In a message dated 10/4/2011 3:43:20 A.M. Central Daylight Time, btlarkin1@gmail.com writes: 2) I will try to get a better reference for you from An Leabhar Breac. Could you point me at a DNA study relating to the Collas that says they are not M222? There's only one DNA study that I know of now labeling itself Airgialla (I think it's called the null something project). It seems to be only a sub-set of possible Airgialla DNA though. I didn't pay much attention to it though because it seemed to ignore the largest related cluster of Maguires. I was involved several years ago with McMahons and Maguires of Monaghan and Fermanagh respectively, both leading chieftains of the Airgialla. When the Trinity study first appeared the leaders of the DNA project were shocked to find their DNA did not match M222. Check out the McMahon DNA project at FTDNA. I do not know if there are others. The Trinity databases contained a lot of Maguire, McMahon and O'Hanlon DNA. These surnames were not included in their Niall study. It would have been a strange omission on their part to have this DNA and not mention it if they thought it matched their IMH DNA. It is true Trinity used only 12 markers in common with FTDNA at the time but you can determine M222 with good certainty on the basis of the first 12 markers. At least you can tell with certainty whether any given sample has a chance of being M222 or not. I've been expecting at some point to find some M222 DNA that does not easily fit into the neat genealogical scheme of Niall and his brothers. Any alleged branching prior to the time of Niall I think is highly suspect. Some of that is due to the influence of O'Rahilly - who regarded most of the names in the Dal Cuinn pedigree prior to Niall as artificial with just a few exceptions - one being Eochaidh Mughmedoin, Niall's father and Thuathal Teachtmar, an earlier ancestor who appears in the pedigrees prior to Conn 'of the Hundred Battles', a figure O'Rahilly regarded as purely mythological and an ancestral god. So I really never did buy into the "royal" descent of the Three Collas from the Dal Cuinn or any other tribe said to branch off prior to Niall. That is of course my own bias Everyone can form their own opinion on that. John