Men of Galway, Limerick and Wexford; find out if you have any Viking in you

Are you male? Are you from Galway, Limerick or Wexford. Do you ever think to yourself, ‘I wonder if I’m a Viking?’ Then this is your lucky day.

We all know that the Vikings invaded here back in the day and soon settled down with the local population. That means that many of us have to have some Viking blood in us and now there is a chance for a few specially selected men to find out a bit more.

Mary Immaculate College in Limerick is interested in finding out just how much Viking DNA there is in Ireland so they have started a project to look into it. The college is looking for men, over 18, from Galway, Limerick and Wexford to be checked for the invaders' genes. As a control, they are also testing men from Tulsk in Roscommon, because, as chief researcher Dr Catherine Swift puts it in the Sunday Independent: "Our primary focus is Wexford, Limerick and Galway, and the Tulsk people are our control group. We're hoping Vikings didn't make it that far."

The hope is the tests will reveal the links between some of Ireland’s oldest families and the Vikings and the results may be incorporated into the Gathering event next year.

The testing involves nothing more than a cheek swab and to find out more go to www.leicestersurnamesproject.org.uk or contact [email protected] .