Celebrate Your Irish Heritage

Hi, we're Mike and Carina. We travel Ireland and the Irish ancestral trails of the world, connect with people of Irish descent and share the resulting stories, photos, videos and podcasts with you.

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Recent Articles

DNA and Culture – Is Irishness your Nature or Nurture? (#114)

Welcome to Season 1, Episode 14 of the Letter from Ireland Show. In this episode we get philosophical! First, we ask if Irishness is your nature or is it nurtured. But Carina starts by asking “Where did the Irish come from?”.

The Choctaw Nation and Ireland

Nowadays, we’re used to seeing famine and war reported on the TV – the images helping us to understand the real misery of some people in unlucky or unfortunate parts of the world. However, our story today goes back to a time before such pictures were available to people, most times the reports never moved…

Pride, Prejudice and Jane Eyre – An Irish Connection? (#113)

Welcome to Season 1, Episode 13 of the Letter from Ireland Show. In this episode we have a literary theme. Carina looks at a famous English writer – and some of her Irish connections, as well as a family of English writers who held their ancestry from County Down.

Do you have an Irish Viking Surname?

Did you know that Wicklow comes from the Norse “Vykyngelo” – meaning a “Viking meadow”? Let’s stay on that subject of Vikings for the rest of today’s letter. One of the most frequent enquiries I receive goes something like: “I just got my DNA tested and it turned up as 12% Scandinavian. I wonder if…