How large is the Irish diaspora?
Irish diaspora
After 1840, emigration from Ireland became a massive, relentless, and efficiently managed national enterprise. In 1890 40% of Irish-born people were living abroad. By the 21st century, an estimated 80 million people worldwide claimed some Irish descent, which includes more than 36 million Americans who claim Irish as their primary ethnicity.
As recently as the second half of the nineteenth century, the majority of Irish emigrants spoke Irish as their first language. This had social and cultural consequences for the cultivation of the language abroad, including innovations in journalism. The language continues to be cultivated abroad by a small minority as a literary and social medium. 
The Irish People are largely assimilated in most countries outside Ireland
Islam in the Republic of Ireland
The Muslim community in Ireland is diverse and growing rapidly, and its numbers are not determined by the country's history to the same extent as the UK and France, where the majority of Muslims are immigrants or descendants of immigrants from former colonies, or Germany and Austria, where the majority of Muslims are Turkish migrant workers and their descendants. Just over 55 per cent of Muslims were either Asian or African nationals with 30.7 per cent having Irish nationality. The census also revealed that of the 31,779 Muslims resident in Ireland at the time of the census, 9,761 were Irish nationals, less than the number of Asians (10,649) although more than the 6,909 African nationals. The census of 2011 found there were 49,204 Muslims in Ireland, "a sharp rise on five years previously". The Muslim immigration at the end of the 90s was caused by the Irish economic boom and asylum seekers from diverse Muslim countries, and in the 20-year period between 1991 and 2011 the Muslim population increased 1000%, from 0.1% to 1.1% of the population of the republic.
Irish people
Many Irish people were also transported to the island of Montserrat, to work as indentured servants, exiled prisoners or slaves. Unlike African chattel slaves, the majority of Irish labourers who were sent to Montserrat did so by personal choice although they were tricked into doing so by the promise of payment and land of which they did not receive. Some were exiled by the English Oliver Cromwell due to the large Irish population and their attempted rebellion on 17 March 1768. To this day, the Island celebrates St. Patrick's Day as a public holiday to commemorate the event. People of Irish descent also feature strongly in Latin America, especially in Argentina and important minorities in Brazil, Chile, and Mexico. In 1995, President Mary Robinson reached out to the "70 million people worldwide who can claim Irish descent". Today the diaspora is believed to contain an estimated 80 million people.
There are also large Irish communities in some mainland European countries, notably in Spain, France and Germany. Between 1585 and 1818, over half a million Irish departed Ireland to serve in the wars on the Continent, in a constant emigration romantically styled the ""Flight of the Wild Geese"" and, before that, in the 'Flight of the Earls', just before the Plantation of Ulster. In the early years of the English Civil War, a French traveller remarked that the Irish "are better soldiers abroad than at home". Later, Irish brigades in France and Spain fought in the Wars of the Spanish and Austrian Succession and the Napoleonic Wars. In the words of Field Marshal The 1st Duke of Wellington, the Irish-born 'Iron Duke', a notable representative of the Irish military diaspora, "Ireland was an inexhaustible nursery for the finest soldiers".
Irish migration to Great Britain
Ireland's population fell from more than 8 million to just 6.5 million between 1841 and 1851. A century later it had dropped to 4.3 million. By the late 19th century, emigration was heaviest from Ireland's most rural southern and western counties. Cork, Kerry, Galway, Mayo, Sligo, Tipperary and Limerick alone provided nearly half of Ireland's emigrants. Some of this movement was temporary, made up of seasonal harvest labourers working in Britain and returning home for winter and spring. By the mid-1930s, Great Britain was the choice of many who had to leave Ireland. Britain's wartime economy (1939–45) and post-war boom attracted many Irish people to expanding cities and towns such as London, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow and Luton. Prior to the 2000s financial crisis, ongoing sectarian violence and its economic aftermath was another major factor for immigration.
Irish people in mainland Europe
Approximately 5,000 Irish live in Central Europe, and this figure is growing annually. In Hungary, Poland and Czech Republic, there are more than 150,000 regular visitors to Celtic music, Irish music, Irish dancing, and Irish culture websites based there, a region with more than 100 Irish music bands, Irish dancing schools and Irish/Celtic festivals. The Slovak Irish have a dedicated newspaper published regularly. There are more than 60 Irish pubs in Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Czech Republic, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, one with an Irish golf society, one with a rugby club, others with darts and soccer clubs. The first ever GAA club was inaugurated in the region earlier this year. Irish charity groups also have centres and communities based in the region.
Irish people
Thomas Davis, a prominent Protestant Irish nationalist who founded the Young Ireland movement, identified the Irish as a Celtic nation. He estimated that ethnically, 5/6ths of the nation were either of Gaelic Irish-origin, descended from returned Scottish Gaels (including much of the Ulster Scots) and some Celtic Welsh (such as his own ancestors and those carrying surnames such as Walsh and Griffiths). As part of this he was a staunch supporter of the Irish language as the "national language". In regards to the Germanic minority in Ireland (of Norman and Anglo-Saxon origin) he believed that they could be assimilated into Irishness if they had a "willingness to be part of the Irish Nation".
Broadstone, Dublin
The [[Great Irish Famine]] of the mid-19th century had caused a huge wave of emigration, and the population of Ireland was reduced from about 8 million in the 1830s to around 4 million a century later. The worst hit were the rural population of the west, precisely the market of the MGWR. There was a brief period of boom in the 1870s as the flow of people from the west peaked, but as the people left, traffic in the other direction reduced markedly. As emigration gradually came to a halt, so did the canal system.
Irish diaspora
Paul Cardinal Cullen set out to spread Irish dominance over the English-speaking Roman Catholic Church in the 19th century. The establishment of an 'Irish Episcopal Empire' involved three transnational entities – the British Empire, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Irish diaspora. Irish clergy, notably Cullen, made particular use of the reach of the British Empire to spread their influence. From the 1830s until his death in 1878, Cullen held several key positions near the top of the Irish hierarchy and influenced Rome's appointment of Irish bishops on four continents.
Right of Irish expatriates to vote
Since the 1990s there have been proposals to allow emigrants to vote in elections to the Dáil (lower house) or Seanad, generally via a dedicated (single transferable vote multi-seat) constituency. Groups established by economic emigrants leaving the 1980s recession have advocated for change. A related issue is a proposed right of people in Northern Ireland to vote in the Republic. Arguments in favour of expatriates voting include the economic and cultural importance of the Irish diaspora and the potential benefits of increasing its engagement with the state, and a moral debt owed to reluctant emigrants. Arguments against include the possibility of the emigrant vote swamping residents, and that emigrants' views may conflict with residents', as evinced by Irish American support for NORAID during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Of 70 million nonresidents claiming Irish ancestry, 3 million have Irish citizenship including 1 million who have lived in Ireland. Most proposals would enfranchise only the subset of this 1 million who left Ireland a limited time before. The number is still large relative to a resident population (including children) of 4.8 million; however, Iseult Honohan suggests that swamping could be prevented by making emigrants vote in a dedicated emigrants' constituency rather than in the constituency of their last Irish residence, so that expatriates would have lower apportionment than residents. The Irish government is responsible to the Dáil, so proposals to allow expatriates to vote for the Seanad or the figurehead office of President would provide symbolic inclusion without jeopardising government stability.
European Potato Failure
Emigration to escape the famine centred mainly on Ireland and the Scottish Highlands. Elsewhere in the United Kingdom and on the continent, conditions were not so harsh as to completely eradicate the basics of survival so as to require mass migration of the sort experienced in Ireland and Scotland. Over 16,500 emigrated from the Scottish Highlands (out of a population affected by famine of no more than 200,000), many assisted by landlords and the Highland and Island Emigration Society, mainly to North America and Australia, this forming part of the second phase of the Highland Clearances. Over one million left Ireland to the same locations, further fueling nationalist antagonism to Britain, and is sometimes perceived as an Irish holocaust. The global consequence of this was the creation of a substantial Irish diaspora.
Irish Argentine
This Irish community in Argentina is the largest in any non-English speaking country in the world and is the fifth largest in the world. The Irish community in Argentina still try to keep up the inherited traditions and to rescue those other traditions that have been lost over time. It is estimated that there are over one million Irish descendants in modern-day Argentina.
Irish Australians
There is no definitive figure of the total number of Australians with an Irish background. At the 2011 Australian census, 2,087,800 residents identified themselves as having Irish ancestry either alone or in combination with another ancestry. This nominated ancestry was third behind English and Australian in terms of the largest number of responses and represents 10.4% of the total population of Australia. However this figure does not include Australians with an Irish background who chose to nominate themselves as 'Australian' or other ancestries. The Australian embassy in Dublin states that up to 30% of the population claim some degree of Irish ancestry.
Racism in Europe
In mid-twentieth century Ireland there was traditionally very little immigration in general to the Republic of Ireland, and hence little racial diversity, though in recent decades growing prosperity in the country (see: Celtic Tiger) attracted increasing numbers of immigrants, mainly from Central and Eastern Europe (primarily Poland), China and Sub-Saharan Africa. Also the absence of colonialist baggage has meant that foreign people are not drawn to Ireland by "mother country" factors that have affected other European countries. Descendants of Irish people who emigrated in the past also started moving to the country. Most immigrants have settled in Dublin and the other cities. Though these developments have been somewhat tolerated by most, there has been a steady rise in racist attitudes among some sections of society. A 2001 survey found that 51% of Irish people surveyed considered the country inherently racist and 60% of those in the 25 to 34 age-group considered "racism" to be an Irish trait. In 2005, Minister of State for Overseas Development, Conor Lenihan famously advised Socialist politician Joe Higgins to "stick with the kebabs" – referring to his campaigning on behalf of Turkish contract workers who had been paid less than the statutory minimum wage. The Minister later retracted his remarks and apologized. A 2008 EU-MIDIS survey of attitudes to minorities in the 27 EU States found that Ireland had the most racist attitudes to Afro-Europeans in the entire EU.
Irish language outside Ireland
The Irish diaspora mainly settled in English-speaking countries, chiefly Britain and North America. In some instances the Irish language was retained for several generations. Argentina was the only non-English-speaking country to which the Irish went in large numbers, and those emigrants came in the 19th century from areas where Irish was already in retreat.
Irish pub
There are an estimated 7,000 Irish themed pubs worldwide. They have been criticised for a lack of authenticity. They are particularly prevalent wherever expatriate communities are found, arguably due to a sense of connection to the Irish diaspora.
Irish diaspora
The movement of people between the adjacent islands of Ireland and Great Britain has ebbed and flowed with their politics, economics and social conditions. Ireland was a feudal Lordship of the Kings of England between 1171 and 1541; a Kingdom in personal union with the Kingdom of England and Kingdom of Great Britain between 1542 and 1801; and politically united with Great Britain as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland between 1801 and 1922. Today, Ireland is divided between the Republic of Ireland, and Northern Ireland which is part of the UK.
Irish diaspora
Central to the Irish community in Britain was the community's relationship with the Roman Catholic Church, with which it maintained a strong sense of identity. The Church remains a crucial focus of communal life among some of the immigrant population and their descendants. The largest ethnic group among the Roman Catholic priesthood of Britain remains Irish (in the United States, the upper ranks of the Church's hierarchy are of predominantly Irish descent.) The former head of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland is Cardinal Keith O'Brien.
Irish diaspora
Today there are an estimated 1,000,000 people of Irish ancestry in Argentina, approximately 15.5% of the Republic of Ireland's current population; however, these numbers may be far higher, given that many Irish newcomers declared themselves to be British, as Ireland at the time was still part of the United Kingdom and today their descendants integrated into Argentine society with mixed bloodlines.
Irish diaspora
Walker (2007) compares Irish immigrant communities in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and Great Britain respecting issues of identity and 'Irishness.' Religion remained the major cause of differentiation in all Irish diaspora communities and had the greatest impact on identity, followed by the nature and difficulty of socio-economic conditions faced in each new country and the strength of continued social and political links of Irish immigrants and their descendants with Ireland.
British diaspora
In 2006, the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), a British think tank, published a report on the British diaspora, entitled "Brits Abroad". The following table lists the estimated number of British people (defined as people who are British Subjects, such as British citizen, British National Overseas or British Overseas Citizen) living overseas in countries with more than 100 British people, according to the IPPR's report:Notes
Bibliography
Irish Travellers
An estimated 10,000 people in the United States are descendants of Travellers who left Ireland, mostly between 1845 and 1860 during the Great Famine. However, there are no official population figures regarding Irish Travellers in the United States as the US census does not recognise them as an ethnic group. While some sources estimate their population in the US to be 10,000, others suggest their population is 40,000. According to research published in 1992, Irish travellers in the US divide themselves up into groups that are based on historical residence: Ohio Travellers, Georgia Travellers, Texas Travellers, and Mississippi Travellers. The Georgia Travelers' camp is made up of about eight hundred families, the Mississippi Travelers, about three hundred families, and the Texas Travelers, under fifty families."
Irish Americans
The Irish Catholic diaspora are very well-organized and since 1850 have produced a majority of the leaders of the U.S. Catholic Church, labor unions, the Democratic Party in larger cities, and Catholic high schools, colleges and universities.
Irish Americans in New York City
As a result of the Great Famine in Ireland, many Irish families were forced to emigrate from the country. By 1854, between 1.5 and 2 million Irish had left their country. In the United States, most Irish became city-dwellers. With little money, many had to settle in the cities that the ships landed in. By 1850, the Irish made up a quarter of the population in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Buffalo, and Baltimore.
Holy See–Ireland relations
Holy See–Ireland relations are foreign relations between the Holy See and Ireland. The majority of Irish people claim to be Roman Catholic, and indicate this on the census form. However, views on actual church dogma both on social and spiritual matters varies significantly, and weekly mass attendance is below 40%. The Holy See has an Apostolic Nunciature in Dublin.
Irish diaspora
The Great Famine of Ireland during the 1840s saw a significant number of people flee from the island to all over the world. Between 1841 and 1851 as a result of death and mass emigration (mainly to Great Britain and North America) Ireland's population fell by over 2 million. In Connacht alone the population fell by almost 30%.
Irish people
During the 18th and 19th centuries, 300,000 free emigrants and 45,000 convicts left Ireland to settle in Australia. Today, Australians of Irish descent are one of the largest self-reported ethnic groups in Australia, after English and Australian. In the 2006 Census, 1,803,741 residents identified themselves as having Irish ancestry either alone or in combination with another ancestry. However this figure does not include Australians with an Irish background who chose to nominate themselves as 'Australian' or other ancestries. The Australian embassy in Dublin states that up to 30 percent of the population claim some degree of Irish ancestry.
Daily Ireland
According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, the paper had an average circulation of 10,080 for the first six months of 2006. In contrast the "Irish Independent" had a circulation of approximately 160,000 and "the Irish Times" a circulation of 117,000. They are not universally available in Northern Ireland and so have their principal market in the Republic of Ireland, unlike "Daily Ireland" which was intended to be an all-Ireland newspaper. "The Irish News", which is largely restricted to Northern Ireland, has a circulation of over 50,000. Though new newspapers regularly start at a low base and lose money for their first couple of years, no Irish national newspaper in recent years which started at such a low base has survived, with newspapers such as the "Stars on Sunday", "Daily News" and "Dublin Daily", attracting higher initial base circulations in smaller markets (the former two in the Republic, the latter in Dublin) before folding.
Columnists included writer Danny Morrison, Green politician Patricia McKenna and journalist Frank Connolly.
Punjabi diaspora
The Punjabi diaspora refers to the descendants of ethnic Punjabis who emigrated out of the Punjab region in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent to the rest of the world. Punjabis are one of the largest ethnic groups in both the Pakistani and Indian diasporas. The Punjabi diaspora numbers around 10 million, mainly concentrated in Britain, North America, Southeast Asia and the Middle East.
Demographics of New York City
During the Great Irish Famine (1845–1851), Irish families were forced to emigrate from Ireland; by 1854, between 1,500,000 and 2,000,000 people were forced to leave the country - about a quarter of the pre-famine population. In the United States, most of the recently arrived Irish became city dwellers as that was where work was. In addition, arriving with little money, many settled in the cities at which their ships made port. By 1850, the Irish made up a quarter of the population in Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. Their arrival in the United States before other waves of Catholic immigrants meant that ethnic Irish long dominated the Roman Catholic Church in America. They created a strong network of churches and parochial schools to support their communities.
Irish military diaspora
American Revolution
Irish diaspora
Irish Catholic immigrants – who made up about 75% of the total Irish population – were largely responsible for the establishment of a separate Catholic school system. About 20% of Australian children attend Catholic schools as of 2017.
Irish Canadians
The 2006 census by Statistics Canada, Canada's Official Statistical office, revealed that the Irish were the 4th largest ethnic group, with 4,354,000 Canadians with full or partial Irish descent or 15% of the country's total population. This was a large and significant increase of 531,495 since the 2001 census, which counted 3,823,000 respondents quoting Irish ethnicity. According to the National Household Survey 2011, the population of Irish ancestry has increased since 2006 to 4,544,870.
Irish diaspora
A succession of Irish Masonic lodges have existed in Bermuda, beginning with "Military Lodge #192", established by soldiers of the 47th Regiment of Foot, and operating in Bermuda from 1793 to 1801. This was an ambulatory or traveling lodge, as with other military lodges, moving with its members. Irish Lodges #220 (also a military travelling lodge) was active in Bermuda from 1856 to 1861, and Irish Lodge #209 was established in Bermuda in 1881. Minder Lodge #63 of the Irish Constitution was in Bermuda with the 20th Regiment of Foot from 1841 to 1847. The Hannibal Lodge #224 of the Irish Constitution was warranted in 1867, and still exists, meeting in the Masonic Hall on Old Maid's Lane, St. George's. Another Hannibal Chapter, #123 of the Irish Constitution, was chartered in 1877, but lasted only until 1911.
The 2006 census by Statcan, Canada's Official Statistical office revealed that the Irish were the 4th largest ethnic group with 4,354,155 Canadians with full or partial Irish descent or 14% of the nation's total population. During the 2016 census by Statistics Canada, the Irish ethnicity retained its spot as the 4th largest ethnic group with 4,627,000 Canadians with full or partial Irish descent.
Black people in Ireland
The 2006 Irish census recorded 40,525 people of Black African ethnicity and 3,793 people of any other Black background resident in the Republic of Ireland out of a total population of 4,172,013, meaning that 1.06 percent of the population self-identified as Black. The preliminary results of the 2011 census recorded 58,697 people of Black African ethnicity and 6,381 people of any other Black background resident in the Republic of Ireland out of a total population of 4,525,281, meaning that 1.42 per cent of the population self-identified as Black.
Irish diaspora
This listing is for politicians of Irish nationality or origin, who were or are engaged in the politics of a foreign country. The term Irish diaspora is open to many interpretations. One, preferred by the government of Ireland, is defined in legal terms: the Irish diaspora are those of Irish nationality, mostly but not exclusively Roman Catholic, residing outside of the island of Ireland. This includes Irish citizens who have emigrated abroad and their children, who were Irish citizens by descent under Irish law. It also includes their grandchildren in cases. See also Irish military diaspora. (See also Notable Americans of Scotch-Irish descent).
Ireland–United Kingdom relations
Irish migration to Great Britain is an important factor in the politics and labour markets of the Isles. Irish people have been the largest ethnic minority group in Britain for centuries, regularly migrating across the Irish Sea. From the earliest recorded history to the present, there has been a continuous movement of people between the islands of Ireland and Great Britain due to their proximity. This tide has ebbed and flowed in response to politics, economics and social conditions of both places. At the 2011 census, there were 869,000 Irish-born residents in the United Kingdom.
Irish diaspora
From the late 20th century onward, Irish identity abroad became increasingly cultural, non-denominational, and non-political, although many emigrants from Northern Ireland stood apart from this trend. However, Ireland as religious reference point is now increasingly significant in neopagan contexts.
Irish diaspora
The Diaspora population of Ireland also got a fresh start on the islands of New Zealand during the later half of the 19th century. The ideology of striking it rich in the gold mines caused many Irish people to flock to the docks; risking their lives on the long voyage to potential freedom and more importantly self-sufficiency. Most famous places including both Gabriel's Gully and Otago are examples of mining sites which, with the funding of large companies, allowed for the creation of wages and the appearance of mining towns. Women found jobs as housemaids cleaning the shacks of the single men at work thereby providing a second income to the Irish family household. The subsequent money accumulated with regards to this would allow for chain migration for the rest of the family left behind.
Irish diaspora
Despite the fact that Argentina was never the main destination for Irish emigrants it does form part of the Irish diaspora. The Irish-Argentine William Bulfin remarked as he travelled around Westmeath in the early 20th century that he came across many locals who had been to Buenos Aires. Several families from Bere island, County Cork were encouraged to send emigrants to Argentina by an islander who had been successful there in the 1880s.
History of the Republic of Ireland
In the 1930s, Fianna Fáil governments attempted to create Irish domestic industries using subsidies and protective tariffs. In the late 1950s, these policies were dropped in favour of free trade with selected countries and encouraging of foreign investment with low taxes. This was expanded when Ireland entered the European Economic Community in 1973. In the 1990s and 2000s, Ireland experienced an economic boom known as the Celtic Tiger, in which the country's GDP surpassed many of its European neighbours. Immigration also surpassed emigration, bringing the state's population up to over 4 million. However, since 2008, Ireland has experienced a severe crisis in the banking sector and with sovereign debt. The resultant economic slump has deepened the effect of the world recession on Ireland.
Scottish diaspora
The Ulster-Scots (Ulster-Scots: Ulstèr-Scotch), commonly known as Scots-Irish outside of Ireland, are an ethnic group in Ireland, found mostly in the Ulster region and to a lesser extent in the rest of Ireland. Their ancestors were mostly Protestant Lowland Scottish migrants, the largest numbers coming from Galloway, Lanarkshire, Stirlingshire, and Ayrshire, although some came from further north in the Scottish Lowlands (Perthshire and the Northeast) and also to a lesser extent from the Highlands.
Irish people
The British Legion were units that fought under Simón Bolívar against Spain for the independence of Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Peru. Venezuelans called them the Albion Legion. They were composed of over seven thousand volunteers, mainly Napoleonic War veterans from Great Britain and Ireland. Volunteers in the British Legion were motivated by a combination of both genuine political and mercenary motives.
The most famous cause of emigration was the Great Famine of the late 1840s. A million are thought to have emigrated to Liverpool as a result of the famine. For both the Irish in Ireland and those in the resulting diaspora, the famine entered folk memory and became a rallying point for various nationalist movements.
People of Irish descent are the second largest self-reported ethnic group in the United States, after German Americans. Nine of the signatories of the American Declaration of Independence were of Irish origin. Among them was the sole Catholic signatory, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, whose family were the descendants of Ely O'Carroll, an Irish prince who had suffered under Cromwell.
At least twenty-five presidents of the United States have some Irish ancestral origins, including George Washington. Since John F. Kennedy took office in 1961, every American President (with the exception of Gerald Ford and Donald Trump) has had some Irish blood. An Irish-American, James Hoban, was the designer of the White House. Commodore John Barry, who was born in County Wexford, was the father of the United States Navy.
In the mid-19th century, large numbers of Irish immigrants were conscripted into Irish regiments of the United States Army at the time of the Mexican–American War. The vast majority of the 4,811 Irish-born soldiers served in the U.S. Army, but some defected to the Mexican Army, primarily to escape mistreatment by Anglo-Protestant officers and the strong anti-Catholic discrimination in America. These were the "San Patricios", or Saint Patrick's Battalion—a group of Irish led by Galway-born John O'Riley, with some German, Scottish and American Catholics. They fought until their surrender at the decisive Battle of Churubusco, and were executed outside Mexico City by the American government on 13 September 1847. The battalion is commemorated in Mexico each year on 12 September.
Ireland
The Republic of Ireland in particular has seen large-scale immigration, with 420,000 foreign nationals as of 2006, about 10% of the population. A quarter of births (24 percent) in 2009 were to mothers born outside Ireland. Chinese and Nigerians, along with people from other African countries, have accounted for a large proportion of the non–European Union migrants to Ireland. Up to 50,000 eastern and central European migrant workers left Ireland in response to the Irish financial crisis.
Irish Americans in New York City
Irish Americans make up approximately 5.3% of New York City's population, composing the second largest non-Hispanic white ethnic group. Irish Americans first came to America in colonial years (pre-1776), with immigration rising in the 1820s due to poor living conditions in Ireland. But the largest wave of Irish immigration came after the Great Famine in 1845. The largest number of Irish immigrants came from some of Ireland's most populous counties, such as Cork, Galway, and Tipperary, surprisingly large numbers also originated in Counties Cavan, Meath, Dublin, and Laois, places not usually associated with the highest levels of emigration.
LGBT culture in Ireland
The gay scene in Ireland is quite developed. Irish society has become more open and tolerant as a result of increased levels of prosperity and rising liberal attitudes. Indeed, many foreigners comment that for such a small island nation of 6 million, there's so much going on, with vibrant gay scenes in all major Irish cities:There are 8 gay & lesbian resource centres in Ireland – one each in Dublin, Belfast, Limerick, Derry, Waterford and Dundalk. Cork is home to two: one for gay men and one for lesbians.
Demographics of the Republic of Ireland
Irish, with Norse (Scandinavian), Norman, English, French, Scottish, and Welsh, Ulster-Scots and various immigrant populations – the largest immigrant groups, with over 10,000 people, are the British, Croats, Poles, Americans, Lithuanians, Latvians, Germans, Nigerians, Indians, Pakistanis and Chinese.
Demographics of the Republic of Ireland
Ireland contains several immigrant communities, especially in Dublin. The most common foreign nationalities include Polish, British, Lithuanian, Latvian and Nigerian.
More Irish than the Irish themselves
The phrase remains in common use, both colloquially and in the media, in reference to recent immigration and assimilation in Ireland, and to some degree about some of the Irish diaspora (for example in "The Irish Times", Senator Jim Walsh, Liam Twomey, or "Irish Emigrant") or in conversation discussing the relationship between the cultural heritage of the Irish diaspora and the Irish in Ireland. While still echoing its original meaning, contemporary usage of the phrase usually takes a more open interpretation of assimilation or, in the case of the diaspora, the maintenance of Irish heritage.
Irish military diaspora
First French Empire
Argentina–Ireland relations
Both nations share a history of Irish culture due to the fact that over 50,000 Irish settlers migrated to Argentina. Argentina is home to the fifth largest Irish community abroad and the biggest in a non-English speaking nation. Over half a million Argentine nationals claim Irish heritage.
Irish military diaspora
The Irish military diaspora refers to the many people of either Irish birth or extraction (see Irish diaspora) who have served in overseas military forces, regardless of rank, duration of service, or success.
Modern literature in Irish
Countries other than Ireland have produced several contributors to literature in Irish, reflecting the existence globally of a group who have learned or who cultivate the language. It is worthy of note that these writers and their readers do not always form part of the traditional diaspora. It has been argued that the use of the language by non-Irish writers has nothing to do with a specifically Irish identity. Instead, its importance lies in its use value as a language of work, personal relationships and creativity. A number of such writers, both Irish and foreign-born, are to be found in North America, Australia and various European countries.
Irish diaspora
The term has also been used to taunt non-Irish-born players who choose to play for the Republic of Ireland national football team, fans of Irish teams, who are members of supporters clubs outside Ireland, and other Irish individuals living in Great Britain. A study by the University of Strathclyde and Nil by Mouth found the term was used abusively on Celtic F.C. and Rangers F.C. supporters' internet forums in reference to Celtic supporters and the wider Roman Catholic community in Scotland. In August 2009, a Rangers F.C supporter himself a British Asian man from Birmingham, England received a suspended sentence after making derogatory comments to a police officer, who was of Irish origin. The prosecutor said the man had made racist remarks about the officer, including accusations that the officer was a "Plastic Paddy".
Irish diaspora
During the 20th century, certain Irish intellectuals made their homes in continental Europe, particularly James Joyce, and later Samuel Beckett (who became a courier for the French Resistance). Eoin O'Duffy led a brigade of 700 Irish volunteers to fight for Franco during the Spanish Civil War, and Frank Ryan led the Connolly column who fought on the opposite side, with the Republican International Brigades. William Joyce became an English-language propagandist for the Third Reich, known colloquially as Lord Haw-Haw.
British diaspora
The British diaspora consists of British people and their descendants who emigrated from the present-day United Kingdom, or people who have acquired British Nationality through colonisation. The diaspora is concentrated in countries such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong, with smaller concentrations in the United States, Republic of Ireland, South Africa, parts of the Caribbean and parts of continental Europe such as Spain. About 1.2 million British citizens live in Australia.
Irish migration to Great Britain
The Irish diaspora () refers to Irish people and their descendants who live outside Ireland. This article refers to those who reside in Great Britain, the largest island and principal territory of the United Kingdom.
The Ireland Funds
The Ireland Funds are a global fundraising network for people of Irish ancestry and friends of Ireland, dedicated to raising funds to support programs of peace and reconciliation, arts and culture, education and community development throughout the island of Ireland. The Funds exist in 12 countries around the world, the largest member of the network being "The American Ireland Fund", and, after Atlantic Philanthropies, may be the second largest non-governmental donor to Irish causes. The global chairman of The Ireland Funds is Tony O'Reilly. They have raised over $550 million for worthy causes in Ireland and around the world.
Irish migration to Great Britain
There was an Irish Diaspora Research Unit at the University of Bradford in the early 21st Century under Dr. Patrick O'Sullivan, but the Unit did not continue after he moved to New York University.
Irish Americans
Half of the Irish immigrants in the colonial era came from the Irish province of Ulster while the other half came from the other three provinces of Ireland (Leinster, Munster, and Connacht). While scholarly estimates vary, the most common approximation is that 250,000 migrated to the United States from 1717 to 1775. By 1790, approximately 400,000 people of Irish birth or ancestry lived in the United States. These early immigrants were overwhelmingly members of the Protestant minority in Ireland who descended from Scottish and English colonists and colonial administrators who had settled the Plantations of Ireland, the largest of which was the Plantation of Ulster. In Ireland, they are referred to as the Ulster Scots and the Anglo-Irish respectively (and as the Ulster Protestants collectively), and while they intermarried to some degree, they almost never intermarried with the native Irish Catholic population (in part because intermarriage between Protestants and Catholics was banned by the Penal Laws during the Protestant Ascendancy), and in turn, the Irish Catholics almost never converted to Protestant churches during the Reformation. (For that matter, intermarriage between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland has remained rare into the 21st century and remains highly stigmatized due to the Troubles and the dissident Irish Republican campaign that has followed them.)
Great Famine's effect on the American economy
Irish immigration to the United States during the Great Famine in Ireland was substantial and had a lasting impact on the economy of the United States. In 1990, 44 million Americans claimed Irish ethnicity. Many of these citizens can trace their ancestry to the Great Famine from 1845-1852 when 300 Irish would disembark daily in New York City. By 1850 the United States had 961,719 Irish citizens, 42.8% of whom were born in Ireland. This comprised 43% of all foreign born population of the United States at the time. New York saw the largest amount of Irish emigration and by 1855 26% of population in Manhattan was Irish and by 1900 that percentage had risen to 60%. The key component affected by this emigration was the laborer force.
Gaeltacht
Dublin and its suburbs are reported to be the site of the largest number of daily Irish speakers, with 14,229 persons speaking Irish daily, representing 18 percent of all daily speakers. In a survey of a small sample of adults who had grown up in Dublin and had completed full-time education, 54% of respondents reported some fluency in Irish, ranging from being able to make small talk to complete fluency. Only 19% of speakers spoke Irish three or more times per week, with a plurality (43%) speaking Irish less than once a fortnight.
Ireland
City status in Ireland is decided by legislative or royal charter. Dublin, with over 1 million residents in the Greater Dublin Area, is the largest city on the island. Belfast, with 579,726 residents, is the largest city in Northern Ireland. City status does not directly equate with population size. For example, Armagh, with 14,590 is the seat of the Church of Ireland and the Roman Catholic Primate of All Ireland and was re-granted city status by Queen Elizabeth II in 1994 (having lost that status in local government reforms of 1840). In the Republic of Ireland, Kilkenny, seat of the Butler dynasty, while no longer a city for administrative purposes (since the 2001 Local Government Act), is entitled by law to continue to use the description.
Irish diaspora
It is widely believed that there existed a secret alliance between the Irish and Indian independence movements. Some Indian intellectuals like Jawaharlal Nehru and V. V. Giri were certainly inspired by Irish nationalists when they studied in the United Kingdom. The Indian revolutionary group known as the Bengal Volunteers took this name in emulation of the Irish Volunteers.2,087,800 (10.4%) of Australians self-reported some Irish ancestry in the 2011 census, second only to English and Australian.
The Australian government estimates the total figure may be around 7 million (30%).
Irish people in mainland Europe
30,000 Irish live in mainland Spain, another 15,000 Irish reside in Portugal, Andorra and Gibraltar and on the Balearic and Canary Islands . More than 3/4 million regularly attend Irish music, cultural and sports events in Iberia. There are Irish societies and associations, and you can study Irish and Celtic culture courses in Spain or Portugal. There is an Irish Dominican parish in Portugal. Many of the more than 165 Irish pubs have regular live Irish music, as well as live Irish sports coverage, including GAA, association football and rugby. There are Iberian Irish music groupd, Irish dancing schools and groups, and Irish & Celtic music festivals. There is an Irish darts league in Madrid, and there are GAA clubs for Gaelic football in Barcelona, Madrid, Marbella, Valencia, Seville, Gibraltar and 11 clubs in Galicia. There is a Celtic supporters club in Gibraltar .
English diaspora
However, demographers regard this as a serious undercount, as the index of inconsistency is high and many, if not most, people from English stock have a tendency (since the introduction of a new 'American' category in the 2000 census) to identify as simply Americans or if of mixed European ancestry, identify with a more recent and differentiated ethnic group. In the 1980 United States Census, over 49 million (49,598,035) Americans claimed English ancestry, at the time around 26.34% of the total population and largest reported group which, even today, would make them the largest ethnic group in the United States. Six out of the ten most common surnames in the United States are of English origin, the other four are of Welsh and Spanish origin. Scots-Irish Americans are descendants of Lowland Scots and Northern English (specifically: County Durham, Cumberland, Northumberland and Westmorland) settlers who colonised Ireland during the Plantation of Ulster in the 17th century.
Carey (surname)
In the 21st century, by far the largest population of Careys is found in the USA, with 54, 924 individuals. Many American Careys are able to trace their family origins back to Ireland via one of the waves of emigration from there, especially from the time of the Great Famine (Ireland) of 1845–1852. The large numbers of Irish Careys, well attested in the shipping registers, for the most part landing in New York and spreading through the northern states and later westwards, followed the demographics of Irish immigration. Of earlier inception, however, is Mathew Carey (1760–1839), the Irish nationalist who fled his native Dublin to settle in Philadelphia, where he founded a publishing house. More typical is former Governor of New York, Hugh Carey (1919–2011) a leading Irish-American politician descended from a 19th-century County Mayo emigrant. It is possible that the former would be of Ó Ciardha stock, whilst the latter is most probably an Ó Cearáin through his ancestor 'Michael Kirrane'. Several Irish-American examples may be found in the biographical list below. Other Carys are of English, particularly West Country extraction, such as the Cary family of Virginia, descended from Miles Cary of Bristol (1623-1667)
Demographics of the Republic of Ireland
Figures from the CSO.
Irish (including dual-Irish/other): 86.9%, UK: 2.5%, Other EU 27: 6.1%, Other Europe: 0.7%, Asia: 1.5%, Africa: 0.9%, USA: 0.2%, Other countries: 0.5%, Multiple nationality: 0.1%, Not stated: 1.2% (2011)Below are the 14 largest immigrant groups in the Republic of Ireland according to the 2016 census.
Iranian diaspora
According to various sources, in 2010, there were an estimated four to five million Iranians living abroad, mostly in North America, Europe, Persian Gulf States, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Australia and the broader Middle East. Others estimate a lower number, of around two millions or less. For the most part, they emigrated after the Iranian Revolution in 1979.
Gaeltacht
The Donegal (or Tyrconnell) Gaeltacht ( or "Gaeltacht Thír Chonaill") has a population of 24,744 (Census 2011) and represents 25% of the total Gaeltacht population. The Donegal Gaeltacht encompasses a geographical area of . This represents 26% of total Gaeltacht land area. The three parishes of the Rosses, Gweedore and Cloughaneely constitute the main centre of population of the Donegal Gaeltacht. There are over 17,132 Irish speakers, 14,500 in areas where it is spoken by 30–100% of the population and 2,500 in areas where it is spoken by less than 30%. In 2006 there were 2,436 people employed in a full-time capacity in Údarás na Gaeltachta client companies in the Donegal Gaeltacht. This region is particularly popular with students of the Ulster dialect; each year thousands of students visit the area from Northern Ireland. Donegal is unique in the Gaeltacht regions, as its accent and dialect is unmistakably northern in character. The language has many similarities with Scottish Gaelic, which are not evident in other Irish dialects.
Irish people
In the Republic of Ireland, as of 2011, 3,861,335 people or about 84.16% of the population are Roman Catholic. In Northern Ireland about 41.6% of the population are Protestant (19.1% Presbyterian, 13.7% Church of Ireland, 3.0% Methodist, 5.8% Other Christian) whilst approximately 40.8% are Catholic as of 2011.
The 31st International Eucharistic Congress was held in Dublin in 1932, that year being the supposed 1,500th anniversary of Saint Patrick's arrival. Ireland was then home to 3,171,697 Catholics, about a third of whom attended the Congress. It was noted in "Time Magazine" that the Congress' special theme would be "the Faith of the Irish". The massive crowds were repeated at Pope John Paul II's Mass in Phoenix Park in 1979. The idea of faith has affected the question of Irish identity even in relatively recent times, apparently more so for Catholics and Irish-Americans. Today the majority of Irish people in the Republic of Ireland identify as Catholic, although church attendance have significantly dropped in recent decades. In Northern Ireland, where almost 50% of the population is Protestant, there has also been a decline in attendances.
List of diplomatic missions in the Republic of Ireland
This page lists embassies posted in Ireland. There are currently 59 embassies in Dublin.Resident in London unless otherwise noted.
Irish people in mainland Europe
It is difficult to put an exact figure on the Irish citizenship based across Continental Europe. Some countries have a requirement to be registered with the local Irish Embassy, but most European governments have no such requirement. So while the Irish Embassy in Madrid 5 years ago gave an official figure of 15,000 Irish in Spain, today there is an unofficial more realistic figure of c 30,000. Irish people make 1.6m trips each year to Spain.
Irish Americans
Irish Americans () are an ethnic group comprising Americans who have full or partial ancestry from Ireland, especially those who identify with that ancestry, along with their cultural characteristics. About 33 million Americans — 10.5% of the total population — reported Irish ancestry in the 2013 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. This compares with a population of 6.7 million on the island of Ireland. Three million people separately identified as Scotch-Irish, whose ancestors were Ulster Scots and Anglo-Irish Protestant Dissenters who emigrated from Ireland to the United States. However, whether the Scotch-Irish should be considered Irish is disputed.
Igbo people
Diaspora
Irish diaspora
Between the 1790s and 1920s, approximately 400,000 Irish settlers – both voluntary and forced – are thought to have arrived in Australia. They first came over in large numbers as convicts, with around 50,000 transported between 1791 and 1867. Even larger numbers of free settlers came during the 19th century due to famine, the Donegal Relief Fund, the discovery of gold in Victoria and New South Wales, and the increasing "pull" of a pre-existing Irish community. By 1871, Irish immigrants accounted for one quarter of Australia's overseas-born population.
Irish diaspora
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, over 38,000 Irish immigrated to Argentina. Very distinct Irish communities and schools existed until the Perón era in the 1950s.
Irish migration to Great Britain
In 2001, there were 674,786 people in England (1.4 per cent of the population) who had been born in Ireland. This is the greatest concentration of Irish-born—as distinct from persons of Irish ancestry—abroad anywhere in the world and was equivalent to 12.1% of the population of the island of Ireland (5.6 million) in 2001.
Irish diaspora
The 2001 UK Census states that 869,093 people born in Ireland are living in Great Britain.
More than 10% of those born in the United Kingdom have at least one grandparent born in Ireland. The article "More Britons applying for Irish passports" states that 6 million Britons have either an Irish grandfather or grandmother and are thus able to apply for Irish citizenship. Almost a quarter claimed some Irish ancestry in one survey.
Irish diaspora
The term Irish diaspora is open to many interpretations. The diaspora, broadly interpreted, contains all those known to have Irish ancestors, i.e., over 100 million people, which is more than fifteen times the population of the island of Ireland, which was about 4.6 million in 2011. It has been argued the idea of an Irish diaspora, as distinct from the old identification of Irishness with Ireland itself, was influenced by the perceived advent of global mobility and modernity. Irishness could now be identified with dispersed individuals and groups of Irish descent. But many of those individuals were the product of complex ethnic intermarriage in America and elsewhere, complicating the idea of a single line of descent. "Irishness" might then rely primarily on individual identification with an Irish diaspora.
Limerick
Limerick is officially the third largest city in Ireland (after Dublin and Cork) with a population of 94,192 (urban)/104,952 (metropolitan) according to the 2016 census carried out by the CSO. The past census reported a large population decline in central city areas due in part to the Limerick regeneration process where in these areas the largest reduction was reported nationally and also to outward migration following the collapse of the local and national economy from 2008 onwards. The population of the Limerick Larger Urban Zone as defined by the EU is 162,413. Limerick has a notably ethnically diverse population, and a large immigrant community, which saw especially rapid growth during the Celtic Tiger and the following decade. The Polish community is the second largest outside Dublin, with an estimated 10,000 living and working in the city. Ireland's first Polish bank opened in 2007. The African community has set up a number of churches, which are now part of the cultural makeup of the city.
Irish diaspora
The Internet and the number of resources now readily accessible has resulted in an explosion of interest in the topic. According to some sources, genealogy is one of the most popular topics on the Internet.
Order of Saint Augustine
Contemporary Ireland is undergoing rapid change, and this presents challenges to the order there. Many Irish emigrants (including Augustinian friars) are now returning. Over 40,000 immigrants each year are admitted to keep the Irish economy working, and many are coming from the new Eastern European members of the European Union. For example, there are now over 100,000 Poles in the country as well as asylum seekers from Africa and the Balkan countries. The formerly unified Celtic culture of Ireland is diversifying, and this means its predominantly Celtic Catholic ethos as well.
Celtic Tiger
Ireland's trend of net emigration was reversed as the republic became a destination for immigrants. This significantly changed Irish demographics and resulted in expanding multiculturalism, particularly in the Dublin, Cork, Limerick, and Galway areas. It was estimated in 2007 that 10% of Irish residents were foreign-born; most of the new arrivals were citizens of Poland and the Baltic states, many of whom found work in the retail and service sectors. A study conducted in 2006 found that many Irish people regarded immigration as an important factor for economic progress. Within Ireland, many young people left the rural countryside to live and work in urban centres.
Many people in Ireland believe that the growing consumerism during the boom years eroded the country's culture, with the adoption of American capitalist ideals. While Ireland's historical economic ties to the UK had often been the subject of criticism, Peader Kirby argued that the new ties to the US economy were met with a "satisfied silence". Nevertheless, voices on the political left have decried the "closer to Boston than Berlin" philosophy of the Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrat government. Writers such as William Wall, Mike McCormick, and Gerry Murphy have satirised these developments. Growing wealth was blamed for rising crime levels among youths, particularly alcohol-related violence resulting from increased spending power. However, it was also accompanied by rapidly increased life expectancy and very high quality of life ratings; the country ranked first in "The Economist"'s 2005 quality of life index, dropping to 12th by 2013.
Tourism Ireland
Tourism Ireland has offices across Europe, North America, and Australia as well as representatives across Asia and South Africa. The island of Ireland (which includes both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland) received 8 million visitors during 2015, a 14% growth over the 2014. Approximately 40% of visitors come from Great Britain, 18% from North America and 35% from Mainland Europe.
Geography of Ireland
In Northern Ireland, a major re-organisation of local government in 1973 replaced the six traditional counties and two county boroughs (Belfast and Derry) by 26 single-tier districts, which, apart from Fermanagh cross the traditional county boundaries. The six counties and two county-boroughs remain in use for purposes such as Lieutenancy. In November 2005, proposals were announced which would see the number of local authorities reduced to seven.
The island's total population of approximately 6 million people is concentrated on the east coast, particularly in Dublin and Belfast and their surrounding areas.
Irish language
The decline of Irish in Ireland and a slowing of emigration helped to ensure a decline in the language abroad, along with natural attrition in the host countries. Despite this, small groups of enthusiasts continued to learn and cultivate Irish in diaspora countries and elsewhere, a trend which strengthened in the second half of the 20th century. Today the language is taught at tertiary level in North America, Australia and Europe, and Irish speakers outside Ireland contribute to journalism and literature in the language. There are significant Irish-speaking networks in the United States and Canada; figures released for the period 2006–2008 show that 22,279 Americans claimed to speak Irish at home.
Irish people in mainland Europe
With a jobless rate just over 5 per cent, the second-lowest in the EU, Germany is becoming a magnet for Irish people. Over 2,800 people moved to Germany from Ireland in 2012 including almost 800 German citizens according to statistics. About 30,000 Irish live in Germany. Together with Germans interested in Irish culture, some of these emigrants organise Irish cultural events across the country. Most German cities have at least one Irish pub, although they typically feature a mixture of German and Irish pub culture.
The Irish Filmography
The catalog has a title index of approximately 2,000 films. Approximately one-tenth of those are Irish productions. The remainder, produced outside Ireland, are films about Ireland and the Irish diaspora. About one-half of the titles are American films; another quarter are Australian and British films. There are also films from Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Israel, Italy, Russia, and Spain.
Irish diaspora
With its newly established trans-Atlantic empire, England needed labour. After the Irish Rebellion of 1641, the Kingdom of England began to pacify Ireland through ethnic cleansing, transporting large numbers of Irish, often forced into indentured servitude, to the New World. This increased following the English Civil War (1642–1651) and the Cromwellian invasion of Ireland (1649–1653). Cromwell took Irish land both to repay investors who had financed the invasion and as payment for his soldiers, and the ethnic Irish were ordered to move to Connaught or die. Between 1641 and 1652, over 550,000 Irish died from famine and other war-related causes. The Irish population of Ireland fell from 1,466,000 to 616,000. Between 1652 and 1659, 50,000 Irish men, women and children were sent to the West Indies, Virginia and Bermuda.
Irish diaspora
According to US Census figures from 2000, 41,000,000 Americans claim to be wholly or partly of Irish ancestry, a group that represents more than one in five white Americans. Many African Americans are part of the Irish diaspora, as they are descended from Scots-Irish slave owners and overseers who arrived in America during the colonial era. The US Census Bureau's data from 2016 reveals that Irish ancestry is one of the most common reported ancestries reported (in the top 3 most common ancestries reported). Even though Irish immigration is extremely small relative to the scope of current migration, Irish ancestry is one of the most common ancestries in the United States because of the events that took place over a century ago.
Scottish diaspora
In the 2013 American Community Survey 5,310,285 identified as Scottish & 2,976,878 Scots-Irish descent. Large scale emigration from Scotland to America began in the 1700s after the Battle of Culloden where the Clan structures were broken up. Anti-Catholic persecution and the Highland Clearances also obliged many Scottish Gaels to emigrate. The Scots went in search of a better life and settled in the thirteen colonies, mainly around South Carolina and Virginia.
Irish diaspora
People of the Irish diaspora who were not born in Ireland but who identify as Irish are sometimes labelled as "Plastic Paddies".
Music of Ireland
From 1820 to 1920 over 4,400,000 Irish emigrated to the US, creating an Irish diaspora in Chicago (see Francis O'Neill), Boston, New York and other cities. Irish musicians who were successful in the USA made recordings which found their way around the world and re-invigorated musical styles back in the homeland. For example, American-based fiddlers like Michael Coleman, James Morrison and Paddy Killoran did much to popularise Irish music in the 1920s and 1930s.
List of expatriate Irish populations
The main article Irish diaspora contains details of most expatriate Irish populations, and provides links to main articles about many of them. This article presents those links, and some others, in tabular form arranged ahphabetically by country.
Irish Canadians
About 10% of the population of Saskatchewan during 1850–1930 were Irish-born or of Irish origin. Cottrell (1999) examines the social, economic, political, religious, and ideological impact of the Irish diaspora on pioneer society and suggests that both individually and collectively, the Irish were a relatively privileged group. The most visible manifestations of intergenerational Irish ethnicity - the Catholic Church and the Orange Order - served as vehicles for recreating Irish culture on the prairies and as forums for ethnic fusion, which integrated people of Irish origin with settlers of other nationalities. The Irish were thus a vital force for cohesion in an ethnically diverse frontier society, but also a source of major tension with elements that did not share their vision of how the province of Saskatchewan should evolve.
Ireland
Politically, Ireland is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially named Ireland), which covers five-sixths of the island, and Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom. In 2011, the population of Ireland was about 6.6 million, ranking it the second-most populous island in Europe after Great Britain. Just under 4.8 million live in the Republic of Ireland and just over 1.8 million live in Northern Ireland.
Irish Americans
Since the arrival of nearly two million Irish immigrants in the 1840s, the urban Irish police officer and firefighter have become virtual icons of American popular culture. In many large cities, the police and fire departments have been dominated by the Irish for over 100 years, even after the ethnic Irish residential populations in those cities dwindled to small minorities. Many police and fire departments maintain large and active "Emerald Societies", bagpipe marching groups, or other similar units demonstrating their members' pride in their Irish heritage.
Republic of Ireland
Ireland's culture was for centuries predominantly Gaelic, and it remains one of the six principal Celtic nations. Following the Anglo-Norman invasion in the 12th century, and gradual British conquest and colonisation beginning in the 16th century, Ireland became influenced by English and Scottish culture. Subsequently, Irish culture, though distinct in many aspects, shares characteristics with the Anglosphere, Catholic Europe, and other Celtic regions. The Irish diaspora, one of the world's largest and most dispersed, has contributed to the globalisation of Irish culture, producing many prominent figures in art, music, and science.
Irish diaspora
The phenomenon of migration from Ireland is recorded since the Early Middle Ages, but it is only possible to quantify it from around 1700: since then between 9 and 10 million people born in Ireland have emigrated. This is more than the population of Ireland at its historical peak in the 1840s of 8.5 million. The poorest of them went to Great Britain, especially Liverpool; those who could afford it went further, including almost 5 million to the United States.
Irish diaspora
The largest Irish communities in Britain are located predominantly in the cities and towns: in London, in particular Kilburn (which has one of the largest Irish-born communities outside Ireland) out to the west and north west of the city, in the large port cities such as Liverpool (which elected the first Irish Nationalist members of parliament), Glasgow, Bristol, Sunderland and Portsmouth. Big industrial cities such as Salford, Manchester, Luton, Coventry, Birmingham, Sheffield, Wolverhampton, Cardiff and parts of Newcastle and Nottingham also have large diaspora populations due to the Industrial Revolution and, in the case of the first three, the strength of the motor industry in the 1960s and 1970s. Crosby, Kirkby, Rugby, Denbigh, Widnes, Ilfracombe, Bootle, Huyton, Birkenhead, Gateshead, Seaham, Middlesbrough, Wallasey, Moreton, Batley, Bolton, Barrhead, Winsford, Ellesmere Port, Chester, Blantyre, Runcorn, Ashton-under-Lyne, Heywood, Consett, Bishop Auckland, Cambuslang, Ashton-in-Makerfield, Solihull, Brighouse, Clydebank, Easington Colliery, Litherland, Whitehaven, Barrow-in-Furness, Irlam, Newton Mearns, Chatham, Greenock, Port Glasgow, Prestwich, Holyhead, Fishguard, Caistor, Saltney, Cleator Moor, Newport, Maghull, Washington, North Shields, South Shields, Tynemouth, Paisley, Stockport, Haslingden, Dewsbury, Skelmersdale, Keighley, Chorley and parts of Market Harborough, Devon and Greater Manchester have high concentrations of Irish communities. The towns of Hebburn, Jarrow and Coatbridge have famously all earned the nickname 'Little Ireland' due to their high Irish populations.
Irish diaspora
The diaspora to the United States was immortalised in the words of many songs including the famous Irish ballad, "The Green Fields of America":So pack up your sea-stores, consider no longer,
Ten dollars a week is not very bad pay,
With no taxes or tithes to devour up your wages,
When you're on the green fields of Americay.The experience of Irish immigrants in the United States has not always been harmonious. The US did not have a good relationship with most of the incoming Irish because of their Roman Catholic faith, as the majority of the population was Protestant and had been originally formed by offshoots of the Protestant faith, many of whom were from Northern Ireland (Ulster). So it came as no surprise that the federal government issued new immigration acts, adding to previous ones which limited Eastern European immigration, ones which limited the immigration of the Irish.