Google the Genetic Genealogy Ireland conference - Back To Our Past, held annually since 2013. It is held in Dublin every October and in Belfast every February.  If you can’t attend personally, you can view it on You-Tube after the conference. Viewing prior conferences is worthwhile as well. Irish researchers contributed to some of the ground breaking research on DNA. This event has a great line up of speakers including professionals, academic researchers, bloggers and amateurs. 

In August of 1975, the 19th Lord Dunsany, Randal Plunkett, told Dianne Plunkett Latham, the ftDNA Plunkett Surname Administrator, the following. The 19th Lord disbelieved the common theory in Heraldry books, such as Maclysaght, which held that the Plunketts were of French/Norman origin and came to Ireland with William the Conqueror, fighting with him in the Battle of Hastings in 1066. All the names of the Conqueror's warriors were woven into a tapestry, including the name Blanchet (derived from Blanc or white) which evolved into Plunkett. The 19th Lord Dunsany disbelieved this as being too much of a stretch. He said that the Plunkett oral tradition held that the Plunketts came to Ireland in dugout canoes with the Danes in the second half of the 900's and became farmers. The 19th Lord agreed that the Plunketts did indeed fight with William the Conqueror, but were in Ireland prior to 1066. Due to the success of the battle of Hastings, the Plunketts were rewarded with property. After the Norman invasion of 1066, the 19th Lord indicated that the Plunketts were one of the first families of Ireland to learn to read and write, enabling them to become some of Ireland's first lawyers and Judges. 

One of the Plunketts (#214080) in the probable Meath/Louth Plunkett subgroup took the Geno 2.0 test, which appears to verify Plunkett oral tradition that the Plunketts are Danish, not French/Norman given that the Geno 2.0 results indicate that his first reference population is Danish. Their second reference population was German. But another in the probable Meath/Louth subgroup (#202807) also took the Geno 2.0 test with the result of England as the first reference population and Germany as the second reference population, making the results inconlusive.  

One of the Plunketts (#214080) in the probable Meath/Louth Plunkett subgroup commissioned Dr. Tyrone Bowes to do a townland case study on his DNA. Dr. Bowes concluded that the subject of the case study was of Norman origin and indicated that his townland of origin was  "centred upon the townland of Plunketsland close to Louth town. It is here that his Norman Plunkett ancestor settled along with Jones, Whites, and Martins, close to the lands of the Gaelic Irish McMahons. All of these families and Clans have left evidence of their presence in the placenames and castles found in the surrounding area. Confirmation that the area surrounding Louth town is Mr Plunkett’s Irish paternal ancestral genetic homeland will require the recruitment of Plunkett farmers from that area for commercial ancestral Y-DNA testing."
 
To verify that the Meath/Louth Plunkett DNA has been correctly identified, the Plunkett surname group seeks a Plunkett with a documented lineage to the Plunketts in the British peerage. Should such a person be willing to take a DNA test, a complimentary test is being offered by those in the Plunkett surname group. Contact the Plunkett Surname Administrator for details on the complimentary DNA test, which will be provided upon presenting suitable lineage documentation to the Plunkett DNA Surname Administrator.

As of January 2018, two probable Meath/Louth Plunkett males have taken the Big Y test and two have taken the Geno 2.0 test. With the Big Y test, three unnamed variants (mutations) common to both participants have been identified: 20077505, 20131739and 21028023. Once most of the probable Meath/Louth Plunkett males have taken the Big Y test, we should be able to reconstruct this lineage.

It is possible that there is a Plunkett female inyour ancient lineage, especially if your family has the surname Plunkett, butnot the Meath/Louth Plunkett Y chromosome. This assumes that there is no nonpaternity event in the lineage (adoption, adultrey, illegitimacy). For example, a Niallof the 9 Hostages, Clan Colla, McBee, or Maguire male could have adoptedthe surname of their Plunkett grandmother, mother, etc., for political or otherpurposes. This circumstance is very difficult to detect through DNA because itcan only be done with an autosomal test (Family Finder test), absent having awoman in your family who has a direct female line to the Meath/Louth Plunkett female.An autosomal test is generally useful to only about the 4^th gtgrandparent. Needless to say, the Meath/Louth Plunkett female would most likelybe back much farther than that. Nevertheless, if you know who the Meath/Louth Plunkettfemales married, and you get some small FF matches with people who have their husband'ssurnames in their lineage, it is possible to detect the Meath/Louth Plunkett female heritage.

The Maguire group of Plunketts sometimes get matches to others with Talbots in their lineage. Those Talbotswere descendants of John Talbot and Catherine Plunkett, a Meath Louth Plunkettfrom the mid 1600’s. Thus, it is possible that the Maguire/Plunktts are descendants ofCatherine Plunkett Talbot. Because Irish records were destroyed in 1922, one is not likely to be able to prove it through a paper trail. Note that not alldescendants of Catherine Plunkett Talbot have autosomal matches with everyonein the Maguire/Plunkett family. You wouldn’t expect it to, however, because Catherine PlunkettTalbot would be about a 9^th gt grandparent. More members of the Maguire/Plunkettfamily are currently taking Family Finder tests (autosomal) to see if they candetect other traces of Catherine Plunkett Talbot. If you suspect a female Meath/LouthPlunkett in your heritage, you may want to consider doing the same.