User:Grimhelm/Irish people
Ethnic group, native to the island of Ireland, with shared history and culture / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Irish (Irish: Muintir na hÉireann or Na hÉireannaigh) are a nation and ethnic group native to the island of Ireland, who share a common Irish ancestry, identity and culture. Ireland has been inhabited for about 12,500 years. For most of Ireland's recorded history, the Irish have been primarily a Gaelic people. From the 9th century, small numbers of Vikings settled in Ireland, becoming the Norse-Gaels. Anglo-Normans conquered and settled parts of Ireland in the 12th century, while England's more extensive conquest and colonisation of Ireland in the 16th and 17th centuries brought many English and Lowland Scots people to parts of the island, especially the north. Today, Ireland is made up of the Republic of Ireland (an independent state) and the smaller Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kingdom). The people of Northern Ireland hold various national identities including British, Irish, Northern Irish or some combination thereof.
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Total population | |
---|---|
c. 70–80 million worldwide[1] | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Northern Ireland 1,810,863 (2011)[3] | |
United States | 40,000,000+[4] |
United Kingdom* | 14,000,000[5] |
Australia | 7,000,000[6] |
Canada | 4,544,870[7] |
Argentina | 1,000,000[8] |
Mexico | 600,000[9] |
New Zealand | 600,000[10] |
France | 15,000[11] |
Languages | |
Irish, 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, Gaels, Anglo-Irish, Bretons, Cornish, English, Icelanders,[12] 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.[13] |
The Irish have their own customs, language, music, dance, sports, cuisine and mythology. Although the Irish language (Gaeilge) has historically been the main language of the Irish people in the past, today most Irish people speak English as their first language. Historically, the Irish nation was made up of kin groups or clans, and the Irish also had their own religion, legal tradition, alphabet, script and style of dress.
There have been many notable Irish people throughout history. After the introduction of Christianity to Ireland, Irish missionaries and scholars exerted great influence on Western Europe, and the Irish came to be seen as a nation of "saints and scholars". These have included individuals considered the fathers of Europe (Columbanus of Luxeuil),[14] chemistry (Robert Boyle), seismology (Robert Mallet), scholastic philosophy (John Scotus Eriugena),[15] economics (Richard Cantillon), and human rights investigations (Roger Casement),[16] as well as eleven Nobel Prize Laureates. Famous Irish writers include Oscar Wilde, W. B. Yeats, Samuel Beckett, George Bernard Shaw, Bram Stoker, James Joyce, C.S. Lewis, Flann O'Brien and Seamus Heaney, while noted Irish philosophers include Peter of Ireland, William Molyneux, George Berkeley and Edmund Burke. Celebrated Irish explorers include Brendan the Navigator, James of Ireland, Sir Robert McClure, Sir Ernest Shackleton and Tom Crean. Notable Irish women include pirate-queen Grace O'Malley, suffragists and revolutionaries Constance Markievicz, Kathleen Clarke and Maud Gonne, writers Peig Sayers and Lady Augusta Gregory, Nobel Laureates Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Olympians Sonia O'Sullivan, Michelle Smith and Katie Taylor, and former presidents Mary Robinson and Mary McAleese.
The population of Ireland is about 6.3 million, but it is estimated that 50 to 80 million people around the world have Irish ancestry, making the Irish diaspora one of the largest of any nation. Historically, emigration from Ireland has been chiefly the result of conflict, famine and economic pressures. People of Irish descent are found mainly in English-speaking countries, especially Great Britain, the United States, Canada and Australia. There are also significant numbers in Argentina, Mexico and New Zealand. The United States has the most people of Irish descent (including more than half of its presidents), while in Australia those of Irish descent represent a higher percentage of the population than in any other country outside Ireland.[17] By some accounts, the first European child born in North America had Irish ancestry on both sides.[18] The Irish people have also held important and longstanding historical and cultural ties with the Celtic and Nordic nations, especially with the peoples of Scotland and Iceland, and many Icelanders in particular have Irish and Scottish Gaelic forebears.[19]