PBS documentary series Finding Your Roots, Bill O'Reilly, Stephen Colbert, Colin Quinn, Bill Maher, and the show's host, Henry Louis Gates Jr. all display STR markers consistent with the Irish Modal Haplotype. The series suggested that Niall may have been the most fecund male in Irish history. This suggestion is no longer plausible. Niall does not have verifiable remains that can be tested. Furthermore, the paper examined only 17 STR loci, which are not a reliable means of verifying descent, as SNPs, which define haplogroups and subclades, would be. Indeed, more recent estimates indicate that the R1b-M222 subclade marked by the Moore et al. haplotype likely originated in the 2nd millennium BC, long before Niall is claimed to have lived, so his descendants would only represent a minority of men in this group even if Niall had been a historical figure. Perhaps even more problematic is the dearth of M222 lineages in Midlands samples. We would expect to find a large concentration of Niall's descendants there, as the Southern Uí Néill were dominant in that region, but we do not. Because of that, the identification of M222 with Niall's descendants is "difficult to justify". Origin of his epithet There are various versions of how Niall gained his epithet Noígíallach. The saga "The Death of Niall of the Nine Hostages" says that he received five hostages from the five provinces of Ireland (Ulster, Connacht, Leinster, Munster and Meath), and one each from Scotland, the Saxons, the Britons and the Franks. Keating says that he received five from the five provinces of Ireland, and four from Scotland. O'Rahilly suggests that the nine hostages were from the kingdom of the Airgialla (literally "hostage-givers"), a satellite state founded by the Ui Néill's conquests in Ulster, noting that the early Irish legal text Lebor na gCeart ("The Book of Rights") says that the only duty of the Airgialla to the King of Ireland was to give him nine hostages. Family tree Bold indicates a High King of Ireland. References Bibliography Thomas Charles-Edwards, Cross, Tom Peete and Clark Harris Slover (eds.), "The Adventures of the Sons of Eochaid Mugmedon", in Ancient Irish Tales. Henry Holt and Company. 1936. pp. 508–513. Ambassador Walter Curley, Vanishing Kingdoms: The Irish Chiefs and their Families. Dublin: Lilliput Press. 2004. Myles Dillon, The Cycles of the Kings. Oxford. 1946. (Four Courts Press edition, 1995.) Duffy, Seán (ed.), Medieval Ireland: An Encyclopedia.