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The Battle of the Somme started this month 100 years ago and lasted for 5 months.  Over 1 million soldiers lost their lives and many of them were never recovered from the battlefield. Every year the remains of about 30 to 60 soldiers are recovered from the fields of northern France during routine farming and road widening works. In all probability, some of these men are Irish. Over 200,000 Irish men fought in the British Army and over 3500 lost their lives at the Battle of the Somme. Nearly 2000 were from the 36th Ulster Division and 1200 from the 16th Irish Division .   In total, it is estimated that at least 35,000 Irish soldiers were killed in World War One (a figure that is likely to increase as research continues). That represents almost 20% of the total number of Irish men who joined up. Identifying our war dead will be one of the topics at Genetic Genealogy Ireland 2016. Irish soldier fatalities by county in WWI (from www.ccea.org.uk )  Maurice Gleeson July 20...

Once again, this year's Genetic Genealogy Ireland boasts a host of fabulous speakers on a diverse range of topics.  These DNA Lectures at Back to Our Past have grown in popularity since they first started in 2013. The event has proved so popular that this year we have quite a few people coming from overseas to speak at the conference, as well as our own more local academics and genetic genealogists from the Hibernian Peninsula!  We are truly blessed to have such top quality speakers. This year we commemorate the centenary of 1916 and what a tumultuous year it was, for both Ireland and Europe. The Easter Rising in Dublin was followed by the Battle of the Somme. Thousands of people lost their lives and the course of history was changed forever. Both these events, which had such a huge impact on the Irish people, are reflected in the topics for this year's DNA Lecture schedule. The lineup of speaker's at GGI2016 include the following: Prof Dan Bradley , Trinity College Dublin...