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Native Irish Honey Bee Apis mellifera mellifera on Pear Blossom. Picasa

The Irish honeybee was thought to be extinct. But a scientist found them in 300 hives

The native bee once dominated all of northern Europe and researchers hope it can make a comeback.

NEW RESEARCH HAS revealed that the pure native Irish honeybee is not extinct as had long been feared.

It had been thought that the pure form of the native Irish honeybee, Apis mellifera mellifera, was extinct.

However a new study by a Limerick Institute of Technology (LIT) scientist, which examined bees from around Ireland, has proven otherwise.

Post-graduate student Jack Hassett has discovered that millions of the pure native species are living in at least 300 hives in 25 counties across the country.

Bee DNA 2 Jack Hassett working on Honeybee DNA extraction in LIT. LIT LIT

The researcher found that not only are the bees a pure form of Apis mellifera mellifera, the native honeybee for northern Europe and Ireland, but they also have markers that are specific to Ireland.

The vast majority of the DNA samples studied showed greater than 95% purity, experts consider anything over 90% to be a pure form of a species.

“The study exceeded all our expectations, and has excited beekeepers across the continent,” Mr Hassett explained.

It has belied the myth that there is no native Irish honey bee in existence.

Jack explained that this presumption has its roots all the way back in the 1920s when England’s bee population was decimated due to disease and bad management and it was wrongly assumed that Ireland’s bees had suffered a similar fate.

This new study proves that Ireland now has potentially the greatest reserve of Apis mellifera mellifera in the world, the honeybee that dominated all northern Europe.

He added that the Irish bees could be used to restock parts of Europe where the Apis mellifera mellifera has died out or has been crossbred with other species.

READ: Can you spot a bumble bee? One of the lessons learnt at Ireland’s beekeeper school>

READ: A swarm of bees swept through Midleton’s main street today>

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    Mute Con Murphy
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    Oct 4th 2017, 4:32 PM

    Great news, the Irish Honeybee is one resilient fecker!

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    Mute Paul J. Redmond
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    Oct 4th 2017, 4:36 PM

    Great work Jack Hassett. Keep it up dude..

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    Mute Imperator Scottorum
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    Oct 4th 2017, 4:49 PM

    The native Irish honeybee is not extinct, but how long until its native Irish human counterpart goes extinct? If Blackbriggan, Ballyhaunis, Longford and West Portlaoise represent the future of Ireland, then it won’t be long until Paddy goes the way of the dodo :)

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    Mute Ruairi Gagarin
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    Oct 4th 2017, 5:24 PM

    @Imperator Scottorum: Build a bridge and get under it.

    The White Anglo Saxon Protestants in Boston & New York used to say similar things about the Irish in times past.

    50
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    Mute Imperator Scottorum
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    Oct 4th 2017, 5:34 PM

    @Ruairi Gagarin: False equivalence and completely wrong analogy but thanks for the obvious next question: what do you think the Iroquois of New York and the Massachusetts of Boston said about these new settlers? Do you really think they were bone-headed “open borders” types like yourself? And more to the point how many Massachusetts do you think are left in Massachusetts?

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    Mute Ian Walsh
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    Oct 4th 2017, 5:37 PM

    @Imperator Scottorum: How absolutely tiny your small mind appears to be.

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    Mute Imperator Scottorum
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    Oct 4th 2017, 5:44 PM

    @Ian Walsh: fantastic powers of debate on display there Ian – good luck with your junior cert next year x

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    Mute Ruairi Gagarin
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    Oct 4th 2017, 5:56 PM

    @Imperator Scottorum: What makes an Irishman Irish? Would you include only Celts in your Worldview or do the descendants of Vikings and Normans get a look in too?

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    Mute Imperator Scottorum
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    Oct 4th 2017, 6:29 PM

    @Ruairi Gagarin: native Irish are any of those people who can trace their ancestry to the tribes who arrived here over 2,000 years ago who gave birth to Irish language, culture and ethnicity. Since there are no descendants of Vikings / Normans who have not at this stage mixed with native Irish, your question is moot. Of course every Walsh, Joyce etc. has some native Irish admixture in their DNA. In my analysis, Phil Lynott and Paul McGrath are Irish (they can trace their roots back to the native Irish); whereas Ibrahim Halawa is not (if Halawa did a DNA test, his Irish ethnicity estimate would be 0%). I leave aside the question of citizenship; since anyone with an Irish passport (inc. Halawa) is an Irish citizen. Ethnicity and citizenship are two different things; though easily confused.

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    Mute Chris Kirk
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    Oct 4th 2017, 6:40 PM

    @Ruairi Gagarin: Thats interesting I didn’t know there was such a thing as Anglo Saxon Protestants in ancient times, then that America for you…..

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    Mute Jon Snow
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    Oct 4th 2017, 8:03 PM

    @Ruairi Gagarin: This is about bees not wasps

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    Mute Saul Judah Warburg
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    Oct 5th 2017, 3:26 AM

    @Imperator Scottorum: Ireland, or Europe in general, won’t survive without a huge influx of people from Africa and the Middle East, the future must be a multicultural one. With more and more types of work becoming automated, the introduction of cultures unburdened with the dogma of a traditional work ethic is a must. The banks, via the introduction of a Universal Basic Income, will be at the forefront of helping to keep order during this difficult transition. For security, convenience and peace of mind, those availing of this allowance will receive a complimentary, implantable RFID chip for ease of access. To achieve this new world order, this community of equals, it is imperative that the dominant white European Christian patriarchy be dismantled. This can be achieved through the promotion of counterbalancing doctrines such as feminism, open borders and hate speech and health and safety legislation.

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    Mute Patrick Kinsella
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    Oct 4th 2017, 5:09 PM

    If there was less mono culture farming and less chemicals sprayed on the land Bees would have a better chance of survival

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    Mute Seán Ó hAicéad
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    Oct 4th 2017, 5:25 PM

    @Patrick Kinsella: and less hedge cutting before September when the ditches are flowering

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    Mute Ranty McCrank
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    Oct 4th 2017, 5:50 PM

    @Seán Ó hAicéad: Toxic insectides which shocking (unknown to Monsanto, Bayer and Phil Hogan) kills insects such as bees. The great killer of bees has been famine – a huge collapse in flowering food sources. We need a range of wildflower food sources to be allowed bloom throughout the year. A classic example is a massive crop of rapeseed feeding all insects then nothing – famine and collapse in insect numbers. Insects of all types are the foundation of all wildlife food pyramids.

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    Mute Ranty McCrank
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    Oct 4th 2017, 5:54 PM

    @Ranty McCrank: … sadly there is no room for fallow meadows and flower food sources due to every inch of our island being grazed for livestock. When you see green fields as far as the eye can see remember this is famine for most wildlife. Green deserts. No trees or plants can get to mature or flower. The EU CAP payment system has devastated our wildlife including bee numbers.

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    Mute Con Murphy
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    Oct 4th 2017, 8:45 PM

    @Ranty McCrank:
    Grow more flowers!

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    Mute Ranty McCrank
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    Oct 4th 2017, 10:01 PM

    @Con Murphy: Flowering trees are huge sources of food also. Willow in Spring is a very important food source.

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    Mute Fiona Fitzgerald
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    Oct 5th 2017, 1:38 AM

    @Ranty McCrank: Yet we’ve just read an article on our healthy bee population. And I see wildflowers all around my area of Dublin every day. Our council doesn’t spray or cut the unfarmed land back to stubble. It saves money and benefits bees, butterflies and birds. They even have illustrated signs up so that people can recognise the different species. Maybe there was a time when ‘every inch’ was grazed. We went metric years ago. I say you’re exaggerating wildly with these stinging comments.

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    Mute Ranty McCrank
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    Oct 5th 2017, 7:59 AM

    @Fiona Fitzgerald: I admire your positive outlook Fiona but i think it is veering into denial. Our insect numbers including bees have plummeted. It’s great to see councils and the public changing their outlook on flowers and natural spaces by these are tiny areas on a national level. Better than nothing and hopefully the start of a greater expansion. Sorry to annoy you with my every square inch expression – it is commonly used. For you I will withdraw it and use the term “every square centimeter”.

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    Mute Ian Oh
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    Oct 4th 2017, 9:45 PM

    God made the Bees.
    The Bees make the Honey.
    The workers do the work,
    and the Government get the money.

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    Mute Sean
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    Oct 4th 2017, 8:01 PM

    It wouldn’t surprise me. I’m always amazed by how many people can’t tell apart a wasp and honey bee when there are so many obvious differences in terms of colour, body shape and flight.

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    Mute Daithí Uí Ciarmhaic
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    Oct 4th 2017, 6:23 PM

    Thread about Bee’s, wait this is the journal the wing nuts are talking about immigration

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    Mute Nick Allen
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    Oct 4th 2017, 4:15 PM

    So we have been killing off the bees after all

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    Mute Nick Allen
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    Oct 4th 2017, 4:15 PM

    @Nick Allen: sorry have NOT

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    Mute WinSomeLoseSome
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    Oct 4th 2017, 4:22 PM

    @Nick Allen: did you read the article? The global bee population is declining. Not once does the article say otherwise.

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    Mute Matt Connolly
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    Oct 4th 2017, 4:25 PM

    @Nick Allen: We have – it’s just that we thought we were killing off cross-breeds.

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    Mute Thomas Lyndon
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    Oct 4th 2017, 4:38 PM

    @Matt Connolly: I believe they prefer to be called cross-bees, a name which dates back to the 1920′s when people assumed they were going extinct like their softer British cousins – which in turn made them cross bees.

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    Mute Dermot Lane
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    Oct 4th 2017, 4:52 PM

    @Thomas Lyndon: ah beehive yourself, would ya!

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    Mute ウィリアム はげ
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    Oct 4th 2017, 6:22 PM

    @Thomas Lyndon: :)

    We need less trolling and more comments like this.

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    Mute Seth Cheffetz
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    Oct 4th 2017, 6:24 PM

    Were they the bees doing the work half as fast for double the price?

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    Mute Patrick Lavery
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    Oct 4th 2017, 6:19 PM

    Not only scholars but Honey Bees…

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