Irish diaspora

The Irish diaspora consists of Irish emigrants and their descendants in countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, South Africa and nations of the Caribbean. The diaspora contains over 80 million people.

There are also large Irish communities in every EU member state as well as Japan, Argentina and Brazil. The classic image of an Irish immigrant is led occasionally by racist and anti-Catholic stereotypes. In the US, the Irish are perceived as hard workers. Most notably they are associated with the position of policeman, Catholic Church leaders and politicians in the larger Eastern-Seaboard metropolitan areas. Irish Americans number over 44 million. They are the second largest ethnic group in America, after the Germans. The largest Irish American cities by population would be New York, Chicago and Boston. California has the largest number of Irish Americans. In terms of proportion of the surrounding population as opposed to raw numbers, Boston is the most "Irish" city in the U.S.

In the United Kingdom the Irish are viewed by some with derision, due in part to the late twentieth century IRA bombing campaign there; a perception exists that the Irish are involved in the building trade, probably because of the influx of navvies to build the canal, road and rail networks in the 19th century. The Irish are the largest immigrant group in Britain. There are close to 1 million Irish born immigrants in the United Kingdom. Some estimates have put the Irish diaspora figure in the United Kingdom at about 20 percent of the population or about 12 million. This could be possible due to the massive flows of immigrants from Ireland during the Great Famine of the 1840's. Immigration continued for the next century, when the numbers of immigrants during the 1950's and 1960's began to resemble those figures from the Great Famine. The 1980's brought massives numbers of Irish immigrants to the UK. A majority ended up settling in the Greater London area. London had its first official St. Patrick's Day celebration, as the Mayor of London wanted to pay gratitude to the enormous contribution of the Irish over the years to the city of London. In years to come, it is hoped it can rival that of New York's St. Patrick's Day Parade, which is watched by over 2 million spectators.

Over the centuries, political oppression, joblessness, and hunger in a sometimes harsh land have forced the sons and daughters of Irish parents to leave to other shores, particularly the shores of America (commonly referred to as "Amerikay") where a livelihood was (it was hoped) easier.

This experience was immortalized 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 America.

Contents

1 See also - Biography 1.1 Politicians 1.2 Artists and Musicians 1.3 Scientists 2 See also - Irish Brigade 3 See also - Causes of Irish emigration 4 See also - General 5 External links

See also - Biography

Politicians

• Patrice MacMahon, duc de Magenta, first President of the Third French Republic.
• Bernardo O'Higgins, first President of Chile.
• Chaim Herzog, 6th President of Israel.
• John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States, and member of the Kennedy Family.
• Ronald Reagan, 40th President of the United States.
• Álvaro Obregón, President of Mexico 1920-24.

Obregón's grandfather is said to have been an Irish railroad worker named O'Brian. Mexico's Obregón city and airport are named in honour of the president.

• Che Guevara

Guevara's father, Ernesto Guevara Lynch, said of him: "The first thing to note is that in my son's veins flowed the blood of the Irish rebels". On March 13th 1965, the Irish Times journalist Arthur Quinlan interviewed Che at Shannon Airport during a stopover flight from Prague to Cuba. Guevara talked of his Irish connections through the name Lynch and of his Grandmothers Irish roots in Galway. Later, Che, and some of his Cuban comrades, went to Limerick City and adjourned to the Hanratty's Hotel on Glentworth Street. According to Quinlan, they returned that evening all wearing sprigs of Shamrock, for Shannon and Limerick were preparing for the St. Patrick's Day celebrations.

• Congressman John Martin
• James Duane, Mayor of New York City 1784, son of a Galway man.
• Cardinal James Gibbons
• Owney Madden
• Count Joseph Cornelius O’Rourke, Lieutenant General of the Russian Imperial Guard.
• James Callaghan was Labour Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1976 to 1979.
• Vicente Fox, his paternal grandfather is of Irish descent but born in Ohio.
• Richard J. Daley
• Richard M. Daley

Artists and Musicians

• Paul McCartney, John Lennon and George Harrison of the Beatles.
• Liam Gallagher and Noel Gallagher of Oasis.
• Johnny Rotten Lead singer of the Sex pistols.
• Juan O'Gorman, a 20th Century Mexican artist, both a painter and an architect.
• Keith Richards, Lead Guitarist for the Rolling Stones.

Scientists

• Ernest Walton, Cambridge-based co-winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics, 1951.
• Kathleen Lonsdale, London-based 20th century Chemist.

See also - Irish Brigade

• Irish Brigade (French) formed from the Irish army after the flight of the Wild Geese in 1691.
• The Irish Battalion, or Los San Patricio, who fought on the side of Mexico against the US invasion of 1846-48.
• Irish Brigade (US) served on the Union side in the American Civil War in the 1860s.
• Tyneside Irish Brigade, WWI brigade serving on the British side at the Somme.

See also - Causes of Irish emigration

• Great Irish Famine (1740-1741)
• Irish Potato Famine (1845-1849)
• Irish Famine (1879)
• Economic history of Ireland
• Economic history of the Republic of Ireland
• The Economic War, 1933-38.
• Ireland during WWII

See also - General

• Demographics of Ireland
• Irish Americans
• Irish Canadians
  • Irish Quebecers
  • Irish Newfoundlanders
  • Newfoundland Irish
• Irish community in Britain
• Irish Travellers
• List of Ireland-related topics
• Irish place names in other countries
• Irish immigration to Puerto Rico

External links

• The Irish in Argentina (http://netsoc.ucd.ie/~kobrien/Irish_in_Argentina.html)
• Irish Surnames in Argentina (http://shop.store.yahoo.com/4crests/irsurinar.html)
• Newfoundland: The Most Irish Place Outside of Ireland (http://www.irishdiaspora.net/vp01.cfm?outfit=ids&requesttimeout=500&folder=158&paper=159)