> No, they are not all the same race :) And this goes back, well, probably a > couple thousand years. I will probably screw this up a bit, but... There is a fairly interesting book from a couple of years back, "How the Irish Saved Civilization," which details much of this history in a readable manner and (despite the title) from a moderate point of view. Author is Thomas Cahill, and publisher is Nan Talese/Doubleday. (That's the hardcover I have; I don't know who did the paperback.) --tim