TYPICAL IRISHMAN

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18402, 21 May 1934, Page 11

TYPICAL IRISHMAN

SEARCH WILL TAKE TWO YEARS DUBLIN, April. IS. A scientist searching this country for the “typical Irishman” is finding his task almost as difficult as that of the king’s messengers who were told to hunt for a happy man’s shirt. Dr. G. W. DnPcrluis, of the department of anthropology of Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., already lias spent two months touring tho rural areas of tho Free State collecting hundreds of thousands of facts on Irish racial types. He plans to examine a total of 10,000 Irishmen. He conducts his surveys in saloons, schools, meeting halls, wherever the public gathers. For a time, lie said, people thought lie was seeking suitaide recruits for Mr. do Valera’s new territorial force. The clergy and police helped him remove some of the misconception. In the wholly Gaelic-speaking Aran Islands, oil’ the west coast of Ireland, Dr. DuPertius says, he found the men the finest specimens he had ever soon, long-headed, long-visaged, sturdy and extraordinarily well developed physically. Other parts of Ireland, lie .found, contained many mixed types, darkhaired as well fls blond and blue-eye. On the whole, he found the Irish breed very mixed and possessing characteristics of many other races. It will be two years before the doctor finishes his survey.