DNA of the Isle of Man The history of the Isle of Man indicates
that the bulk of the population will be of old Celtic origin, as
the first inhabitants of the Island spoke Manx Gaelic and were
believed to have come from neighbouring Ireland. For a period of
some 300 years the Island was also under Norse Viking rule and
so it would be expected that there would be genetic traces today
on the IOM, left behind through intermarriage with the occupying
Scandinavians. Additionally, the Island came under the control
of neighbouring Scotland, Ireland and ultimately England at
various times in its history, and so it would be expected that
some traces of their DNA, insofar as it can be distinguished
from that of the indigenous Manx, would also be found today. The
only previous work on the DNA of the Isle of Man was carried out
in a study led by Capelli et al. and published in 2003. Amongst
other findings, this confirmed the existence in the male
population of the British Isles of genetic traces of people of
Scandinavian