St. Patrick's Day

I never really got into St. Patrick's Day.  I don't need an excuse to have a drink, I'm not fond of wearing green, and I don't have any Irish ancestors, at least that I know of. However, an article today by Henry Louis Gates got me thinking about that Irish ancestor bit.

From The Root...

Well, here's the shocker: If we tested all the black men, say, in the NBA, about 35 percent would trace their male ancestry back--not to Africa at all--but to Europe! That's right: 35 percent of all African-American males descend from a white man, a white man who most probably impregnated a black female during slavery. And before I started the research for African American Lives, I had no idea that this was true. And many of these white male ancestors, it turns out, were Irish. (Ever wonder what part of Africa Shaquille O'Neal's ancestors came from?!)

And that, as I learned to my enormous surprise right on camera, is the case with me, my father, and my brother, and our entire male line on the Gates side of our family tree.