VIDEO: Scientists reveal early Irish genetic traits

The genetic science that is making advances in future medicine is starting to unravel some of the deepest secrets of Irish people’s past.

The research by scientists at Trinity College Dublin and archaeologists at Queen’s University Belfast reveals much about early Irish farming and its origins.

The presence of genetic traits indicating high lactose tolerance in three Bronze Age men buried on Rathlin Island around 4,000 years ago, for example, can tell a lot. This is a trait far more common in Ireland than elsewhere in the modern world.