TCD study suggested Ireland had almost no Vikings; the native Irish had simply adopted Viking art and technologies. In 2015, is this conclusion still valid? Dr Cathy Swift, University of Limerick, runs the Irish Studies teaching programme in Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick. Mphil. in Archaeology at the University of Durham; a second Mphil. In Old-Irish Language and Culture from Trinity College Dublin. Her Dphil. at Oxford examined the history of the cult of St Patrick. She has taught in many universities, served ten years as organising Secretary of the Irish Conference of Mediaevalists, and runs summer schools in Old Irish in Limerick when she's not off gallivanting across Europe with her pilgrim staff, knapsack and tent. This lecture was presented at Genetic Genealogy Ireland 2015. Please note that these GGI2015 videos are copyrighted to the presenter and should only be used for personal study. They are not to be used for any other purpose without the presenter's express permission. Also, please note that because this is a rapidly advancing field, the content may quickly become outdated. The lectures were sponsored by FamilyTreeDNA (at www.ftdna.com) and organised by Maurice Gleeson, a volunteer from ISOGG (International Society of Genetic Genealogy at www.isogg.org).