258 INBREEDING AND OUTBREEDING 



antecedents, the Iberian race. Until the neolithic period 

 these tribes were the only inhabitants of the British Isles. 

 During the Stone Age, however, there is evidence of the 

 presence of a second Mongoloid race, the Turanian. Just 

 before the Bronze Age an Aryan stock, the Celts, invaded 

 Britain and Ireland. These people came from the south 

 — France or Spain. Probably they were originally close 

 relatives of the Aryans who migrated from, Asia to the 

 northwest and by intermingling with the natives and de- 

 veloping as they went, formed the vigorous Teutonic 

 Aryan or Nordic. But the southern migration of Aryans 

 met very different tribes on their journey, producing in 

 the Celts a somewhat inferior stock. However this may 

 be, the original Celtic horde probably did not make a great 

 impression on the racial character of the Irish ; something 

 which also may be said of the second Celtic strain, more 

 highly civUized and warlike than the original visitors, 

 which entered Ireland during the Bronze Age. This later 

 stream of invasion continued over a long period for the 

 island was not completely subjugated until well into the 

 fifth century; but the intruders came as conquerors of a 

 higher social order whose social ideal was to keep their 

 stock uncontaminated with the blood of the native race. 



The Norsemen, Nordic Aryans, attempted many times 

 to gain possession of Ireland between the ninth and the 

 fourteenth centuries, but were unsuccessful, and as the 

 Romans and the Saxons never attempted to invade Ire- 

 land, the land won by the Celtic chiefs remained in the 

 hands of their direct descendants until 1654, when Crom- 

 well confiscated it, and either killed or reduced them to 

 the condition of laborers. 



The present inhabitants of Ireland, then, with the ex- 



