FIDDLE GIANT'S D.N.A. SUGGESTS LINK TO RELIGIOUS LEADER

By Mairgréad Ní hÁthas

DNA tests has furnished startling evidence that Irish fiddle star Frankie Gavin is a distant descendant of Brigham Young, the Mormon patriarch who led his controversial church’s settlement of the American West. Given the resemblance between the two however, genealogists insist the test was “merely a formality.”

At a press conference Irish traditional music delegates pronounced it “deeply meaningful that the fellow who led Irish trad out of the wilderness should be descended from the man who led the Mormons into it. Obviously prophets run in the family.”

In an ironic twist, the link between the Irish musician and the polygamist religious leader, born 155 years apart, was established by researchers at the Mormon-run Family History Library, in Salt Lake City, Utah. Rumors that devout employees fell to their knees in prayer at their first sight of Gavin’s photo, with its uncanny resemblance to their beloved founding father, are unverified, but the Salt Lake City mayor’s office has confirmed that Gavin will receive the Keys to the City at a ceremony later this month.

To mark the occasion, Gavin plans to assemble an all-star music ensemble, to perform under the name “The Latter-Day Danann.”