Ireland’s earliest people might have arrived there far from as far away as the Middle East and Eurasia, according to a new study.

After a huge effort to map the DNA of a farmer woman who lived around 5,200 years ago, near what is now called Belfast, and three other Irish men that lived about 4,000 years ago, the researchers found clear evidence of “massive migration” to the island.

The ancestry of the woman could be tracked back to the Middle East, where the beginnings of agriculture began. And some of the men’s ancestry came from a region extending from central Europe towards modern day Russia — a place where the horse was first domesticated.

The scientists behind the study have said that the discovery could allow for huge new changes in the understanding of the early Irish people. Other, previously unknown languages might have been present in the area before the western Celtic ones that are associated with the area now.

Professor Dan Bradley, from Trinity College Dublin, who led the study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, said: "There was a great wave of genome change that swept into Europe from above the Black Sea into Bronze Age Europe and we now know it washed all the way to the shores of its most westerly island.

"This degree of genetic change invites the possibility of other associated changes, perhaps even the introduction of language ancestral to western Celtic tongues."

The early farmer had black hair, brown eyes, and resembled southern Europeans, said the researchers.

But the three Bronze Age men from Rathlin Island had genetic variants for blue eyes and the most common Irish Y chromosome type.

Recent archaeological discoveries Show all 11 1 /11 Recent archaeological discoveries Recent archaeological discoveries Recent archaeologist's discoveries Divers Alberto Nava and Susan Bird discover the world's oldest skull found in an underwater cave in Mexico, believed to be the earliest trace of first Americans Recent archaeological discoveries Recent archaeologist's discoveries Paleontologist Gary Morgan stands over the fossil of a stegomastodon skull discovered in a remote area of Elephant Butte State Park, N.M. in June 2012 AP Photo/Albuquerque Journal, Roberto Rosales Recent archaeological discoveries Recent archaeologist's discoveries Scientists discovered the world’s oldest face, which belongs to this 419 million-year-old fish - an ancient sea predator that might also re-write the history of our evolution from the seas Recent archaeological discoveries Recent archaeologist's discoveries An archaeologist discovered a tomb of an intact mummy of the Wari prehispanic culture in Lima's Huaca Pucllana ceremonial complex, at Miraflores district Reuters Recent archaeological discoveries Recent archaeologist's discoveries One of the 46 fossils found at the site in southern Chile Wolfgang Stinnesbeck Recent archaeological discoveries Recent archaeologist's discoveries Archaeologist James Best holding a Roman skull found during the building of a utility tunnel at Crossrail's Liverpool Street station site, London PA Recent archaeological discoveries Recent archaeologist's discoveries In 2012 archaeologists unearthed two skeletons from the Middle Ages pierced through the chest with iron rods to keep them from turning into vampires. They were discovered in the Black Sea town of Sozopol, Bulgaria AFP/Getty Images Recent archaeological discoveries Recent archaeologist's discoveries Several horse shoes dating from the 2nd century AD have been found stuck in cart ruts in this area. Archaeologists believe the metal shoes, which were strapped rather than nailed to horses, came off as the animals were led up to a timber bridge over the Walbrook River PA Recent archaeological discoveries Recent archaeologist's discoveries An archaeologist digs out a skull from the site of the graveyard of the Bethlehem, or Bedlam, hospital Reuters Recent archaeological discoveries Recent archaeologist's discoveries Archaeologists discovered a dinosaur tail in Mexico's desert with the 50 vertebrae of the tail completely intact AP Recent archaeological discoveries Recent archaeologist's discoveries Archaeologist found a terracotta warrior at the excavation site inside the No. 1 pit of the Museum of Qin Terracotta Warriors and Horses, on the outskirts of Xi'an, Shaanxi province, in June 2010 © Jason Lee / Reuters

They also had a genetic mutation associated with an excess iron disorder, haemochromatosis, so frequent in people of Irish descent that it is sometimes referred to as a Celtic disease.

Co-author Dr Lara Cassidy, also from Trinity College, said: "Genetic affinity is strongest between the Bronze Age genomes and modern Irish, Scottish and Welsh, suggesting establishment of central attributes of the insular Celtic genome some 4,000 years ago."