The tangled strands of Irish identity are unwound

The Origins of the Irish by JP Mallory. Thames & Hudson, €25.15. Reviewed by Dermot Bolger.

Stone workers in the Neolithic era, when farming spread across Ireland. Photo: Getty

The Origins of the Irish by JP Mallory

**Thames & Hudson, €25.15**

**Reviewed by Dermot Bolger**

.....

If anthropology went hand in hand with soccer, a bright spark entrepreneur would have cleaned up during the European championships last year by selling a T-shirt saying that: "Eighty Million People are of Irish descent, yet all I wound up with was this 11."

A better team might have required Giovanni Trapattoni to make judicious use ...