Julian Cope presents Head Heritage

What a shame this subject has been hijacked by someone with an axe to grind.
My friend from Derry is over at present and visited me this afternoon so I asked her about this. She told me the oral tradition is that in 1603 when James I came to the throne he started to implement the plantations in Ulster. The Irish clans or Gaelic Irish decided to rise up and traveled down to Kinsale to meet the French who were supposed to be helping them (around 1607). The French never arrived due to bad weather and the Gaelic Irish were routed. This resulted in the Flight of the Earls when all the leaders fled to France and Spain. The Gaelic Irish clans were left leaderless so took to the roads and became travellers. I think the paper you posted the link to does make reference to this history and sets out to prove scientifically there is no ancestoral link with the Roma. The conversation with my friend helped to clarify this in lay-person's terms.