Irish diaspora

Countries with a significant population of Irish nationals and eligible descendants.
  Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland
  + 1,000,000
  + 100,000
  + 10,000
  + 1,000
'Emigrants Leave Ireland', engraving by Henry Doyle (1827–1892), from Mary Frances Cusack's Illustrated History of Ireland, 1868

The Irish diaspora (Irish: Diaspóra na nGael) refers to ethnic Irish people and their descendants who live outside the island of Ireland.

The phenomenon of migration from Ireland is recorded since the Early 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 the population of Ireland itself, which at its historical peak was 8.5 million on the eve of the Great Famine. 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.[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 spoke Irish 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 after World War I. Seán Fleming is the Republic of Ireland's Minister of State for the Diaspora and Overseas Aid, a post which was established in 2014.[6]

  1. ^ Flechner, Roy; Meeder, Sven (2017). The Irish in Early Medieval Europe: Identity, Culture and Religion. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 231–41. ISBN 9781137430618.
  2. ^ J. Matthew Gallman, Receiving Erin's Children: Philadelphia, Liverpool, and the Irish Famine Migration, 1845–1855 (2000)
  3. ^ David Fitzpatrick, "Emigration, 1801–70", in A New History of Ireland, vol. V: Ireland under the Union, I, 1801–70, ed. W. E. Vaughan (Oxford, 1989), 569; David Fitzpatrick, "Emigration, 1871–1921", in A New History of Ireland, vol. VI: Ireland under the Union, II, 1870–1921, ed. W. E. Vaughan (Oxford, 1996), 607
  4. ^ "U.S. Census". U.S. Census Bureau. Archived from the original on 11 February 2020. Retrieved 13 April 2008.
  5. ^ The cultural and linguistic contexts are discussed in: Ó hAnnracháin, Stiofán (ed.), 1979. Go Meiriceá Siar. An Clóchomhar Tta, Baile Átha Cliath; Ihde, Thomas W. (ed.), 1994. The Irish Language in the United States: a historical, sociolinguistic and applied linguistic survey. Bergin & Garvey. ISBN 0-89789-331-X; Noone, Val, 2012. Hidden Ireland in Victoria. Ballarat Historical Services. ISBN 978-1-876478-83-4
  6. ^ McWilliams, Ellen; Murray, Tony (14 December 2017). "Irishness and the culture of the Irish abroad". Irish Studies Review. 26 (1): 1–4. doi:10.1080/09670882.2017.1404687. hdl:10871/30181. ISSN 0967-0882.