Newgrange 'royal incest' theory inbred and buried...

NEW research has cast doubt on the theory that ancient Irish royal families practised incest.

- BY OWEN CONLON

In 2020, historians began to speculate that prehistoric kings here engaged in the practice after DNA extracted from a bone fragment found at Newgrange showed a man buried there had parents who were closely related.

Incest was practised at the time by both the Egyptian pharaohs - who were considered deities who needed to marry each other - and the Incas in Latin America, who wished to concentrate all power in one family.

The 2020 discovery sparked hypothesis that the same was happening in Ireland.

However, a fresh study by researchers at UCD, in collaboration with academic colleagues in Norway, Australia and the UK, now indicates that may not be correct.

UCD associate professors Jessica Smyth and Neil Carlin say no other incestuous unions have been identified in Neolithic Ireland and Britain and there is a lack of evidence for inbreeding across prehistoric Europe.

They also say the evidence found at the site does not support the existence of a 'king' of Newgrange or any hereditary power or dynasty with a shared ancestry.