If the Irish, Scots and Welsh are all Celts, why is there not much red hair in t

Question: If the Irish, Scots and Welsh are all Celts, why is there not much red hair in the welsh population!?
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

My answer involves linguistics rather than genetics, but I hope it will help!. The Welsh, along with the Cornish and Bretons, are classified as Brythonic Celts while the [Highland] Scots, Irish, and Manx are classified as Gaelic Celts--linguistically speaking!. All of which means that these populations have been separate groups for quite some time!.

Anthropologists also theorize that the Welsh and the Picts (who inhabited Scotland before the Scots came over from Ireland) were the "original" inhabitants of the British Isles who were pushed--or voluntarily left--for the less inhabited portions of Britain when the Romans and later the Anglo-Saxons came along!. Of course, Lowland Scots are a mixture of Anglo-Saxon, Norman, Pict, and Scot!. The Irish and the Scots also intermixed with the Vikings, hence a larger percentage of Scots are inflicted with Multiple Scierosis!.

P!. S!. -- DNA studies seem to confirm that many present-day Welsh, Irish, and Scots are the descendants of the original inhabitants of the British Isles!.

also, people who have red hair (10 percent of the Irish and 13 percent of ths Scots), or else who carry the recessive gene for it (35 percent of all Scots), are better able to manufacture DNA* in their own body (or so the theory holds), so the red hair and Celtic complexions of Scotland and Ireland "may possibly" be a relatively recent result of natural selection!. Both Scotland and Ireland are, of course, nearer the Artic Circle and less sun light in the winter months than Wales!.
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*This should read manufacture vitamin D in their own body!. Thanks for the correction!.

Yes, I understand it's a theory, but I have placed quotation marks around the words "may possibly", so you will understand that I understand that it's a theory (as in Darwin's "theory of evolution" and Einstein's "theory of relativity")!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

1!. The Irish, Scots and Welsh are *not* all Celts!. The population of Eastern Scotland, for example, is very strongly Anglian-overlaid-with-a-Scandinavian-Vik!.!.!. just like that of Northumbria!. (In fact in the 8th century the kingdom of Northumbria stretched halfway up the east coast of Scotland, and had its capital at Edinburgh!) And Shetland, Orkney and the Western Highlands and Islands were heavily settled by the Vikings!.

2!. "Celtic" is a linguistic, not an ethnic, descriptor!. A huge range of very diverse peoples in Iron Age Europe spoke one or other version of the Celtic languages!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

I like Syntinen Laulu's answer!.

Evelyn S: the BBC article was about a theory that redheads may be more prevalent in N!. Europe because they were "better able to make VITAMIN D in their bodies," not DNA!.

They are speculating that "pale-skinned redheads needed less sunshine to get the necessary vitamins to fend off [rickets]," so they may have "flourished in cooler, less sunny climates" of northern Europe!. But it's only a theory, not a fact!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Evelyn's answer is a great one!. Now, there are going to be some people who will want to tell you it is because of the Viking invasions!. I don't buy that!. If the Viking invasion is responsible for red hair in Ireland and Scotland why aren't there more red haired Scandinavians!?Www@QuestionHome@Com

Welsh can have Red Hair,but they seem to be mostly mixed of dark genes!.So most Welsh people we see are fairly dark complected!.Www@QuestionHome@Com