The first humans are thought to have arrived in Ireland around 7000 BC, probably from Britain. These were Mesolithic 'hunter-gatherer' people. They hunted game, fished the rivers and the coastlines, and ate fruit in season. They were a migratory people, who followed wild game and seafood, and probably lived in crude shelters made of animal skins. We know from modern genetic science that these people were descended from the first Europeans, who settled western Europe perhaps 35,000 years ago. Forced south during the last Ice Age, they resettled France, Britain and Ireland from Spain as the ice sheets retreated. Modern research into the DNA of Irish and other Europeans shows that our nearest genetic 'cousins' are the Scots, Welsh and the Basques of northern Spain. Over 90% of the Irish population carries the DNA y-chromosome R1b1, which is a characteristic of the first Europeans.
