British and Irish, descendant of the Basques?

Medical geneticist at the University of Oxford Stephen Oppenheimer says in his recently-published book The Origins of the British that the principal ancestors of today's British and Irish populations arrived from the north of the Iberian peninsula about 16,000 years ago and spoke a language related to Basque.

Oppenheimer, famous worldwide for his DNA tests, based on overall genetic similarities, points out that Britain and Ireland have been inhabited for thousands of years by a single people that have remained in the majority, with only minor additions from later invaders.

Everything started about 16,000 years ago in the Iberian Peninsula. Because of the glaciers, former inhabitants of northern Europe had sought refuge in warmer areas. After the melting of the ice caps but before the land broke away from the mainland and divided into islands, inhabitants of the Basque Country with a tongue related to the Basque language went on foot to Ireland and Great Britain.

Celts, Romans, Angles, Saxons, Vikings and Normans came later

The book The Origens of the British: A Genetic Detective Story says biggest part of the British and Irish gene pool was taken before the arrival of Celts, Romans, Angles, Saxons, Vikings and Normans.

All of them arrived after the rising sea levels finally divided Ireland and Britain from the Continent and from one another.

According to the study, Ireland received the fewest invaders, so the invaders’ DNA makes up about 12 percent of the Irish gene pool. Concerning other areas, it accounts for 20 percent of the gene pool in Wales, 30 percent in Scotland, and almost 40% in England.