What genetics can tell us.

What the genetics does - and does not - say

The 2017 Scientific Reports study, Genomic Insights into the Population Structure and History of the Irish Travellers, confirmed an ancestral Irish origin. It found no particular genetic link to European Roma and placed the distinct Irish Traveller population history before the Great Famine.

Genetics is important, but DNA does not own culture. It cannot tell us the full meaning of Irish Traveller identity, decide who belongs or replace oral history. Its strongest role is to challenge false stories and add one line of evidence to a wider historical account.