Apparently it’s a myth that we English are Anglo-Saxon stock who drove the Celts out to the far corners of Scotland and Wales. We’re 64% Celts ourselves – and we all came from Spain:
A major genetic study of the population of Britain appears to have put an end to the idea of the “Celtic fringe” of Scotland, Ireland and Wales.
Instead, a research team at Oxford University has found the majority of Britons are Celts descended from Spanish tribes who began arriving about 7,000 years ago.
Even in England, about 64 per cent of people are descended from these Celts, outnumbering the descendants of Anglo- Saxons by about three to one.
The proportion of Celts is only slightly higher in Scotland, at 73 per cent. Wales is the most Celtic part of mainland Britain, with 83 per cent. […]
“If one thinks that the English are genetically different from the Scots, Irish and Welsh, that’s entirely wrong,” he [Prof.Bryan Sykes, human geneticist at Oxford] said.
“In the 19th century, the idea of Anglo-Saxon superiority was very widespread. At the moment, there is a resurgence of Celtic identity, which had been trampled on. It’s very vibrant and obvious at the moment.
“Basically the cornerstone of Celtic identity is that they are not English. However, to try to base that, as some do, on an idea that is not far beneath the surface that Celtic countries are somehow descended from a race of Celts, which the English are not, is not right. We are all descended from the same people.
“It should dispel any idea of trying to base what is a cultural identity on a genetic difference, because there really isn’t one.”
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