Secrets of the Blood: Irish and Ukrainian DNA Converge

It’s Day 6 here in Dublin and I spent most of today working on client resumes, emails, proposals and invoicing. It was a day at the office, so to speak, so no videos, no colorful commentary.

Today, the brain was in career building land.

But yesterday, while walking through Dublin, I ended up at the National Museum of Ireland, located at the city’s former military barracks. One of the exhibits focused on the history of Irish military and walking through the rooms, realized and learned that the Irish were sent to fight everywhere, mostly on behalf of England. Or Napoleon. Or America.

I also learned that the Irish fought in the Crimean War. Now, I’m not going to pretend I understand the history of that war – 1850’s, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, The Ottomans – all sounds like a hot mess to me.  But, as a little girl, I did spend every September on the Black Sea vacationing with my family. So I know the area. Quite well.

The territory – all of Ukraine – is getting a lot of press these days because of the whole East vs. West mentalities battling out for a strategically located piece of land that will either land under Putin’s or Merkel’s watchful eye. Does anything really change?

And, as I’m still trying to figure out why, as an Ashkenazi Jew, I came to Dublin to trace my DNA, I find this discovery that over 150 years ago Irish soldiers were pulled into battle to the very geography my family came from (Kiev, Odessa), it makes we wonder – could that possibly be part of the missing 6%?

It would certainly be an interesting twist.

Meantime, 23andme showed a map of where my bloodline’s second and third cousins are located and wouldn’t you know where one of the map pins is? That’s right, here in Dublin. I sent the man a message letting him know that I’m here and asking him if he’s open for an in-person chat, so hopefully he’ll reply.

Some of this journey feels like a Chinese puzzle: how many more boxes will I have to open in order to find the prize?

When I don’t even know what that prize really is.

Map: 23andme, Google

Photos: Taken at the National Museum of Ireland

Click on photos and then on magnify to read relevance of military objects.