 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Irish diaspora" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(September 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
TheIrish diaspora (Irish:Diaspóra na nGael) refers to ethnicIrish people and their descendants who live outside the island ofIreland.
The phenomenon of migration from Ireland is recorded since theEarly Middle Ages,[1] but it can be quantified only from around 1700. Since then, between 9 and 10 million people born in Ireland have emigrated. That is more than thepopulation of Ireland itself, which at its historical peak was 8.5 million on the eve of theGreat Famine. The poorest of them went toGreat Britain, especiallyLiverpool. Those who could afford it went further, including almost 5 million to theUnited States.[2]
After 1765, emigration from Ireland became a short, relentless and efficiently managed national enterprise.[3] 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 claiming Irish as their primary ethnicity.[4]
As recently as the second half of the 19th century, most Irish emigrants spokeIrish as their first language. That 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.[5] The Irish diaspora are largely assimilated in most countries outside Ireland afterWorld War I.Seán Fleming is theRepublic of Ireland'sMinister of State for the Diaspora and Overseas Aid, a post which was established in 2014.[6]
The term Irish diaspora is open to many interpretations. Thediaspora, 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 ofIreland, which was about 6.4 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.[7]
TheGovernment of Ireland defines the Irish diaspora as all persons ofIrish nationality who habitually reside outside the island of Ireland. This includes Irish citizens who have emigrated abroad and their children, who are Irish citizens by descent underIrish law. It also includes their grandchildren in cases where they were registered as Irish citizens in theForeign Births Register held in everyIrish diplomatic mission.[8] Under this legal definition, the Irish diaspora is considerably smaller—some 3 million persons, of whom 1.47 million are Irish-born emigrants.[9] Given the island of Ireland's estimated population of 6.8 million in 2018, this is still a large ratio.[10]
However, the usage ofIrish diaspora is generally not limited by citizenship status, thus leading to an estimated (and fluctuating) membership of up to 80 million persons—the second and more emotive definition. The Irish Government acknowledged this interpretation—although it did not acknowledge any legal obligations to persons in this larger diaspora—when Article 2 of theConstitution of Ireland was amended in 1998 to read"[f]urthermore, the Irish nation cherishes its special affinity with people of Irish ancestry living abroad who share its cultural identity and heritage."
There are people of Irish descent abroad (includingIrish speakers) who reject inclusion in an Irish "diaspora" and who designate their identity in other ways. They may see the diasporic label as something used by the Irish government for its own purposes.[11]
The Irish, who were called by the RomansScotti but called themselvesGaels, had raided and settled along the West Coast ofRoman Britain, and numbers of them were allowed to settle within the province, where theRoman Army recruited many Irish into auxiliary units that were dispatched to the German frontier. TheAttacotti, who were similarly recruited into the Roman army, may also have been Irish settlers in Britain. The movement between Ireland and the classical Britain may have been two-way as similarities between the medieval accounts ofTúathal Techtmar and archaeological evidence indicate that the Romans may have supported the invasion and conquest of Ireland by Irish exiles from Britain with the hope of establishing a friendly ruler who could halt the raiding of Britain by the Irish, and some historians have also suggested that theCruthin of the north of Ireland may have beenPicts.[12] After the departure of the Roman army, the Irish began increasing their footholds in Britain, with part of the north-West of the island annexed within the Irish kingdom ofDál Riata. In time, the Irish colonies became independent, merged with thePictish kingdom and formed the basis of modernScotland.
The traditionallyGaelic-speaking areas of Scotland (theHighlands and Hebrides) are still referred to in the Gaelic language asa' Ghàidhealtachd ("the Gaeldom"). Irish monks and theCeltic Church engineered a wave of Irish emigration to Great Britain and Continental Europe and were possibly the first inhabitants of theFaroe Islands andIceland.[13] Throughout theEarly Middle Ages, Great Britain and Continental Europe experienced Irish immigration of varying intensity, mostly from clerics and scholars who are collectively known asperegrini.[1] Irish emigration toWestern Europe, especially to Great Britain, has continued at a greater or lesser pace since then. Today, the ethnic Irish are the single largest minority group in both England and Scotland, most of whom eventually made it back to Ireland.
The dispersal of the Irish has been mainly to Britain or to countries colonised by Britain. England's political connection with Ireland began in 1155, whenPope Adrian IV issued apapal bull (known asLaudabiliter), which gaveHenry II permission to invade Ireland as a means of strengthening the papacy's control over the Irish Church. That was followed in 1169 by theNorman invasion of Ireland, which was led by the generalRichard de Clare, orStrongbow.[citation needed]
TheEnglish Crown did not attempt to assert full control of the island until afterHenry VIII's repudiation ofpapal authority over theChurch in England, and the subsequent rebellion of theEarl of Kildare in Ireland in 1534 threatened Englishhegemony there. Until the break withRome, it was widely believed that Ireland was a papal possession, which was granted as a merefiefdom to the English king and so in 1541, Henry VIII asserted England's claim to Ireland free from the papal overlordship by proclaiming himselfKing of Ireland.[citation needed]
After theNine Years' War (1594 to 1603), political power rested in the hands of aProtestant Ascendancy minority and was marked by a Crown policy ofplantation, which involved the arrival of thousands of English andScottishProtestant settlers and the consequent displacement of the pre-plantationRoman Catholic landholders. As the military and political defeat ofGaelic Ireland became more pronounced in the early 17th century,sectarian conflict became a recurrent theme inIrish history.
Roman Catholics and members ofdissenting Protestant denominations suffered severe political and economic privations fromPenal Laws. TheIrish Parliament was abolished in 1801 in the wake of therepublicanUnited Irishmen Rebellion, and Ireland became an integral part of a newUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland under theAct of Union.
TheGreat Famine, 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. InConnacht alone, the population fell by almost 30%.
Robert E. Kennedy explains, however, that the common argument that the mass emigration from Ireland was a "flight from famine" is not entirely correct. Firstly, the Irish had been coming to Great Britain to build canals there since the 18th century, and as soon as conditions in Ireland improved, their emigration did not slow down. After the famine ended, the four years that followed it were marked by more emigration than the four years of the blight. Kennedy argues that the famine was considered the final straw because it convinced more people to move even though several other factors influenced their decision.
By 1900, the population of Ireland was about half of its 1840 peak, and it continued to fall during the 20th century.
In the decades that followed independence in the 1920s, emigration accelerated for economic and social reasons,[14][15] and with the preferred destination switching from the United States to Great Britain, over 500,000 emigrated in the 1950s and 450,000 in the 1980s, and over 3 million Irish citizens resided outside Ireland in 2017.[16]
Irish people who still lived in Ireland were subjected to discrimination by Great Britain based on their religion. Evictions increased after the repeal of the BritishCorn Laws in 1846, the passage of theEncumbered Estates' Court in 1849 and the removal of existing civil rights and class norms. Any remaining hope for change was squashed by the 1847 death ofDaniel O'Connell, the political leader who championed liberal and reform causes and emancipation for Ireland's Catholics, and the failed rising of theYoung Irelanders in 1848. More was to be gained by immigrating to America from Ireland, and the1848 discovery of gold in theSierra Nevada lured away more.[17]
Irish migration to Great Britain has occurred since theearly medieval period. The largest waves of Irish migration occurred in the 19th century, when a devastating famine broke out in Ireland, resulting in thousands of Irish immigrants settling down in Britain, primarily in the port cities ofLiverpool andGlasgow. Other waves of Irish migration occurred during the 20th century, as Irish immigrants escaping pooreconomic conditions in Ireland following the establishment of theIrish Free State, came to Britain in response to labour shortages. These waves of migration have resulted in millions of British citizens being of Irish descent.[18][19]
An article forThe Guardian estimated that as many as six million people living in the United Kingdom have an Irish-born grandparent (around 10% of theBritish population).[20]
The2001 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.[21] 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.[21] Almost a quarter claimed some Irish ancestry in one survey.[22]
The Irish have traditionally been involved in the building trade and transport particularly as dockers, following an influx of Irish workers, ornavvies, to build the British canal, road and rail networks in the 19th century. This is largely due to the flow ofemigrants from Ireland duringthe Great Famine of 1845–1849. Many Irish servicemen, particularly sailors, settled in Britain: During the first half of the 19th century a third of the Army and Royal Navy were Irish. The Irish still represent a large contingent of foreign volunteers to the British military.[23] Since the 1950s and 1960s in particular, the Irish have become assimilated into the British population. Emigration continued into the next century; over half a million Irish went to Britain in World War II to work in industry and serve in theBritish armed forces. In the post-war reconstruction era, the numbers of immigrants began to increase, many settling in the larger cities and towns of Britain. According to the 2001 census, around 850,000 people in Britain were born in Ireland.
The largest Irish communities in Britain are located predominantly in the cities and towns: in London, in particularKilburn (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 asLiverpool (which elected the first Irish nationalist members of parliament),Glasgow,Bristol,Sunderland andPortsmouth. Big industrial cities such asSalford,Manchester,Luton,Coventry,Birmingham,Sheffield,Wolverhampton,Cardiff and parts ofNewcastle andNottingham 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. The towns ofHebburn,Jarrow andCoatbridge have all earned the nickname 'Little Ireland' due to their high Irish populations.[24]
Central to the Irish community in Britain was the community's relationship with theRoman 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 theRoman 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 CardinalKeith O'Brien.[18]
Scotland experienced a significant amount of Irish immigration, particularly inGlasgow,Edinburgh andCoatbridge. This led to the formation ofCeltic Football Club in 1888 byMaristBrother Walfrid, to raise money to help the community. In EdinburghHibernian were founded in 1875 and in 1909 another club with Irish links,Dundee United, was formed. Likewise the Irish community in London formed theLondon Irishrugby union club. The2001 UK census states in Scotland 50,000 people identified as having Irish heritage.[25]
The Irish have maintained a strong political presence in the UK (mostly in Scotland), in local government and at the national level. Former prime ministersDavid Cameron,Tony Blair,John Major andJames Callaghan have been amongst the many in Britain of part-Irish ancestry; Blair's mother, Hazel Elizabeth Rosaleen Corscaden, was born on 12 June 1923 inBallyshannon,County Donegal. Former ChancellorGeorge Osborne is a member of the Anglo-Irish aristocracy and heir to thebaronetcies of Ballentaylor and Ballylemon.[26]
Moreover, the UK holds official publicSt. Patrick's Day celebrations. While many such celebrations were suspended in the 1970s because ofThe Troubles, the holiday is now widely celebrated by the UK public.[27]
Irish links with the continent go back many centuries.[1] During the early Middle Ages, 700–900 AD, many Irish religious figures went abroad to preach and found monasteries in what is known as theHiberno-Scottish mission.Saint Brieuc founded the city that bears his name inBrittany,Saint Colmán founded the great monastery ofBobbio in northern Italy and one of his monks wasSaint Gall for whom the Swiss town ofSt Gallen andcanton ofSt Gallen are named.
During theCounter-Reformation, Irish religious and political links with Europe became stronger. An important centre of learning and training for Irish priests developed inLeuven (Lúbhan in Irish) in theDuchy of Brabant, now inFlanders (northern Belgium). TheFlight of the Earls, in 1607, led much of the Gaelic nobility to flee the country, and after the wars of the 17th century many others fled to Spain, France, Austria, and other Roman Catholic lands.[28] The lords and their retainers and supporters joined the armies of these countries, and were known as theWild Geese. Some of the lords and their descendants rose to high ranks in their adoptive countries, such as theSpanish general and politicianLeopoldo O'Donnell, 1st Duke of Tetuan, who became thepresident of the Government of Spain or theFrench general and politicianPatrice de Mac-Mahon, Duke of Magenta, who became thepresident of the French Republic. The FrenchCognacbrandy maker,Hennessy, was founded byRichard Hennessy, an Irish officer in theClare Regiment of theIrish Brigade of the French Army. In Spain and its territories, many Irish descendants can be found with the nameObregón[citation needed] (O'Brien,Irish,Ó Briain), including Madrid-born actressAna Victoria García Obregón.
During the 20th century, certain Irish intellectuals made their homes in continental Europe, particularlyJames Joyce, and laterSamuel Beckett (who became a courier for theFrench Resistance).Eoin O'Duffy led a brigade of 700 Irish volunteers to fight forFranco during theSpanish Civil War, andFrank Ryan led theConnolly Column who fought on the opposite side, with theRepublicanInternational Brigades.William Joyce became anEnglish-language propagandist forNazi Germany, known colloquially asLord Haw-Haw.
Some of the first Irish people to travel to the New World did so as members of the Spanish garrison in Florida during the 1560s, and small numbers of Irish colonists were involved in efforts to establish colonies in the Amazon region, in Newfoundland, and in Virginia between 1604 and the 1630s. According to historian Donald Akenson, there were "few if any" Irish being forcibly transported to the New World during this period.[29]
ThePlantation of Ulster, by theStuart monarchy of the early 17th century, primarily in the lands gained by theFlight of the Earls, with an equal number of loyal Lowland Scots and redundant EnglishBorder reivers,[30] caused resentment, as did their transferring of all property owned by the Roman Catholic Church to theChurch of Ireland, resulting in theIrish Rebellion of 1641. Following the rebellion's failure the Commonwealth regime began to pacify Ireland, through the sentencing and transporting Irish rebels (known as “tories”), Catholic priests, friars and schoolmasters, toindentured servitude in theCrown's New World colonies.[31] This increased following theCromwellian invasion of Ireland (1649–1653), of theWars of the Three Kingdoms (1639–1653).Cromwell took Irish land both to repay investors who had financed the invasion[32] and as payment for his soldiers, many of whom settled down in Ireland. As a result, Irish in Leinster, and Munster, with property worth more than £10, were ordered to move toConnaught, to land valued at no more than 1/3 the value of their current holding, or be banished on pain of death. In the 17th century 50,000 Irish people are estimated to have migrated to the New World colonies, 165,000 by 1775.[33]
The population of Ireland fell from 1,466,000 to 616,000, between 1641 and 1652, over 550,000 attributed to famine and other war-related causes.[citation needed]
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, over 38,000 Irish immigrated toArgentina.[34] Very distinct Irish communities and schools existed until the Perón era in the 1950s.
Today there are an estimated 500,000 people of Irish ancestry in Argentina,[34] 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.
The modern Irish-Argentine community is composed of some of their descendants, and the total number is estimated at between 500,000 and 1,000,000.
Argentina is the home of thefifth largest Irish community in the world, the largest in a non-English speaking nation and the greatest inSouth America.[35]
Despite the fact that Argentina was never the main destination for Irish emigrants it does form part of the Irish diaspora. The Irish-ArgentineWilliam 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 fromBere island,County Cork were encouraged to send emigrants to Argentina by an islander who had been successful there in the 1880s.[36]
Considered by some to be a national hero,William Brown is the most famous Irish citizen in Argentina. Creator of theArgentine Navy (Armada de la República Argentina, ARA) and leader of theArgentine Armed Forces in the wars against Brazil and Spain, he was born inFoxford,County Mayo on 22 June 1777 and died inBuenos Aires in 1857. TheAlmirante Brown-classdestroyer is named after him, as well as theAlmirante Brown partido, part of theGran Buenos Aires urban area, with a population of over 500.000 inhabitants.
The first entirely Roman Catholic English language publication published in Buenos Aires,The Southern Cross is an Argentine newspaper founded on 16 January 1875 by Dean Patricio Dillon, an Irish immigrant, a deputy forBuenos Aires Province and president of the Presidential Affairs Commission amongst other positions. The newspaper continues in print to this day and publishes a beginner's guide to theIrish language, helpingIrish Argentines keep in touch with their cultural heritage. Previously toThe Southern Cross Dublin-born brothersEdward andMichael Mulhall successfully publishedThe Standard, allegedly the first English-language daily paper in South America.[citation needed]
Between 1943 and 1946, the de factoPresident of Argentina wasEdelmiro Farrell, whose paternal ancestry was Irish.[citation needed]
Early in its history,Bermuda had reputed connections with Ireland. It has been suggested thatSt. Brendan discovered it during his legendary voyage; a localpsychiatric hospital (since renamed) was named after him.[39][40][41] In 1616, an incident occurred in which five white settlers arrived in Ireland, having crossed the Atlantic (a distance of around 5,000 kilometres (3,100 mi)) in a two-ton boat.[42] By the following year, one of Bermuda's main islands wasnamed after Ireland.[43] By the mid-17th century, Irishprisoners of war and civilian captives were involuntarily shipped to Bermuda, condemned toindentured servitude.[44] These people had become indentured as a result of theCromwellian conquest of Ireland.[45] The Cromwellian conquest led to Irish captives, from both military and civilian backgrounds, to be sent as indentured servants to the West Indies. The Puritan Commonwealth government saw sending indentured servants from Ireland to the Caribbean as both assisting in their conquest of the island (by removing the strongest resistance against their rule) and saving the souls of theRoman Catholic Irish servants by settling them in Protestant-dominated colonies where they would supposedly inevitablyconvert to the "true faith".[44]
These rapid demographic changes quickly began to alarm the dominant Anglo-Bermudian population, in particular the Irish indentured servants, most of whom were presumed to be secretly practisingCatholicism (recusancy had been outlawed by the colonial government). Relationships between the Anglo-Bermudian community and Irish indentured servants consistently remained hostile, resulting in the Irish responding to ostracism by ultimately merging with the Scottish, African and Native American communities in Bermuda to form a new demographic: thecoloureds, which in Bermuda meant anyone not entirely ofEuropean descent. In modern-day Bermuda, the term has been replaced by 'Black', in which wholly sub-Saharan African ancestry is erroneously implicit. The Irish quickly proved hostile to their new conditions in Bermuda, and colonial legislation soon stipulated:
that those that hath the Irish servants should take care that they straggle not night nor daie as is too common with them. If any masters or dames be remiss hereafter in watching over them, they shall be fyned according to the discretion of the Governor and counsell, and thatit shall not be lawfull for any inhabitant in these Islands to buy or purchase any more of the Irish nation upon any pretence whatsoever".
In September, 1658, three Irishmen – John Chehen (Shehan, Sheehan, Sheene, or Sheen), David Laragen and Edmund Malony – were lashed for breakingcurfew and being suspected of stealing a boat. Jeames Benninge (a Scottish indentured servant), black Franke (a servant to Mr John Devitt), and Tomakin, Clemento, and black Dick (servants of Mrs Anne Trimingham) were also punished.[46]
In 1661, the colonial government alleged that a plot was being hatched by an alliance of Blacks and Irish, one which involved cutting the throats of all Bermudians of English descent. Thegovernor of Bermuda,William Sayle (who had returned to Bermuda after the Bermudian colonial government acknowledged the authority ofParliament) countered the alleged plot with three edicts: The first was that a nightly watch be raised throughout the colony; second, that slaves and the Irish be disarmed of militia weapons; and third, that any gathering of two or more Irish or slaves be dispersed by whipping. There were no arrests, trials or executions connected to the plot,[47] though an Irish woman named Margaret was found to be romantically involved with a Native American; she was voted to be stigmatised and he was whipped.[48]
During the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth Centuries, the colony's various demographic groups boiled down to free whites and mostly enslaved "coloured" Bermudians with a homogeneous Anglo-Bermudian culture. Little survived of the Irish culture brought by indentured servants from Ireland. Catholicism was outlawed in Bermuda by the colonial authorities, and all islanders were required by law to attend services of the establishedAnglican church. Some surnames that were common in Bermuda at this period, however, give lingering evidence of the Irish presence. For example, the area to the east ofBailey's Bay, in Hamilton Parish, is namedCallan Glen for a Scottish-born shipwright,Claude MacCallan, who settled in Bermuda after the vessel in which he was a passenger was wrecked off the North Shore in 1787. MacCallan swam to a rock from which he was rescued by a Bailey's Bay fisherman namedDaniel Seon (Sheehan). A later Daniel Seon was appointed Clerk of theHouse of Assembly and Prothonotary of the Court of General Assize in 1889 (he was also the Registrar of the Supreme Court, and died in 1909).
In 1803, Irish poetThomas Moore arrived in Bermuda, having been appointed registrar to theAdmiralty there. Robert Kennedy, born inCultra,County Down, was theGovernment of Bermuda'sColonial Secretary, and was the actingGovernor of Bermuda on three occasions (1829, 1830 and 1835–1836).[49] Irish prisoners were again sent to Bermuda in the 19th century, including participants in the ill-fatedYoung Irelander Rebellion of 1848, nationalist journalist and politicianJohn Mitchel, and painter and convicted murdererWilliam Burke Kirwan.[50] Alongside English convicts, they were used to build theRoyal Naval Dockyard on Ireland Island.[51] Conditions for the convicts were harsh, and discipline was draconian. In April, 1830, convict James Ryan was shot and killed during rioting of convicts on Ireland Island. Another five convicts were given death sentences for their parts in the riots, with those of the youngest three being commuted to transportation (toAustralia) for life. In June 1849 convict JamesCronin, on the hulkMedway at Ireland Island, was placed in solitary confinement from the 25th to the 29th for fighting. On release, and being returned to work, he refused to be cross-ironed. He ran onto the breakwater, brandishing a poker threateningly. For this, he was ordered to receive punishment (presumably flogging) on Tuesday, 3 July 1849, with the other convicts aboard the hulk assembled behind a rail to witness. When ordered to strip, he hesitated. Thomas Cronin, his older brother, addressed him and, while brandishing a knife, rushed forward to the separating rail. He called out to the other prisoners inIrish and many joined him in attempting to free the prisoner and attack the officers. The officers opened fire. Two men were killed and twelve wounded. Punishment of James Cronin was then carried out. Three hundred men of the42nd Regiment of Foot, in barracks on Ireland Island, responded to the scene under arms.[52]
Although theRoman Catholic Church (which had been banned in Bermuda, as in the rest of England, since settlement) began to operate openly in Bermuda in the 19th century, its priests were not permitted to conduct baptisms, weddings or funerals. As the most important British naval and military base in the Western Hemisphere following US independence, large numbers of Irish Roman Catholic soldiers served in the British Army'sBermuda Garrison (the Royal Navy had also benefitted from a shipload of Irish emigres wrecked on Bermuda, with most being recruited into the navy there). The first Roman Catholic services in Bermuda were conducted by British Army chaplains early in the 19th century. Mount Saint Agnes Academy, a private school operated by the Roman Catholic Church of Bermuda, opened in 1890 at the behest of officers of the86th (Royal County Down) Regiment of Foot (which was posted to Bermuda from 1880 to 1883), who had requested from theArchbishop ofHalifax, Nova Scotia, a school for the children of Irish Roman Catholic soldiers.[53][54]
Not all Irish soldiers in Bermuda had happy lives there. Private Joseph McDaniel of the30th Regiment of Foot (who was born in theEast Indies to an Irish father and aMalay mother) was convicted of the murder of Mary Swears in June, 1837, after he had been found with a self-inflicted wound and her lifeless body. Although he maintained his innocence throughout the trial, after his conviction he confessed that they had made a pact to die together. Although he had succeeded in killing her, he survived his suicide attempt. He was put to death on Wednesday, 29 November 1837. Private Patrick Shea of the20th Regiment of Foot was sentenced to death in June 1846, for discharging his weapon at Sergeant John Evans. His sentence was commuted to transportation (toAustralia) for life. In October, 1841,County Carlow-born Peter Doyle had also been transported to Australia for fourteen years for shooting at a picket. At his court martial he had explained that he had been drunk at the time.[55]
Other Irish soldiers, taking discharge, made a home in Bermuda, remaining there for the rest of their lives. Dublin-born Sapper Cornelius Farrell was discharged in Bermuda from theRoyal Engineers. His three Bermudian-born sons followed him into the army, fighting on the Western Front during theFirst World War in theBermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps.
Although there is little surviving evidence of Irish culture, some elderly islanders can remember when the term "cilig" (orkillick) was used to describe a common method of fishing for sea turtles by tricking them into swimming into prearranged nets (this was done by splashing a stone on a line—the cilig—into the water on the turtle's opposite side). The wordcilig appears to be meaningless in English, but in some dialects of Gaelic is used as an adjective meaning "easily deceived".[56] In Irish there is a wordcílí meaning sly. It is used in the expressionIs é an cílí ceart é (pronouncedShayeh kilic airtay) and meansWhat a sly-boots.[57] Alternatively, the word may be derived from an Irish word for a stone and wood anchor.[58] Characteristics of older Bermudian accents, such as the pronunciation of the letter 'd' as 'dj', as inBermudjin (Bermudian), may indicate an Irish origin. Later Irish immigrants have continued to contribute to Bermuda's makeup, with names like Crockwell (Ó Creachmhaoil) andO'Connor (Ó Conchobhair) now being thought of locally as Bermudian names. The strongest remaining Irish influence can be seen in the presence of bagpipes in themusic of Bermuda, which stemmed from the presence of Scottish and Irish soldiers from the 18th through 20th centuries. Several prominent businesses in Bermuda have a clear Irish influence, such as the Irish Linen Shop, Tom Moore's Tavern and Flanagan's Irish Pub and Restaurant.
A succession of IrishMasonic lodges have existed in Bermuda, beginning withMilitary Lodge #192, established by soldiers of the47th Regiment of Foot, and operating in Bermuda from 1793 to 1801. This was an ambulatory or travelling 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.[59]
The first known Irish settler in Brazil was a missionary,Thomas Field, who arrived to Brazil in late 1577 and spent three years in Piratininga (present-daySão Paulo). In 1612, the Irish brothers Philip and James Purcell established a colony in Tauregue, at the mouth of the Amazon river, where English, Dutch, and French settlements were also established.[60] Many of the colonists traded in tobacco, dyes, and hardwoods. A second group of Irish settlers led by Bernardo O'Brien of County Clare arrived in 1620.[60] The first recorded Saint Patrick's Day celebration was on 17 March 1770.[60]
During theCisplatine War, Brazil sent recruiters to Ireland to recruit men as soldiers for the war againstArgentina. Any Irish that signed up for the Brazilian army were promised that if they enlisted they would be given a grant of land after five years of service. Approximately 2,400 men were recruited and when they arrived in Brazil (many with their families), they were completely neglected by the government. The Irish mutinied together with a German regiment, and for a few days there was open warfare on the streets ofRio de Janeiro. While most were ultimately sent home or re-emigrated toCanada or Argentina, some did stay and were sent to form a colony in the province ofBahia.[60]
Several attempts were made by Brazil to bring in more Irish immigrants to settle in the country, however, much of the land given to the settlers was porous or in extremely remote locations. Many of the Irish settlers died or re-emigrated to other countries. At the same time, several prominent Irish figures served in diplomatic posts in Brazil for theUnited Kingdom (as Ireland was part of theBritish Empire). Irish nationalist and British diplomatRoger Casement, served as British Consul inSantos,Belém, and inRio de Janeiro.[61]
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.[62] 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.[63]
After the permanent settlement in Newfoundland by Irish in the late 18th and early 19th century, overwhelmingly fromCounty Waterford, increased immigration of the Irish elsewhere in Canada began in the decades following theWar of 1812 and formed a significant part ofThe Great Migration of Canada. Between 1825 and 1845, 60% of all immigrants to Canada were Irish; in 1831 alone, some 34,000 arrived in Montreal.
Between 1830 and 1850, 624,000 Irish arrived; in contextual terms, at the end of this period, the population of the provinces of Canada was 2.4 million. BesidesUpper Canada (Ontario),Lower Canada (Quebec), the Maritime colonies ofNova Scotia,Prince Edward Island andNew Brunswick, especiallySaint John, were arrival points. Not all remained; many out-migrated to the United States or to Western Canada in the decades that followed. Few returned to Ireland.
ManyNewfoundlanders are of Irish descent. It is estimated that about 80% of Newfoundlanders have Irish ancestry on at least one side of their family tree. The family names, the predominant Roman Catholic religion, the prevalence of Irish music – even the accents of the people – are so reminiscent of rural Ireland that Irish authorTim Pat Coogan has described Newfoundland as"the most Irish place in the world outside Ireland".[64]Newfoundland Irish, the dialect of theIrish language specific to the island was widely spoken until the mid-20th century. It is very similar to the language heard in the southeast of Ireland centuries ago, due to mass emigration from countiesTipperary,Waterford,Wexford,Kerry andCork.
Saint John, New Brunswick, claims the distinction of being Canada's most Irish city, according to census records. There have been Irish settlers inNew Brunswick since at least the late 18th century, but during the peak of theGreat Irish Famine (1845–1847), thousands of Irish emigrated through Partridge Island in the port of Saint John. Most of these Irish were Roman Catholic, who changed the complexion of the Loyalist city. A large, vibrant Irish community can also be found in theMiramichi region ofNew Brunswick.
Guysborough County, Nova Scotia has many rural Irish villages. Erinville (which means Irishville), Salmon River, Ogden, Bantry (named afterBantry Bay,County Cork, Ireland but now abandoned and grown up in trees) among others, where Irish last names are prevalent and the accent is reminiscent of theIrish as well as the music, traditions, religion (Roman Catholic), and the love of Ireland itself. Some of the Irish counties from which these people arrived wereCounty Kerry (Dingle Peninsula),County Cork, andCounty Roscommon, along with others.
Quebec is also home to a large Irish community, especially inMontreal, where the Irishshamrock is featured on themunicipal flag. Notably, thousands of Irish emigrants during the Famine passed throughGrosse Isle near Québec City, where many succumbed totyphus. Most of the Irish who settled near Québec City are now French speakers.
Irish Catholic settlers also opened up new agricultural areas in the recently surveyedEastern Townships, theOttawa Valley, andGatineau andPontiac counties. Irish from Quebec would also settle in communities such as Frampton, Saint Sylvestre, and Saint Patrick in the Beauce region of southeastern Quebec.[65]
Ontario has over 2 million people of Irish descent, who in greater numbers arrived in the 1820s and the decades that followed to work on colonial infrastructure and to settle land tracts in Upper Canada, the result today is a countryside speckled with the place names of Ireland. Ontario received a large number of those who landed in Quebec during the Famine years, many thousands died in Ontario's ports. Irish-born became the majority inToronto by 1851.
From the 1620s, many of the Irish Roman Catholic merchant class in this period migrated voluntarily to the West Indies to avail of the business opportunities there occasioned by the trade in sugar, tobacco and cotton. They were followed by landless Irish indentured labourers, who were recruited to serve a landowner for a specified time before receiving freedom and land. The descendants of some Irish immigrants are known today in the West Indies asredlegs. Most descendants of these Irishmen moved off the islands asAfrican slavery was implemented and blacks began to replace whites. Many Barbadian-born Irishmen helped establish theCarolina colony in the United States.[66][67]
Afterthe Cromwellian conquest of Ireland Irish prisoners were forcibly transferred to English colonies in the Americas and sold intoindentured servitude, a practice that came to be known as beingBarbadosed,[68][69] though Barbados was not the only colony to receive Irish prisoners, with those sent toMontserrat being the best known.[70] To this day, Montserrat is the only country or territory in the world, apart from the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and the Canadian province ofNewfoundland to observe a public holiday onSt Patrick's Day.[71] The population is predominantly of mixed Irish and African descent.[72][73]
Irish immigrants played an instrumental role in Puerto Rico's economy. One of the most important industries of the island was the sugar industry. Among the successful businessmen in this industry were Miguel Conway, who owned a plantation in the town ofHatillo and Juan Nagle whose plantation was located inRío Piedras. GeneralAlexander O'Reilly, "Father of the Puerto Rican Militia", named Tomas O'Daly chief engineer of modernising the defences of San Juan, this included the fortress ofSan Cristóbal.[74] Tomas O'Daly and Miguel Kirwan were partners in the "Hacienda San Patricio", which they named after thepatron saint of Ireland,Saint Patrick. A relative of O'Daly,Demetrio O'Daly, succeeded CaptainRamon Power y Giralt as the island's delegate to the Spanish Courts. The plantation no longer exists; however, the land in which the plantation was located is now a San Patricio suburb with a shopping mall by the same name. The Quinlan family established two plantations, one in the town ofToa Baja and the other inLoíza.[75] Puerto Ricans of Irish descent were also instrumental in the development of the island's tobacco industry. Among them Miguel Conboy who was a founder of the tobacco trade in Puerto Rico.[74]
Other notable places in the Caribbean include:
The presence and impact of the Irish in Colombia dates back to the time of Spanish rule, when in different historical periods they migrated to theIberian Peninsula and from there to the American continent, enlisted in the colonization, trade, army and administration companies. One episode in which this group had a special impact was the colonization of the Darien (Gulf of Urabá) in 1788. In this place 64 families and 50 single individuals fromNorth America were established, to which were added families from the interior. Of these families, 28 were of Irish origin, which shows their numerical importance and valuation as an emerging social group within the Hispanic world.[78]
There is no doubt that the greatest concentration and contributions to the country occurred during the emancipation campaigns. It is enough to look at the list drawn up by researcher Matthew Brown to understand their importance and impact, for out of some 6,808 Europeans, the Irish represented 48%; we are talking about more than 3,000 Irish who fought to give freedom to Colombia. These would have come enlisted in the Irish Legion, where they were famous officers like: Casey, Devereux, Egan, Ferguson, Foley, Lanagan, Rooke, Larkin, McCarthy, Murphy, O'Leary, O'Connell, O'Connor and Sanders.[78]
Once the wars of Independence were over, a good portion of them would have remained to form part of the Colombian army. Others, on the other hand, would have abandoned military life to integrate into society as businessmen, merchants, musicians, doctors, poets, miners and settlers. The economic sector in which the Irish participated the most was mining: they formed small mining colonies in the north and south ofAntioquia. In the middle of the century, the English miner Tyrell Moore, presented to the Sovereign State of Antioquia a project to colonize with 200 Irish families in thenorth andlower Cauca, an intention that apparently met with local disapproval and added to other logistical problems made its materialization impossible. But the largest mining colony was established in the south (currentlyCaldas department), in towns such asMarmato andSupía. Among the hundreds of British, French, German and Swedish miners who moved there were some Irishmen such as Eduardo MacAllister, Joseph Raphson, Nicolas Fitzgerald, Juan O'Byrne, David Davis and the Nicholls.[78]
In addition, this immigration has been highlighted in dozens of literary and academic works, the most important of which are: Irish Blood inAntioquia (Sangre irlandesa en Antioquia), by Aquiles Echeverri, Irish descendant; The Mysters of the Mines (Los místeres de las minas), by Alvaro Gartner and The Sanctuary: Global History of a Battle (El Santuario: Historia global de una batalla), by Matthew Brown. For all of the above, it is evident that Irish immigration has not been alien to us and its presence, traces and impact also constitute an important part of our past and historical and cultural heritage.[78]
Many of theWild Geese, expatriate Irish soldiers who had gone to Spain, or their descendants, continued on to its colonies in South America. Many of them rose to prominent positions in the Spanish governments there. In the 1820s, some of them helped liberate the continent.Bernardo O'Higgins was the firstSupreme director ofChile. When Chilean troops occupiedLima during the War of the Pacific in 1881, they put in charge certainPatricio Lynch, whose grandfather came from Ireland to Argentina and then moved to Chile. Other Latin American countries that have Irish settlement includePuerto Rico andColombia.
TheCounty Wexford bornWilliam Lamport, better known to most Mexicans as Guillén de Lampart, was a precursor of the Independence movement and author of the first proclamation of independence in the New World. His statue stands today inside the column of the Angel of Independence inMexico City, Mexico.[79]Juan de O'Donojú y O'Ryan, of Irish descent, was the last Viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), died and is buried in Mexico City.
Among the most famous Irishmen in Mexican history are "Los Patricios" ofSaint Patrick's Battalion. Many communities existed inMexican Texas until therevolution there, when they sided with Roman Catholic Mexico against Protestant pro-US elements. TheBatallón de San Patricio, a battalion of US troops who deserted and fought alongside theMexican Army against the United States in theMexican–American War of 1846–1848, is well known inMexican history.[80] The most well known of these wasMajor John Riley.
Mexico also has a large number of people of Irish ancestry, among them the actorAnthony Quinn. There are monuments in Mexico City paying tribute to those Irish who fought for Mexico in the 19th century. There is a monument to Los Patricios in the fort of Churubusco. During theGreat Famine, thousands of Irish immigrants entered the country. Other notable Mexicans of Irish descent areRomulo O'Farril,Juan O'Gorman, andEdmundo O'Gorman.[81][82][83]
The first Irish came to modern day America during the 1600s mostly to Virginia and mostly indentured servants.The diaspora to the United States was immortalised in the words of many songs including the Irishballad, "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 the north of Ireland (Ulster).[84] 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.[85]
Those who were successful in coming over from Ireland were for the most part already good farmers and other hard labour workers, so the jobs they were taking were plentiful in the beginning. However, as time went on and the land needed less cultivation, the jobs the new Irish immigrants were taking were those that Americans wanted as well.[86] In most cases, Irish newcomers were sometimes uneducated and often found themselves competing with Americans for manual labour jobs or, in the 1860s, being recruited from the docks by the US Army to serve in theAmerican Civil War and afterward to build the Union Pacific Railroad.[87] This view of the Irish-American experience is depicted by another traditional song, "Paddy's Lamentation."
Hear me boys, now take my advice,
To America I'll have ye's not be going,
There is nothing here but war, where the murderin' cannons roar,
And I wish I was at home in dear old Ireland.
The classic image of an Irish immigrant is led to a certain extent by racist and anti-Catholic stereotypes. In modern times, in the United States, the Irish are largely perceived as hard workers. Most notably they are associated with the positions of police officer,firefighter,Roman Catholic Church leaders and politicians in the largerEastern Seaboard metropolitan areas. Irish Americans number over 35 million, making them the second largest reported ethnic group in the country, afterGerman Americans. Historically, large Irish American communities have been found inPhiladelphia; Chicago;Boston; New York City;New York; Detroit;New England;Washington, D.C.;Baltimore;Pittsburgh;Cleveland;St. Paul, Minnesota;Buffalo;Broome County;Butte;Dubuque;Quincy;Dublin;Hartford;New Haven;Waterbury;Providence;Kansas City;New Orleans;Savannah;Braintree;Weymouth;Norfolk;Nashville;Scranton;Wilkes-Barre;O'Fallon;Tampa;Hazleton;Worcester;Lowell;Los Angeles; and theSan Francisco Bay Area. Many cities across the country have annual St Patrick's Day parades;The nation's largest is in New York City—one of the world's largest parades. The parade in Boston is closely associated withEvacuation Day, when the British left Boston in 1776 during theAmerican War of Independence.
Before theGreat Hunger, in which over a million died and more emigrated,[88] there had been thePenal Laws which had already resulted in significant emigration from Ireland.[89]
According to theHarvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups, in 1790 there were 400,000 Americans of Irish birth or ancestry out of a total white population of 3,100,000. Half of these Irish Americans were descended from Ulster people, and half were descended from the people ofConnacht,Leinster andMunster.
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. SomeAfrican Americans are part of the Irish diaspora, as they are descended from Irish orScots-Irish slave owners and overseers who arrived in America during the colonial era.[90][91] 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.[92]
The enduring nature ofIrish-American identity is exemplified bythe widespread celebration ofSt.Patrick's Day, the national day of Ireland, across the United States. The traditional St. Patrick's Day parade having developed, in its modern form, in the United States itself.[93] The largest such parade in the world is theNew York City St. Patrick's Day Parade which features in the region of 150,000 participants and 2,000,000 spectators annually, with thousands of parades of all sizes across the United States.[94]
Irishmen have been known in India right from the days of theEast India Company, which was founded in 1600. While most of the early Irish came as traders, some also came as soldiers. However, the majority of these traders and soldiers were from theProtestant Ascendancy. Prominent among them were the generalsArthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769–1852) who becamePrime Minister of the United Kingdom in 1834 and his brotherRichard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley (1760–1842), who wasGovernor-General of India (1798–1805). Later in the Victorian period, many thinkers, philosophers and Irish nationalists from the Roman Catholic majority too made it to India, prominent among the nationalists being the theosophistAnnie Besant.
It is widely believed that there existed a secret alliance between the Irish and Indian independence movements.[citation needed] Some Indian intellectuals likeJawaharlal Nehru andV. V. Giri were certainly inspired by Irish nationalists when they studied in theUnited Kingdom. The Indian revolutionary group known as theBengal Volunteers took this name in emulation of theIrish Volunteers.[citation needed]
2,087,800 Australians, 10.4% of the population, self-reported some Irish ancestry in the 2011 census, second only to English and Australian.[95]The Australian government estimates the total figure may be around 7 million (30%).[96]
In the 2006 census 50,255 Australian residents declared they were born in theRepublic of Ireland and a further 21,291 declared to have been born inNorthern Ireland.[97] This gives Australia the third largest Irish-born population outside Ireland (after Britain and America).[96]
Between the 1790s and 1920s, approximately 400,000 Irish settlers – both voluntary and forced – are thought to have arrived in Australia.[98] They first came over in large numbers asconvicts, with around 50,000 transported between 1791 and 1867.[99][100] Even larger numbers offree settlers came during the 19th century due to famine, theDonegal Relief Fund, thediscovery of gold inVictoria andNew South Wales, and the increasing "pull" of a pre-existing Irish community.[101] By 1871, Irish immigrants accounted for one quarter of Australia's overseas-born population.[102]
Irish Catholic immigrants – who made up about 75% of the total Irish population[98] – were largely responsible for the establishment of a separateCatholic school system.[103][104] About 20% of Australian children attend Catholic schools as of 2017.[105]
It has also been argued that the Irish language was the source of a significant number of words inAustralian English.[106][107]
| This sectiondoes notcite anysources. Please helpimprove this section byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged andremoved.(January 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Though they've never formed a substantial population, some Irish communities can be found inCape Town,Port Elizabeth,Kimberley, andJohannesburg, with smaller communities inPretoria,Barberton,Durban, andEast London. A third of the Cape's governors were Irish, as were many of the judges and politicians. Both the Cape Colony and theColony of Natal had Irish prime ministers: SirThomas Upington, "TheAfrikaner fromCork"; andSir Albert Hime, fromKilcoole inCounty Wicklow. Irish Cape Governors includedLord Macartney,Lord Caledon andSir John Francis Cradock.Henry Nourse, a shipowner at the Cape, brought out a small party of Irish settlers in 1818. Many Irish were with the 1820 British settlers in the Eastern Cape frontier with the Xhosa. In 1823, John Ingram brought out 146 Irish from Cork. Single Irish women were sent to the Cape on a few occasions. Twenty arrived in November 1849 and 46 arrived in March 1851. The majority arrived in November 1857 aboardLady Kennaway. A large contingent of Irish troops fought in theAnglo-Boer War on both sides and a few of them stayed in South Africa after the war. Others returned home but later came out to settle in South Africa with their families. Between 1902 and 1905, there were about 5,000 Irish immigrants. Places in South Africa named after Irish people includeUpington,Porterville,Caledon,Cradock,Sir Lowry's Pass, the Biggarsberg Mountains,Donnybrook,Himeville andBelfast.[citation needed]
James Rorke was of Irish parentage and was the founder of Rorkes's drift.[citation needed]
The diaspora population of Ireland also got a fresh start on the islands ofNew Zealand during the 19th century. The possibility 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, many Irish also came with the British army during the New Zealand wars. Several places, includingGabriel's Gully andOtago, were 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 forchain migration for the rest of the family left behind.[108][better source needed]
The transition to New Zealand was made easier due to the overexposure that the Irish had previously had with colonialism. They ventured upwards to the British ports, settling temporarily to accumulate the necessary finances before moving onwards towards the banks of the far away island. In doing so, they not only exposed themselves to the form of British form of government but likewise to capitalism. This aided to further the simplicity of the transition for the dispersed population.[109][110][full citation needed]
The government aided through the use of both promissory notes and land grants. By promising to pay for the passage of a family the government ensured that the island would be populated and a British colony would be formed. Free passage was installed for women first between the ages of 15 and 35, while males between the ages of 18 and 40 years of age would be promised a certain number of acres of land upon arrival in the New World. This was attributed to the installment of the New Zealand Land act. To further aid with the financial burden, free passage to any immigrant was granted after 1874.[111]
The Irish diaspora population in New Zealand also resulted in a diminished amount of prejudice againstRoman Catholicism compared to that in other British colonies. The lack of embedded hierarchy and social structure allowed for previous sectarian tensions to be dissolved. This can also be attributed to the sheer amount of distance between the respective religions due to the sparseness of the unpopulated area and the sheer size of the islands.[112]
| Country | Population | % of country | Criterion |
|---|---|---|---|
| Irish American | 33,348,049 | 11% | Self-identified "Irish" |
| Irish Canadian | 4,544,870 | 14% | |
| Irish Mexican | 10,000 | 0.1% | |
| Irish Argentine | 1,000,000 | 3% | |
| Irish Chilean | 120,000 | 0.7% | |
| Irish Uruguayan | 120,000 | 4% | |
| Irish British | 14,000,000 | 10% | 869,093 Irish-born[123] |
| Northern Irish | 828,220 | 45% | |
| Irish-Scots | 1,500,000 | 28% | |
| Irish Australian | 7,000,000 | 30% | 7,000,000 (30% of the Australian population of partial Irish ancestry)[126][127] |
| Irish people | 4,577,072 | 85% |
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.[131]
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.[citation needed]
In the United States specifically, Irish immigrants were persecuted because of their religion. The Know Nothing Movement sprung up during the time of the Irish's arrival.[132] The Know Nothing Party was formed by Protestants and was the first political party in American history to push against Catholic immigration to the United States, particularly targeting Irish and German immigrants. The Know Nothings fought to limit immigration from traditional Catholic countries, prohibit non-English language speaking on US territory, and create a policy where you must spend 21 years in the US before gaining citizenship.[132] The party faded out of existence relatively quickly, but they are a reminder of the persecution Irish immigrants faced. During the third and fourth waves of immigration, new arrivals faced similar discrimination and the now settled Irish would take part in this persecution of other groups.
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 inneopagan contexts.[133][134]
This listing is for politicians ofIrish 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 thegovernment of Ireland, is defined in legal terms: the Irish diaspora are those of Irish nationality, mostly but not exclusively Roman Catholic, residing outside 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 alsoIrish military diaspora. (See alsoNotable Americans of Scotch-Irish descent).
.jpg)
_-_Alte_Pinakothek_-_Munich_-_Germany_2017_(crop).jpg)
.jpg)
Os a choinne sin, tig le daoine áirithe a rá gur de shliocht Éireannach iad ach nach daoine d'aon Diaspóra iad. Orthu sin tá údar an phíosa seo. Astrálach é nócitoyen du monde. Gaeilge aige agus Béarla, agus teanga nó dhó eile. Agus níl sa Ghaeilge atá aige ach teanga de chuid a thíre féin
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)| Africa | |
|---|---|
| Americas | |
| Asia | |
| Europe | |
| Oceania | |
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
