[Links copied from the contributions of others to another group] http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,2765-1986072,00.html 'Geneticists have identified Ireland's most successful alpha male. As many as one in 12 Irish men could be descended from Niall of the Nine Hostages, a 5th-century warlord, according to research conducted at Trinity College Dublin' http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/AJHG/journal/issues/v78n2/43032/brief/4 3032.abstract.html 'Seventeen-marker simple tandem repeat genetic analysis of Irish Y chromosomes reveals a previously unnoted modal haplotype that peaks in frequency in the northwestern part of the island. It shows a significant association with surnames purported to have descended from the most important and enduring dynasty of early medieval Ireland, the Uí Néill. This suggests that such phylogenetic predominance is a biological record of past hegemony and supports the veracity of semimythological early genealogies. The fact that about one in five males sampled in northwestern Ireland is likely a patrilineal descendent of a single early medieval ancestor is a powerful illustration of the potential link between prolificacy and power and of how Y-chromosome phylogeography can be influenced by social selection' -- SIABAIR (Old Irish) /shabba/ 'ghost, 'phantom', 'spectre'