Anecdotally, has anyone heard anything about the Irish and high rates of Autism/ADHD Spectrum?

[quote]Joyce, Yeats and Beckett are believed to have had it

Says who? I've never heard that before and there was no formal diagnosis of it during their lives. So let me guess, some autistic person claimed that?

Still anecdotal, but I know an Irish-American family with a lot of neurodiversity.

Mescal, for sure.

I haven’t heard anything. But I must state conversations about Irish are far and wide apart in my social universe.

R4 is a bigot and an ignoramus.

A lot of achievers in general are on the spectrum as high functioning (formerly Aspergers) can come with a high IQ and an intense focus on an area of interest. That means someone may work on their craft obsessively and have a high output. Not all are high IQ and either way not all are productive.

America has a large population of Irish-Americans (almost 10% self-identified), and we share the English language with Irish citizens, so if we all start thinking of who we know on the spectrum it might seem to be Irish heavy.

^A bit garbled but hopefully decipherable ☕️

I’ve heard that the Dutch have psoriasis.

It’s schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorders, not autism

That's 15 years old, R9

Also, that book is anecdotal to the author's situation.

[quote] America has a large population of Irish-Americans (almost 10% self-identified), and we share the English language with Irish citizens, so if we all start thinking of who we know on the spectrum it might seem to be Irish heavy.

Not Irish-American, Irish-born. All five actors I’m thinking of.

We tried to tell you those people had something wrong with them

I’ll add one more actor, deceased. Technically not Irish born but very Irish name and assumed to be Irish-born by many.

R11 OP (you?) asked for anecdotes. “Anecdotally has anyone heard…”

[quote]Joyce, Yeats and Beckett are believed to have had it and that’s half the country’s literary output.

I'm a tenured college professor who is a Joyce scholar, and who also teaches Yeats and Beckett, and I've never heard that.

And that is absolutely not "half the country's literary output," although those are three of Ireland's most famous writers.

It's just the OCD Austism Troll in overdrive this weekend, on DL.

Anecdotally, has anyone heard anything about the Dutch and high rates of giant veiny sizemeat?

Not anecdotally or otherwise for those disorders but Ireland has a higher rate of mental illness than other European countries. The article is from 2018.

Decades ago if you were following research in bipolar illness and schizophrenia, western Ireland was known to have high rates of both.

R19 Must be because of the intense Catholicism and its legacy.

[quote] I'm a tenured college professor who is a Joyce scholar, and who also teaches Yeats and Beckett, and I've never heard that. And that is absolutely not "half the country's literary output," although those are three of Ireland's most famous writers.

Have you been diagnosed yourself? The inability to recognize hyperbole and take things literally is a trait. Additionally, the fact that you chose to pursue scholarship on a writer who was probably on the Spectrum as well as teach the other two would suggest a subconscious recognition of neurodivergent thinking which is a known characteristic of ASD people. Additionally, academia has probably the highest concentration of neurodivergent spectrum people.

I have heard that three out of five of the English have vestigial tails.

That country’s been through some shit, so it’s no wonder. They only started pulling themselves out of it in the last 20-25 years or so when the church was exposed for their abuses, and have a long haul to go. Their economy is so tied to the UK logistically that it’s a but of a sleeper setback, too. B

[quote] [R19] Must be because of the intense Catholicism and its legacy.

If that were the case, you'd see it in Italy and Spain as well.

[quote] I have heard that three out of five of the English have vestigial tails.

Anecdotal, but that tracks. I blew an English once, and he insisted that I blow his tail.

R5 here. "Jonathan" Swift, of course, was meant.

And add Katharine Tynan, Seamus Heaney, Eavan Boland, Thomas Moore, and George Fucking William Fucking Russell. And Jack Yeats.

"The Impacts of Colonialism and Alcoholism Are Not Autism" is a good phrase to undo the OP's stupidity, while retaining the apparently necessary stereotypes that must be invoked.

[quote] Have you been diagnosed yourself? The inability to recognize hyperbole and take things literally is a trait. Additionally, the fact that you chose to pursue scholarship on a writer who was probably on the Spectrum as well as teach the other two would suggest a subconscious recognition of neurodivergent thinking which is a known characteristic of ASD people. Additionally, academia has probably the highest concentration of neurodivergent spectrum people.

You're really trolling your ass off, freak.

This is a De Facto thread, isn't it?

[quote] If that were the case, you'd see it in Italy and Spain as well.

The other population I suspect has higher rates of autism/adhd spectrum are Askenazi Jews.

Askenazi Jews and the Irish. What could they have in common?

If there is a link, then it probably isn't a genetic one. Both Yeats and Beckett were Protestants of British ancestry (also Huguenot for Beckett). If they did a 23andMe test or something like that, both would come back as mostly British.

As for cultural factors, both belonged to Ireland's wealthy Protestant minority and Yeats was, in any case, almost 60 before Ireland - and its Catholic majority - gained self-rule.

I think OP is talking out of his arse.

But a Protestant minority on an island is still a genetic minority reproducing with even less genetic diversity than the majority Irish Catholic population.

R24 Actually Ireland WAS more 'intensely' Catholic than those countries, that was the manifest plan. Ireland would be the most Catholic of them all. The country would severely punish immorality, educate all children in the church, have absolutely no separation of Church and State, suffocate all criticism in sometimes horrifying ways.

This author describes what it was like.

R31/OP, your post was not about Irish Protestant writers and actors. It just said "Irish". Perhaps you were unaware of the backgrounds of Beckett and Yeats.

Because my point was limited genetic diversity on an island population, not religion. Religion most likely would not cause autism/adhd.

But what can explain the dreaded Irish Curse? 8=D

R34, there was, and remains, a strong link between religion and ethnicity on the island of Ireland. You clearly don't know what you're talking about.

Ireland’s population was more than halved during the famine in the 19th century and still hasn’t fully recovered. They would have been as populous as the Netherlands otherwise.

The effect of limited genetic diversity due to the cause of segregated religious populations would influence the prevalence of autism/adhd, not the actual practice of religion itself.

Incidentally, I just remembered this

Right, R38. But that doesn't accord with your original post, which lumped together three men with different backgrounds (and thus different genetics).

The fundamental of two separate inbreeding populations on the same island is the same.

OP/R41, you are one of these people who refuses to be corrected. Sadly all too common on this website. Have a nice day.

Just block OP/r41, r42.

Corrected? What are you, the English butler in the Shining bathroom?

Thank you, R43, but I had just done that. (Hence, "Have a nice day".) But your advice is good and I encourage others to take it.

No love for Thomas Flanagan?

The rate of schizophrenia among Cajuns in the USA is said to be among the highest in the world. Chicna and India both have more than 8 million schizophrenics.

It’s the inbreeding. Does it every time. That and the love for hillbilly heroin.

The Irish are not really inbred. Since about the tenth century, the Catholic Church has forbidden marriages between people within four degrees of consanguinity (no marriage between first cousins).

never breed with the Irish, they are booze addicts with bad diets and bad skin. just look at them, so fucking ugly.

R49, that was never enforced in Ireland, I'll wager.

Jesus fucking Christ. It’s a huge island with almost no significant geographical barriers within it and hasn’t been isolated for millennia, if ever. The Romans were there over 2000 years ago. There are characteristics that are more common (and less common) within the population, just like anywhere else. But there is adequate genetic diversity.

But, you have to consider the effects of the famine and emigration in the 19th century. Ireland’s population only reached mid-19th century levels two years ago.

R53, the population of Ireland has not been below 4 million since the 1700’s. The population of Iceland is below 400,000.

There is more inbreeding in New York today than there has ever been in Ireland.

Does Ireland have a high incidence of hemochromatosis and alcoholism? Absolutely. Is it possible there is a higher incidence of other disorder? Of course. Is it due to inbreeding because Ireland is an island? If you believe that, you should probably worry more about your personal genetic shortcomings.

R1, yes, they love to boast and magical think that all impressive people have it .

[quote] There is more inbreeding in New York today than there has ever been in Ireland.

Well I suppose if we say something idiotic with our hands on our hips, that makes it true.

Seriously R56. Even Irish people will openly talk about the inbreeding inherent on a small island nation like Ireland. To claim an island city in a huge country like the US is inbred is pure fantasy and denial.

Although they did make an interesting point by bringing up Iceland

Why is it that the only Icelandic individual to ever receive international prominence acts like this?

The inbreeding is in Brooklyn and upstate. I don’t need to put my hands on my hips to know I’m right, I just need to have a little ability to reason and access to the internet. And not be a stubborn idiot.

OP = Oliver Cromwell.

[quote] The inbreeding is in Brooklyn

And I SAID

“The other population I suspect has higher rates of autism/adhd spectrum are Ashkenazi Jews.”

I’m not responding to any hypotheses about autism or adhd in ashkenazi Jews or the Irish. I have no idea. I’m just saying that the suggestion the Irish are inbred because Ireland is an island is ludicrous.

And I’m not even saying there aren’t high rates of inbreeding - that’s certainly not impossible. Again, I have no idea. But it’s not because it’s an island.

The Irish are inbreed because they are ugly and drunk.

"Why is it that the only Icelandic individual to ever receive international prominence acts like this?"

Well, the only other Icelandic celebrity I know of is Helgi THomasson, formerly a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet, and recently retired from several awesome decades as director of the San Francisco ballet.

Completely sane and professional man, as far as I know.

It's the potatoes.

Icelandic children are a little...off..

My dad is from Ireland and I've been visiting my entire life. Anecdotally, people in Ireland are much friendlier and have much better social skills than people in the PNW.

I am O-tistic.

I explode with carnal release when anyone tries to give me eye contact.

OP, it's funny you mention this, because I recently met an Irish guy on the spectrum.

[quote]Anecdotally, people in Ireland are much friendlier and have much better social skills than people in the PNW.

Anecdotally, people everywhere I've ever been are much friendlier and have much better social skills than people in the PNW.

[quote]Autism/ADHD Spectrum?

There is no such thing as an "Autism/ADHD Spectrum." OP is an ignoramus. These two conditions are completely different.

This thread is hilariously full of neurodivergent posters.

ADHD and Autism are thought to be different expressions of the same as yet undefined neurological divergence, given the astonishingly high comorbidity of the two (50-70% of ASD diagnoses also have ADHD, while the number is a bit less in the opposite direction.)

Notably the tics for both ASD and ADHD appear to be exactly the same (poorly maintained eye contact, gaze aversion when speaking, difficulty sitting still, dramatic shifts in posture, unusual sitting positions, poor alignment of head and legs to the spine, and hand stimming.)

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, for example, now widely accepted to have had ADHD:

There's this peculiar Irish hate thing on DL that I've never seen on any other online discussion on the internet that didn't involve unionists. It's fucking bizarre and anachronistic.

DLers hate small meat, ergo dislike the Irish

The first few who come to mind :

Colin Firth Sinead O’Connor Liam Neeson Conan O’Brien

[quote]There's this peculiar Irish hate thing on DL that I've never seen on any other online discussion on the internet that didn't involve unionists. It's fucking bizarre and anachronistic.

Agreed. There's a similar, likely intertwined hatred for Catholics. Not the church itself, its leadership or its teachings, which are all worthy of criticism, especially on a gay website. No it's people here lashing out at "papists" and insisting Catholics aren't Christian.

It's worth noting that American Evangelicals predominantly identify as "Scotch Irish," or descended from Ulster Unionists who settled the American South, and that DL is disproportionately rural, white and conservative. "Irish Catholics" make an easy scapegoat for people who were raised in a certain culture.

tl,dr; a lot of really backwards people without critical thinking skills post here, so sometimes DL's a bit 1690 in outlook, disconcertingly for those of us who live in the present.

Colin Firth is British

Sinead O’Connor and Conan O’Brien aren’t actors

Conan O’Brien isn’t from Ireland

Jeez

That being said, I’d be shocked if Sinead wasn’t on the Spectrum

Aspie eyes

"That being said, I’d be shocked if Sinead wasn’t on the Spectrum"

She had a raging case of bipolar disorder, and refused to take antipsychotics or mood-stabilizing drugs. How many more disorders do you want her to have had???

Aspies tend to have vacant eyes

Doctor Datalounge, M.D. has exactly two diagnoses for any conceivable situation: "ADD brain" and "Aspie eyes."

Bipolar? "Aspie eyes." Murderous psychopath? "ADD brain."

Seriously, the people who come here loudly claiming to have expert knowledge are, for the most part, the biggest idiots with the most simplistic, shallow understanding of anything imaginable. Anyone slightly "off" in any arbitrary way is immediately labeled "on the spectrum." It's laughable, especially since they wind up resembling what they're diagnosing.