Irish people

The Irish are an ethnic group who come from or came from the island of Ireland. There are two countries on the island of Ireland: the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Historically, the Irish have been primarily a Celtic people. Many countries, especially English-speaking countries, have people with Irish roots.

Irish people
Muintir na hÉireann

Total population
c. 70–80 million worldwide
Regions with significant populations
Republic of Ireland   4,581,269 (2011) Northern Ireland   1,810,863 (2011) (Irish descent only)
United States	40,000,000+
United Kingdom*	14,000,000
Australia	7,000,000
Canada	4,544,870
Argentina	1,000,000
Mexico	600,000
New Zealand	600,000
France	15,000
Languages
Irish (Gaelic), English (Hiberno-English dialects), Scots (Ulster Scots dialects), Shelta
Religion
Mainly Christianity (majority Roman Catholicism; minority Protestantism, especially Presbyterianism, Anglicanism, Methodism) see also: Religion in Ireland
Related ethnic groups
Irish Travellers, Anglo-Irish, Bretons, Cornish, English, Icelanders, Manx, Norse, Scots, Ulster Scots, Welsh
* Around 800,000 people born in Ireland reside in Great Britain, with around 14,000,000 people claiming Irish ancestry.

In Northern Ireland, there have been violent fights between the Unionists, who identify as British people and are mainly Protestant, and the Nationalists, who identify as Irish and are mainly Catholic. Irish people have a strong culture and beliefs.

Due to problems in Ireland, most importantly a famine between 1845 and 1852, caused by the potatoes in Ireland being destroyed by disease, many Irish moved out of Ireland, including Great Britain, and to other countries like the United States, Canada, and Australia. At present, many more Irish live in the United States than in Ireland, with many of them living in large American cities such as Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago. The population of Irish people in the United States is over seven times more populated than that of those who live in the original homeland of Ireland.

Irish People Media

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  Map of the Irish people around the world. (The map might include people with Irish ancestry or citizenship)*  Ireland and Northern Ireland*

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  Carrowmore tomb, c. 3000 BC

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  Finnian of Clonard imparting his blessing to the "Twelve Apostles of Ireland"

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  The approximate area of the Dál Riata (shaded)

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  Irish Gaels in a painting from the 16th century

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  A 16th century perception of Irish women and girls, illustrated in the manuscript "Théâtre de tous les peuples et nations de la terre avec leurs habits et ornemens divers, tant anciens que modernes, diligemment depeints au naturel". Painted by Lucas d'Heere in the 2nd half of the 16th century. Preserved in the Ghent University Library.

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  Gaelic Irish soldiers in the Low Countries, from a drawing of 1521 by Albrecht Dürer

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  Robert Boyle, Anglo-Irish scientist and father of chemistry, whose father Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork had settled in Ireland in the Munster plantations in 1580.

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  Jonathan Swift, one of the foremost prose satirists in the English language

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  Ireland's Holocaust mural on the Ballymurphy Road, Belfast. "An Gorta Mór, Britain's genocide by starvation, Ireland's holocaust 1845–1849, over 1,500,000 deaths".

Further reading

• Irish Immigrant who served in US Civil War
• Cork man survived the Titanic
• Irish Immigrant who served in World War I
• "The children of Irish migrants come home". Elizabeth Doherty. Irelandtoday. 23 December 2015. Archived from the original on 22 May 2022. Retrieved 28 March 2022.