Conan O'Brien's DNA test results are frankly a feat of human genetics (2024)

FAQs

Can someone be 100 percent Irish? ›

No one is 100 percent Irish." The doctor, who had been conducting these kinds of DNA tests for over a decade, went on to explain to O'Brien that there are many people in Ireland right now that aren't even 100% Irish.

"'No one is 100 percent Irish,' he said," O'Brien added. Even in Ireland, people aren't 100 percent Irish, according to O'Brien's doctor. "You will find that the most Irish-looking people are like 86 percent, 94 percent Irish.

Thomas Francis O'Brien

Ruthe Reardon

Yes, it is possible to have 100% ethnicity matching one region on DNA results.

Currently, Ireland has a majority of “White Irish,” as 94.1% of the population. There are other sizable populations of Black citizens from African countries, such as Nigeria and Mauritius, plus Asian citizens with the majority from China, India, and some from Hong Kong.

Modern Irish are the population most genetically similar to the Bronze Age remains, followed by Scottish and Welsh, and share more DNA with the three Bronze Age men from Rathlin Island than with the earlier Ballynahatty Neolithic woman.

1 in 4 US adults have Irish ancestors or relatives. That's 25.75% of the adult population of the USA, equating to over 52 million people. 8.23% of US adults suspect they have Irish heritage, that's around 1 in every 12 people.

After all, Conan is a Harvard grad, an accomplished comedy writer and an all-around nerdy-looking dude. His IQ is reportedly 160, which puts him up there with Einstein and Stephen Hawking.

"A kid in New Jersey is falsely claiming to be my illegitimate son. For the record, I have three children: Neve, Beckett, and @RonanFarrow," O'Brien tweeted. (The Farrow joke is reference to Mia Farrow's recent claim that Ronan's father might be Frank Sinatra and not Woody Allen.)

Conan Lee Gray was born on December 5, 1998, in Lemon Grove, California, to a father of mostly Irish ancestry and a Japanese mother.

What does 100% Irish mean? ›

Is it possible to be 100% Irish? To give the “American” answer, a person is 100% Irish if all their ancestors come from Ireland. In my case, three grandparents or great grandparents were born in Ireland so that makes me…. yup, you got it, three-quarters Irish.

In Ireland, the centenarian population has exploded - rising 20% in just four years. This number, which now stands at 456, is expected to increase 10-fold by 2050. By the turn of the next century, it is estimated that there will be more than 25 million centenarians living worldwide.

The top 1% of Irish society now holds €232bn or more than a quarter of Ireland's wealth, according to an Oxfam report published to coincide with the World Economic Forum at Davos.