If Bell Beakers invaded Ireland how is it that many people there look distinct from other Europeans?

[Anglo-Celtic]

What about this fella? woman to his right looks really Irish too, woman on far right actually looks more like some lighter Spanish women that i used to see at church when visiting Spain

Northeastern Tennessee and southwestern Virginia are the most "red" areas in the USA according to a hair map. I likely would bump into his doppleganger at a supermarket down there.

[Grace O'Malley]

She would fit right in if she lived in northeastern Tennessee or southwestern Virginia. She certainly would not be seen as exotic.

She has a resemblance to Sadie Sink from Stranger Things.

[Anglo-Celtic]

She has a resemblance to Sadie Sink from Stranger Things.

Thanks for reminding me. I still need to binge watch that show.

[Grace O'Malley]

Oh well, I'm afraid to tell you this, but the Irish and Scottish in comparison to mainland continental Europeans are among the "least - mixed" people. Geographical location explains it all, looking at these countries located off the northwestern coast of the European mainland. Only a few populations made it there. This is exactly why, according to a study done in 2010, Ireland and Scotland scored the lowest haplotype diversity (HD) levels in Europe! While the highest levels of HD are in Southern European populations (e.g. Portugal and Bulgaria). England was seen also pretty distinct, but less so than Ireland and Scotland.

They still have much more recent mixing than a lot of other populations. In fact Spain and Italy has been more isolated from other Europeans over the last 2,000 years and also the Slavic countries have mixed more with other Slavic populations. There was a Europe wide study about this in 2013. However populations like the Basque and Finns weren't included and they would be a lot more isolated than Irish and Scots. But even with the Finns and Basques not been included the Irish and Scots were not the most isolated populations at all.

Anyway all this is obvious looking at genetic plots.

The recent genealogical history of human populations is a complex mosaic formed by individual migration, large-scale population movements, and other demographic events. Population genomics datasets can provide a window into this recent history, as rare traces of recent shared genetic ancestry are detectable due to long segments of shared genomic material. We make use of genomic data for 2,257 Europeans (in the Population Reference Sample [POPRES] dataset) to conduct one of the first surveys of recent genealogical ancestry over the past 3,000 years at a continental scale. We detected 1.9 million shared long genomic segments, and used the lengths of these to infer the distribution of shared ancestors across time and geography. We find that a pair of modern Europeans living in neighboring populations share around 2–12 genetic common ancestors from the last 1,500 years, and upwards of 100 genetic ancestors from the previous 1,000 years. These numbers drop off exponentially with geographic distance, but since these genetic ancestors are a tiny fraction of common genealogical ancestors, individuals from opposite ends of Europe are still expected to share millions of common genealogical ancestors over the last 1,000 years. There is also substantial regional variation in the number of shared genetic ancestors. For example, there are especially high numbers of common ancestors shared between many eastern populations that date roughly to the migration period (which includes the Slavic and Hunnic expansions into that region). Some of the lowest levels of common ancestry are seen in the Italian and Iberian peninsulas, which may indicate different effects of historical population expansions in these areas and/or more stably structured populations. Population genomic datasets have considerable power to uncover recent demographic history, and will allow a much fuller picture of the close genealogical kinship of individuals across the world.

Regional variation: Interesting cases.
We now examine some of the more striking patterns we see in more detail.

There is relatively little common ancestry shared between the Italian peninsula and other locations, and what there is seems to derive mostly from longer ago than 2,500 ya. An exception is that Italy and the neighboring Balkan populations share small but significant numbers of common ancestors in the last 1,500 years, as seen in Figures S16 and S17S17. The rate of genetic common ancestry between pairs of Italian individuals seems to have been fairly constant for the past 2,500 years, which combined with significant structure within Italy suggests a constant exchange of migrants between coherent subpopulations.

Patterns for the Iberian peninsula are similar, with both Spain and Portugal showing very few common ancestors with other populations over the last 2,500 years. However, the rate of IBD sharing within the peninsula is much higher than within Italy—during the last 1,500 years the Iberian peninsula shares fewer than two genetic common ancestors with other populations, compared to roughly 30 per pair within the peninsula; Italians share on average only about eight with each other during this period.

The higher rates of IBD between populations in the “E” grouping shown in Figure 3 seem to derive mostly from ancestors living 1,500–2,500 ya, but also show increased numbers from 500–1,500 ya, as shown in Figure 5 and Figure S17. For comparison, the IBD rate is high enough that even geographically distant individuals in these eastern populations share about as many common ancestors as do two Irish or two French-speaking Swiss.

By far the highest rates of IBD within any populations is found between Albanian speakers—around 90 ancestors from 0–500 ya, and around 600 ancestors from 500–1,500 ya (so high that we left them out of Figure 5; see Figure S12). Beyond 1,500 ya, the rates of IBD drop to levels typical for other populations in the eastern grouping.

And yes it is true that the most diversity is in the Iberian Peninsula and the lowest in England and Ireland this is not the same as been isolated. As Iberia has less IBD sharing with other Europeans than the English and Irish have.

A number of genome-wide studies have begun to reveal quantitative insights into recent human history [11]. Within Europe, the first two principal axes of variation of the matrix of genotypes are closely related to a rotation of latitude and longitude [12]–[14], as would be expected if patterns of ancestry are mostly shaped by local migration [15]. Other work has revealed a slight decrease in diversity running from south-to-north in Europe, with the highest haplotype and allelic diversity in the Iberian peninsula (e.g., [14],[16],[17]), and the lowest haplotype diversity in England and Ireland [18]

Both Italy and Iberia have low rates of IBD with other European populations.

Italy, Iberia, and France.
On the other hand, we find that France and the Italian and Iberian peninsulas have the lowest rates of genetic common ancestry in the last 1,500 years (other than Turkey and Cyprus), and are the regions of continental Europe thought to have been least affected by the Slavic and Hunnic migrations. These regions were, however, moved into by Germanic tribes (e.g., the Goths, Ostrogoths, and Vandals), which suggests that perhaps the Germanic migrations/invasions of these regions entailed a smaller degree of population replacement than the Slavic and/or Hunnic, or perhaps that the Germanic groups were less genealogically cohesive. This is consistent with the argument that the Slavs moved into relatively depopulated areas, while Gothic “migrations” may have been takeovers by small groups of extant populations [54],[55].

In addition to the very few genetic common ancestors that Italians share both with each other and with other Europeans, we have seen significant modern substructure within Italy (i.e., Figure 2) that predates most of this common ancestry, and estimate that most of the common ancestry shared between Italy and other populations is older than about 2,300 years (Figure S16). Also recall that most populations show no substructure with regards to the number of blocks shared with Italians, implying that the common ancestors other populations share with Italy predate divisions within these other populations. This suggests significant old substructure and large population sizes within Italy, strong enough that different groups within Italy share as little recent common ancestry as other distinct, modern-day countries, substructure that was not homogenized during the migration period. These patterns could also reflect in part geographic isolation within Italy as well as a long history of settlement of Italy from diverse sources.

In contrast to Italy, the rate of sharing of IBD within the Iberian peninsula is similar to that within other populations in Europe. There is furthermore much less evidence of substructure within our Iberian samples than within the Italians, as shown in Figure S2. This suggests that the reduced rate of shared ancestry is due to geographic isolation (by distance and/or the Pyrenees) rather than long-term stable substructure within the peninsula.

https://journals.plos.org/plosbiolog...o-1001555-g005

[Grace O'Malley]

Apparently, the “most isolated” by physical anthropology standards are the native Keltic - speaking (Gaelic to be precise) people of the Aran Isles (Western Ireland). They have developed an «*exaggerated phenotype*» of the Keltic Nordid (Aran Nordid). To this day, there is no phenotype comparable to this one in Europe. The cause for such a phenotype is said due to isolation and inbreeding.

There are some old pictures of Aran Islanders so that is fortunate that they are available. Anyway they don't look that unique to me for a Northwestern European population. I can understand in the past people trying to "exoticise" the Irish because they thought they were some blow-ins as in Celts from Europe who were from a different part of Europe and very different from Anglo-Saxons etc. But the facts are that they have been in Ireland since the Bronze Age and are similar to other populations in Northwestern Europe. I'm not saying you are doing this but just replying because you mentioned Aran Islanders. Here are some pictures of Aran Islanders and I think they can fit in Britain as well as Ireland.

[Septentrion]

What about this fella? woman to his right looks really Irish too, woman on far right actually looks more like some lighter Spanish women that i used to see at church when visiting Spain

Stop exaggerating Oliver109. For all the years, I went to Spain. There isn’t at all a typically Spanish-looking person in that picture. Unless, the person you saw in Spain was some Nordid - looking person. I do agree that there are some exotic - looking Spanish people. These Irish people would fit way better in Germany or the Netherlands than in Spain or Portugal or Italy.

[Immanenz]

What about this fella? woman to his right looks really Irish too, woman on far right actually looks more like some lighter Spanish women that i used to see at church when visiting Spain

the red haired dude is actually a very good example of a Bell Beaker, proving kinda the point, while the little Spanish looking lady is Atlanto Brunn.

[Oliver109]

Nothing odd or unusual about them for any part of the UK either and you know it. Now you are saying one woman looks like she could be lighter Spanish? So much for Irish looking distinct from other Europeans then? Which is it?

I don't see many young men like him in England and if I do they probably have Irish ancestry i.e Ed Sheeran, many Irish look similar to Spanish it's obvious but the fella would stick out of place even in Paris.

[Grace O'Malley]

I don't see many young men like him in England and if I do they probably have Irish ancestry i.e Ed Sheeran, many Irish look similar to Spanish it's obvious but the fella would stick out of place even in Paris.

Now you're trolling. Show a group picture of Spanish people that look like Irish? So now you are saying Irish look more like Spanish than they look like Scots, Welsh or English? Please clarify?

And then the title says Irish look distinct from other Europeans. You're just trolling.

[Beowulf]

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Very interesting information as usual Grace!

Thanks for sharing it