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| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 3,900,000 Irish trips to Continental Europe in 2006. 4% of or 2.8 million Irish people live in Continental Europe (CSO).[full citation needed] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Austria,Belgium,Czech Republic,France,Germany,Hungary,Italy,Latvia,Lithuania,Netherlands,Poland,Slovakia | |
| Languages | |
| English,Irish | |
| Religion | |
| Christian (Roman Catholicism,Protestantism) | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Irish people,Overseas Irish |
Irish people in mainland Europe are members of theIrish diaspora that reside inContinental Europe. Most of them live inFrance,Germany andSpain, with smaller numbers inBelgium, theNetherlands,Italy,Latvia,Lithuania,Poland, and historicallyGreater Russia.
Irish presence inCentral Europe dates back to theMiddle Ages, when Irish monks established several monasteries, including theSchottenstift inVienna in 1155.[1]
TheO'Rourke family of Irish origin had a branch in Poland, the most famous member of which wasEdward O'Rourke,Catholic Bishop of Gdańsk. The seats of the Polish line of the family wereWsielub andBasin.[2][3]
There were 1,830 and 257 Irish people inPoland andSlovakia, respectively, according to the 2011 Polish census and 2021 Slovak census.[4][5]
Thirty thousand Irish live in France; this number includes more than 15,000 in Paris.[6]
Irish presence in Germany dates back to theMiddle Ages; by the turn of the 13th century, IrishBenedictines established monasteries inRegensburg,Würzburg,Constance,Erfurt andNuremberg, and severalpriories.[7]
Over 2,800 people moved to Germany from Ireland in 2012, including almost 800 German citizens.[8] As of 2021, about 35,000 Irish live in Germany.[9] Together with Germans interested in Irish culture, some of these emigrants organise Irish cultural events across the country.
InBelgium,St Anthony's College, Leuven was an important centre of early modern migration, hosting priests and theological students from the 1600s until the early 1980s. The college's students helped preserve national traditions and theIrish language during thepenal laws period. Sean O’ Dubhghaill suggests a population of around 11,000 Irish nationals in 2019, though advertising forThe Gathering Ireland 2013 claimed a much higher number of around 400,000 people with either Irish nationality or heritage.[10] Belgium's national statistics officeStatbel distinguishes between Belgians, neighbouring nationalities (France, Netherlands, Luxembourg and Germany), EU and non-EU nationals, but does not disclose exact figures for individual nationalities.
There were 10,241 Irish people registered as living in the Netherlands at the beginning of 2023.[11] The leader of the Dutchagrarian partyFarmer-Citizen Movement,Caroline van der Plas, is of maternal Irish descent.
According toStatec, approximately 2,400 Irish nationals reside in Luxembourg as of January 2024.[12]
Historically, bothLatvia and Ireland had been under the rule of theVikings. Their populations also share similar cultural and genetic ties.[13] In recent centuries, particularly during theGreat Famine andIngrian War, some Irish families resettled on Latvian land; the Irish diaspora in Latvia numbered around 800 as of 2015.[14][needs update]
Lithuania is home to about 1,000 ethnic Irish.[14]
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{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)| Africa | |
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| Americas | |
| Asia | |
| Europe | |
| Oceania | |
