He looks at what we think we know about the first Irish, where they came from and why they seem to have landed here long after they colonised our neighbours. He asks if the Celts ever landed in Ireland at all and could our genes reveal a twist to that story?

The Vikings gave Ireland towns, a thriving slave trade, plenty of words and names. So how come they have left behind very little genetic trace? And how did a row over a woman lead to a band of down-on-their-luck cousins, from a French-Welsh-Norse background, to help conquer Ireland?

The Irish (& Other Foreigners) also tells the curious and bloody story of the Plantations, a mass movement of people which convulsed the island, as well as looking at how other newcomers left their mark on the island and its people. And finally, there is a chapter on the recent wave of immigration and how quickly a country of mass emigration became host to people from across the globe.

Shane Hegarty is a journalist with The Irish Times and is co-author of The Irish Times Book of the 1916 Rising.