>Dean, this interests me - a thousand years ago would be 11th century
>CE, and later in the same post you make reference to Irish ancestors.
>Did you mean to say that your 11th century Irish ancestors were
>hunter-gatherers, and if so could you expand on this?  If I'be
>misunderstood, please accept my apologies!

I was wondering if ayone was going to call me out on that.  :-)

No I didn't mean to imply they were hunter/gatherers so much as to make
general note of the fact that the "ancestral" Irish diet for most of Irish
history wouldn't have looked anything like what we think of as "Irish food"
today.

Trying to go back and reconstruct what exactly the Irish were eating 1,000
years ago century would be a complicated proposition, because you'd first
have to explain what you meant by "Irish"--there was a lot of population
shuffling between Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, and then of course you had
all the nordic barbarians trampling through (there would be no red-headed
or blond Irish if it weren't for Viking invaders), and then you'd have to
take into account the Moores too (which is where the black Irish come from).

This does serve to emphasize the point that people of European heritage
generally have a -much- more mixed background than they tend to think.
Even if you were of pure Irish extraction, you would very likely have a
generous dollop of the blood of vikings, north africans, and arabs in your
veins -just- from the last thousand or so years.  Even if you think you're
of some 'pure' extraction based on looks you aren't; I look very much like
the stereotypical viking (above average height, blond, blue eyes, fair
skin, naturally mesomorphic, broad shouldered, barrel chese, etc.--you
should have seen me when I had my hair down to my butt and a full beard)
yet it is absolutely indisputable that I have the blood of black people,
arab people, north american indian people (Miami tribe), and countless
European barbarian tribes (whoever was running around France and Ireland
and Germany just over the last 2000 years would be an incredible list).
Anyone of European extraction is full of an incredible genetic heritage
from all over the place.