Warlord may have 3m descendants

SCIENTISTS in Ireland may have found the country’s most fertile male, with more than three million men worldwide among his offspring.

The scientists, from Trinity College Dublin, have discovered that as many as one in 12 Irish men could be descended from Niall of the Nine Hostages, a fifth-century warlord and head of the most powerful dynasty in ancient Ireland.

His genetic legacy is almost as impressive as Genghis Khan, the Mongol emperor who conquered most of Asia in the 13th century and has nearly 16m descendants, said Dan Bradley, who supervised the research.