Were the Welsh the original inhabitants of Britain?

Answer 1

So much for the ethno-mythological-political answer. It is a simple fact that the British Isles have been inhabited since around 10000 BC. The Celtic culture did not arrive in Britain until after the Sixth century BC. I say Celtic culture, because there is no evidence that it ever had any relevance to ethnic heritage. In fact it originated in the Halstatt area of central Germany - the home of the hated Saxons. Wait a minute - that means that the Celts have the same cultural origin as the Anglo-Saxons!

As with all of these arguments, your ethnic/cultural identity all depends where you choose to draw the line in the sands of history. The bottom line is that the British (Whether you regard yourselves as English, Welsh, Scottish, Irish Cornish or a Yorkshireman) are the biggest bunch of mongrels in the World!

RESPONSE: You need to check out the recent Y-chromosome studies instead of relying on old historical theories. Check out Oppenheimer's book.

Counter Response: Those "old" historicla theories are still current and not at gainsaid by the DNA evidence. Current DNA analysis confirms that the majority of the population of the British Isles (Geographic) share the essentially the same gene pool whether they come from Dover, Lands End, John O'Groats or Tipperary. What we regard as culture is therefore a political sheen applied by the winners of the last battle. That means in sequence; Pre-Celtic, Celtic, Roman, Norse, Saxon, Norse, Norman (also Norse), German etc etc. What little DNA these peoples contributed has, for the most part, been watered down to nothing. We are all still the same people. While we continue to try and break our societies down into squabbling penny packets, those who find pride in their immigrant strain will continue to win. That means for eaxmple, that the 304 million US citizens (mongrals to a man and woman) will outperform the 500 million Europeans making us poorer and them richer. All the while, here you are worrying that most "Celtic" kids would rather rap in English (Or, at least, something very loosely related to it) than a language that will give them no advantages in life.