Irish people

Encyclopedia : I : IR : IRI : Irish people

#endnote_repcensus]:
   5,081,726 Ireland-born
Great Britain^{[#endnote_ukcensus]}:
   750,000 Ireland-born
United States^{[#endnote_uscensus]}:

Irish Ancestry: 34,487,790
Scotch-Irish
Ancestry: 5,323,888

Canada^{[#endnote_cancensus]}:
   3,822,665
Australia^{[#endnote_auscensus]}:
   1,900,000
Argentina ^{[#endnote_buzzel.com]}:
   500,000
New Zealand^{[#endnote_nzcensus]}:
   73,047
Germany:
   10,000
**See Demographics of Germany |langs=Irish, English, Ulster Scots |rels=Roman Catholic, Protestant |related=Welsh, Manx, Bretons, Cornish, Scottish, English, Icelanders; Norwegians }}

The Irish are a northwest European ethnic group who originated in Ireland. People of Irish ethnicity outside of Ireland are common in many western, especially commonwealth and North American, countries.

Contents

Descent

During the past 9,000 years of inhabitation, Ireland has witnessed many different peoples arrive on its shores. Legendary early arrivals included the Nemedians, the Fomorians, the Firbolgs and the Tuatha Dé Danann, though with the exception of the Firbolgs, they are now treated as deities rather than actual human incursions.

The culture of the aboriginal Irish - though not the population - was transformed by the arrival of Celtic culture from continental Europe who arrived between 600 BC and 150 BC. Despite assertions to the contrary, only a small number of Celts ever settled in Ireland. Irish insular culture developed as a result of cultural exchange with Celtic groups on mainland Europe, the peoples of Britain and the native Irish.

The names the ancient peoples of Ireland (creators of the Ceide Fields and Newgrange) used for themselves are not known, nor are their language(s). As late as the middle centuries of the 1st millennium AD the inhabitants of Ireland did not appear to have a collective name for themselves. Ireland itself was known by a number of different names – Banba, Scotia, Fódla, Ériu by the islanders; Hibernia and Scotia to the Romans; Ierne to the Greeks.

Likewise, the terms for people from Ireland – all from Roman sources – in the late Roman era were varied. They included Attacotti, Scoti, and Gael. This last word, derived from the Welsh gwyddell (meaning raiders), was eventually adopted by the Irish for themselves. However as a term it is on a par with Viking, as it describes an activity (raiding, piracy) and its proponents, not their actual ethnic affiliations. The general term Pretani (or the prefix prit-) was sometimes applied to all the indigenous inhabitants of the British Isles by the Greeks. The equivalent Roman prefix for these celtic islands (which they called Britannias and Britanniae) was Brit-[link] (with similar pronunciation to prit-), and is the historical origin of the words Briton and British in Old English. Somewhat ironically, the word British is now more commonly associated with predominantly Anglo-Saxon Great Britain than with its Insular origins.

The term Irish and Ireland is derived from the Érainn, a people who once lived in what is now central and south Munster. Possibly their proximity to overseas trade with western Britain, Gaul and Hispania led to the name of this one people to be applied to the whole island and its inhabitants.

A variety of historical ethnic groups have inhabited the island, including the Airgialla, Fir Ol nEchmacht, Delbhna, Fir Bolg, Érainn, Eóganachta, Mairtine, Conmaicne, Soghain and Ulaid. However, as the earliest records demonstrate, people across the British Isles shared a similar language and culture.^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]} In most cases these divisions may have been more apparent than real. Doubtless in many cases the divisions were of a purely dynastic or political dynamic.^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}

The shared language and culture of these peoples is one that can be placed among the European peoples. Recent Y-chromosome (male descent) DNA studies have shown that a very large majority of Irish men have Y-chromosomes genetically similar to those of other Europeans^{[#endnote_yirish]}. These Y-chromosomes are putative European paleolithic Y-chromosomes, and occur all over Europe (about 80% of European men are now thought to have Y-chromosomes derived from the paleolithic inhabitants of Europe^{[#endnote_neo]}), however they occur in particularly high concentrations in men from Ireland, certain parts of Wales and the Basque Country^{[#endnote_ybritish]}, and occur at relatively low concentrations in eastern Europe^[7]. This may indicate that neolithic and subsequent migrations did not have a large biological impact on Western European people. Y-chromosome analysis also seems to indicate that the Vikings that settled in Dublin came from Norway rather than Denmark ^[9]. Mitochondrial DNA, or female descent shows part of their maternal ancestors to be of broad north European origin.

One legend states that the Irish were descended from Míl Espáine, a king from Spain. The character is almost certainly a mere personification of a supposed migration by a group or groups from Hispania to Ireland, but it is supported by the fact that the Celtiberian language is more closely related to Insular Celtic than to any other.

The Vikings were mainly Danes and Norwegians and despite their notorious reputation in Irish history, did not settle in particularly large numbers nor did they significantly alter the Irish polity. The arrival of the Normans brought Welsh, Flemish, Normans, Anglo-Saxons and Bretons, most of whom became assimilated into Irish culture and polity by the 15th century. The late medieval era saw Scottish gallowglass families of mixed Gaelic-Norse -Pict descent settle, mainly in the north; due to similarities of language and culture they too were assimilated. The Plantations of Ireland and in particular the Plantation of Ulster in the 17th century introduced great numbers of Scottish, English as well as French Huguenots as colonists. Despite these divergent backgrounds most of their descendants consider themselves Irish – even where they are aware of such ancestry – mainly due to their lengthy presence in Ireland.

Historically, religion, politics and ethnicity became intertwined in Ireland, with Protestants generally identifying as British and Irish and most Roman Catholics as exclusively Irish. This is far less true today, although connections between ethnicity and religion can still be observed - especially in Northern Ireland.

It is thought that the majority of the Irish population is descended from the initial settlers who arrived after the end of the last Ice Age.

For the global genetic make-up of the Irish and other peoples, see also: [link] and [link]

Surnames

See also: Irish name

It is common for some Irish surnames to be anglicised, meaning that they were changed to sound more English. This usually occurred with Irish immigrants arriving in the United States during the 19th century and the early 20th century.

It is also very common for people of Gaelic origin to have surnames beginning with " Ó" or "Mc" (less frequently "Mac" and occasionally shortened to just "Ma" at the beginning of the name). "O" was originally Ó which in turn came from Ua (originally hUa), which means "grandson", or "descendant" of a named person. For example, the descendants of High King of Ireland Brian Boru were known as the Ua Brian (O'Brien) clan. The prefix is often mistakingly written as O', using an English apostrophe instead of the Irish fada mark.

"Mac" means "son of"; many names also begin with this. There is no basis in fact for the claim that Mac is Scottish and Mc is Irish. Mc is simply an anglicisation of Mac, no more and no less. Some common surnames that begin with Ó are: Ó Reilly, Ó Neill, Ó Brien, Ó Connor, Ó Hickey, Ó Leary, Ó Shaughnessy, Ó Donnell, Ó Dowd, Ó Toole, Ó Meara, Ó Malley, Ó Hara, and Ó Bradaigh. Some names that begin with Mac are: MacDermott, MacCarthy, MacDonough, MacDonnell, MacQuillan, MacGuinness, MacLaughlin, MacGuire and MacCormack.

"Fitz" is an Irish version of the French word fils, used by the Normans, meaning son, which is the equivalent to the Scandinavian way to name a person. (It must be remembered that the Normans, although coming at that time from present day England, were actually Vikings settled in Normandy that had adopted French ways and language.)

A few names that begin with Fitz are: FitzGerald, FitzSimmons, FitzGibbons, Fitzpatrick and FitzHenry, most of whom descend from the inital Norman settlers. Exceptions occour in a small number of Irish families of Gaelic origin who came to use a Norman form of their original surname - witness Mac Giolla Phádraig becoming FitzPatrick - while some assimilated so well that the Gaelic name was dropped in favor of a new, Hiberno-Norman form. Cases in this catagory include Mac Gilla Mo-Cholomoc of Dublin becoming FitzDermot (after Dermot or Diarmaid Mac Gilla Mo-Cholomoc).

Other Norman families derived their name from places or people in Irland. This was the case of the family of Athy (see Tribes of Galway) who took their surname, de Athy, from the town of that name in Leinster. More common, however, was that the Normans became 'Hiberniores Hibernis ipsis' and in this process the Fitzmaurices became Mac Muiris, the Fitzsimons became Mac Síomóin and Mac an Ridire, Fitzgerald became Mac Gearailt, Bermingham became Mac Fheorais, Nangle became Mac Coisdeala, Staunton became Mac an Mhíleadha, and so forth.

In the late 12th century and 13th century Norman, Welsh, Flemish and Breton peoples arrived in Ireland at the request of Diarmait Mac Murchada, King of Leinster, and took over parts of the island. During the next three hundred years, they intermarried with ruling Irish clans, adopted Irish culture and the Irish language and as the English put it "became more Irish than the Irish themselves". Another common Irish surname of Norman Irish origin is the 'de' habitational prefix, meaning 'of the' and originally signifying prestige and land ownership. Many Irish surnames share this: [de Búrca] (Burke), de Brún, de Barra, de Stac, de Tiúit, [de Faoite], de Paor (Power), and so forth. It should be emphasised, especially with Gaelic surnames, there may be two or more unrelated families bearing the same or similar surnames. For example, there were at least nine separate Ó Ceallaigh septs, all unrelated. The Mac Lochlainn, Ó Mael Sechlainn, Ó Mael Sechnaill, Ó Conchobair Mac Loughlin and Mac Diarmata Mac Loughlin families, all distinct, are now all subsumed together as MacLoughlin. The full surname usually indicated which family was in question, something that has being diminished with the loss of prefixes such as Ó and Mac. In addition, in Classical Irish when a Mac surname was followed by a name which began with a vowel, the Mac became Mag. This explains why one will still see the older spelling of Mac Aonghusa (McGuinness) as Mag Aonghusa, Mac Uidhir (Maguire) as Mag Uidhir, and so forth. Furthermore, different branches of a family with the same surname sometimes used distinguishing epithets, which sometimes became surnames in their own right.

Similar surnames are often found in Scotland for many reasons, such as the use of a common language and mass Irish immigration to Scotland in the late 19th and early to mid-20th centuries. Also Scottish surnames are noticeable in some Catholics in Ireland due to intermarriage and pre-Reformation immigration.

Personal names (forenames)

Personal names in modern Ireland are derived from traditional Irish names, anglicised Irish names, British names and, more recently, popular American names.

The recent years have seen a major decline in most Irish names for babies being born in the Republic of Ireland. While in the past names such as Patrick, Séamas and others were almost ubiquitous in any family, today they are among the rarer names for children and the same goes for most other Irish names, although there are a few notable exceptions. Conor remains very popular, having topped the Most Popular new names for babies list many years running. The English name, Jack, has grown in popularity. Seán, derived from the Norman-French Jehan, remains one of the most popular Irish names. Male names from across the Atlantic Ocean have seen a surge in popularity from the mid 1990s, names such as Taylor being a good example of this. There are many other Anglicised Irish names which remain popular, such as Ryan, Neil and others remaining on the Names List. Biblical names also form a large composition, such as Matthew, Philip and Paul.

Aside from Seán other male names from the Norman-Irish tradition include Gearóid (Gerard), Piaras (Pearse), Éamonn and Liam and indeed the very use of the name Pádraig (Patrick) is a Norman tradition. Prior to the Normans the Gaeil, out of reverence to Saint Patrick, named their children Giolla Phádraig, the servant of Patrick. Piaras is an interesting example of how both Norman and English traditions collided. Piaras is from the Norman-French Piers which itself is derived from the Latin, Petrus. Piaras was a common name in late medieval and early modern Ireland. However, with the expansion of British rule the English name Peter, which shares the same latin root, began to replace it. Today, the Irish version (Peadar) of the English name (Peter), tends to be more common than the Irish version (Piaras) of the older Norman name (Piers). Thus, families with Norman surnames where Piaras has been a traditional name have broken the link to their historic tradition. An exception to this would be in the Gaeltachtaí where, for example, Piaras would still be very common, especially in the Munster Gaeltacht due to the legacy of Piaras Feiritéar, where Piaras remains a very common name in the Feiritéar family. The maintenance of such traditions in personal names outside the Gaeltachtaí would generally be a sign of more educated parents. In an analogous way to Piaras, Irish families of patrilineal Gaelic descent sometimes use the Irish version (Séarlas) of the English name, Charles, rather than the name with a much longer vintage in their families, Cathal. Where Cathal is used it is often wrongly termed "the Irish for Charles" in a similar way to which the ancient Irish personal name, Áine, is wrongly said to be an Irish version of the English word, Anne. Rather, both Cathal and Áine are two very ancient Irish names with no etymological link whatsoever to the above English names.

For females, the traditional Irish names are far more popular, although their spellings are not always uniform. Names such as Mary, Ann, and Eileen which were hugely common in the past have now declined, although there was always much more variety in female names than in male. Today Aoife, Aisling, Ciara, Sinéad, and Orla are more popular as traditional Irish names, while foreign names such as Ella, Emma, Lisa, Rachel and Isabelle have seen a rise in popularity. Some older names have maintained their popularity, such as Sarah, Kate, Catherine and Louise. Female names from the Norman-Irish tradition are widespread and among the most traditional of Irish personal names. In a similar way to the name Pádraig (Patrick), in the pre-Norman tradition Máire did not exist but rather Maol Muire, devotee of the virgin Mary, was the normal Irish usage. Other common Irish female names of Norman origin (with their anglicised form) are Caitríona (Catherine), Síle (Sheila), Caitlín (Kathleen), Cáit (Kate), Gearóidín (Geraldine), Sinéad (Jane, Janet etc) and Siobhán (Susan, June etc). English names such as Victoria, Elizabeth, and Rebecca, while never hugely popular have also seen a decline in popularity, while some Irish names such as Bridget, Una and Maureen have dropped off the list altogether.

There can be major differentiations between regions. A personal name can still often indicate where a person, more precisely a man, is from. This is accounted for chiefly in the sainthood cults which have been traditional throughout the island. For instance, Fionnbharr is more common in Cork, Finnian in Meath and Donegal, Fionán in Kerry, and so forth, where these particular saints are institutionalised in local tradition. Seaghan remains the Ulster Irish spelling of Seán, Páidí is more common in the Kerry Gaeltacht than elsewhere, and so forth. As in the Feiritéar family above, the first name can also often indicate a family tradition as well as place.

See List of Irish given names

Recent history

In Northern Ireland about 53.1% of the population are Protestant (21.1% Presbyterian, 15.5% Church of Ireland, 3.6% Methodist, 6.1% Other Christian) whilst a large minority are Roman Catholic at approximately 43.8%, as of 2001.

After Ireland became subdued by England in 1603 the English – under James I of England (reigned 1603 – 1625), Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell (term 1653 – 1658), William III of England (reigned 1689 – 1702) and their successors – began the settling of Protestant English, and later Scottish colonists into Ireland, where they settled most heavily in the northern province of Ulster. However, they did not intermarry heavily or integrate with the native Irish like the Normans did centuries earlier.

Tens of thousands of native Irish were displaced during the 17th century Plantations of Ireland from parts of Ulster, and were replaced by English and Scottish planters. Only in the major part of Ulster did the plantations prove long-lived; the other three provinces (Connaught, Leinster, and Munster) remained heavily Catholic, and eventually, the Protestant populations of those three provinces would decrease drastically as a result of the political developments in the early 20th century in Ireland.

It is predominately religion, history and political differences (Irish nationalism versus British unionism) that divide the two communities, as many of the Scotch-Irish settlers are in part of Celtic origin themselves and therefore related to their Irish Catholic neighbours.

Conversely, many Irish people would have at least some English (Anglo-Norman) or Scottish (gallowglass families from the Highlands) ancestry.

In 1921, with the formation of the Irish Free State, six counties in the northeast remained in the United Kingdom as Northern Ireland.

"Ulster-Irish" surnames tend to differ based on which community families originate from. Ulster Protestants tend to have either English or Scottish surnames while Roman Catholics tend to have Irish surnames, although this is not always the case. There are many Catholics in Northern Ireland with surnames such as Emerson, Whitson, Livingstone, Hardy, Tennyson, MacDonald (however this surname is also common with Highland Roman Catholics in Scotland), Dunbar, Groves, Legge, Scott, Gray, Page, Stewart, Rowntree, Henderson, et al; almost certainly due to intermarriage. A report commissioned by the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs states that:

The government of the Republic of Ireland notes that prejudice against the Irish is still found in some parts of the United Kingdom.

The post-1945 Irish population has therefore been caught between these two images. On the one hand their migrant experience and cultural difference has been denied because they are a ‘white’, ‘British Isles’ population group. On the other anti-Irish stereotypes persist in British society and have been fuelled by anti-IRA fears over the last thirty years.

Irish diaspora

The Irish diaspora consists of Irish emigrants and their descendants in countries such as the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, South Africa and nations of the Caribbean. The diaspora contains over 80 million people; it is believed that roughly one third of the Presidents of the United States of America had at least some Irish descent, while Charles Carroll of Carrollton (whose Irish born grandfather Daniel had left Britain to escape Catholic persecution) was the sole Catholic signatory of the American Declaration of Independence. [link]

There are also large Irish communities in some mainland European countries, notably in France and Germany, as well as Japan, Brazil and other South American countries. The classic image of an Irish immigrant is led occasionally by racist and anti-Catholic stereotypes. Irish Americans number around 40 million. They are the second largest self-reported ethnic group in the United States, after German Americans. Large numbers of Irish people emigrated to Latin America in the 18th and 19th centuries. Their descendents include Che Guevara, Vicente Fox and Bernardo O'Higgins.

Notable Irish people (selection)

See List of Irish people for a more complete listing, including notable people with Irish heritage.

Literature & the arts

James Joyce.

Francis Bacon - painter
John Banville - novelist; winner of the 2005 booker prize
Samuel Beckett - playwright and novelist; Nobel prize laureate for literature
Brendan Behan - dramatist
Louis le Brocquy - painter
Patrick Brontë - author & father of the Brontë sisters
Samuel Ferguson - poet and antiquarian
Cedric Gibbons - renowned Hollywood art director, and founder of the Oscars
Oliver Goldsmith - author and playwright
Augusta, Lady Gregory - playwright, co-founder of Abbey Theatre
Seamus Heaney - poet; 1995 Nobel Prize laureate for literature
James Joyce - author of Ulysses
Patrick Kavanagh - poet and author
Paul Kane - artist
C.S. Lewis - author
James Clarence Mangan - poet
David Marcus - author and literary advocate
Violet Florence Martin - author
Tom Murphy - playwright
Flann O'Brien - Author
Dáibhí Ó Bruadair - Bardic poet
Sean O'Casey - dramatist & political activist
Máirtín Ó Direáin - poet
Liam O'Flaherty - author
Séamus Ó Grianna -Poet and author
George Bernard Shaw - dramatist; Nobel Prize laureate for literature
Bram Stoker - author of Dracula
Jonathan Swift - satirist & author of Gulliver's Travels
John Millington Synge - playwright
Ninette de Valois - ballerina & founder of the Royal Ballet
Oscar Wilde - playwight, poet & wit
Jack Butler Yeats - artist
John Butler Yeats - artist
William Butler Yeats - poet and dramatist; Nobel Prize laureate for literature

Media

Gay Byrne - former presenter of the Late Late Show
Graham Norton - TV personality & actor
Tom O'Brannigan - Late Night Talk Presenter
Ardal O'Hanlon (Comedian and well-known from Fr. Ted)
Charles Gavan Duffy - Journalist & founder of The Nation
Joe Duffy - radio personality
Veronica Guerin - murdered Journalist
Carmel Quinn - singer & TV personality
Neil Jordan - film director
Danny La Rue - performer & female impersonator
Derek Mooney- presenter of Mooney Goes Wild

Military

John Barry - "Father of the American Navy"
Garret Barry, General of Irish Confederates in Munster, d. 1647
James Butler - stateman and soldier
Roger Casement - revolutionary
William Coffey - war hero
Tim Collins - former CO 1st Battalion, Royal Irish Regiment
Sir Eyre Coote - former Commander-in-Chief, British forces, India
Blair "Paddy" Mayne - founding member of the SAS
Duke of Wellington - solider and statesman
Ambrose O'Higgins - Baron of Ballynary, Marquis of Osorno, Governor of Chile and Viceroy of Peru.
William Brown - Founder of the Argentinian Navy.

Music

Altan - traditional band
Aslan (rock band)
Edward Bunting - first collector of traditional music, 1773 - 1843
Patrick Clancy - musician; member of the Clancy Brothers
Clannad - traditional/pop/new-age band
Thomas Connellan - composer
The Corrs - traditional/pop band
Nadine Coyle - singer
Elizabeth Cronin - traditional singer,1879 - 1956
Máire Ní Bhraonáin - singer
Shaun Davey - composer
Val Doonican - singer
Eithne ní Bhraonáin (Enya) - singer/songwriter
Julie Feeney - composer
John Field - pianist, composer and inventor of the nocturne
Rory Gallagher - rock and blues musician, 1948 -1995
Bob Geldof - Singer and political activist
Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh - musician/singer
David Holmes - musician, D.J. and composer
Luke Kelly - singer and political activist
Phil Lynott - singer/songwriter and bass-guitarist
Shane MacGowan] - singer/songwriter and co-founded of The Pogues
John McCormack - singer/ tenor
Van Morrison - singer/songwriter
Paddy Moloney - composer and founder of The Chieftains
Christy Moore - singer/songwriter
Turlough O'Carolan - harpist and composer
Sinéad O'Connor - singer
Liam O'Flynn - Uilleann piper
Francis O'Neill - Traditional flutist, music collector and publisher in Chicago, 1848 - 1936
Seán Ó Riada - composer, 1931 -1971

Statue of Phillip Lynnot, Grafton Street, Dublin

Carmel Quinn - Singer
Charles Villiers Stanford, composer
U2 - rock band

Philosophy & religion

George Berkeley - Idealist Philosopher
Edmund Burke - Conservative political philosopher and statesman
John Clyn - Monk and chronicler
Thomas Croke - Archbishop of Cashel and Emly
John Joseph Hughes - First Archbishop of New York
Oliver Plunkett - Archbishop of Armagh
Saint Brenach - Irish missionary in Wales
Archbishop James Ussher - Irish primate & scholar
Saint Brigid of Ireland
Johannes Scotus Eriugena - philosopher

Politics

Mary McAleese - President of Ireland
Bertie Ahern - Taoiseach
Gerry Adams - politician; president of Sinn Féin
Ian Paisley - British MP; leader of the DUP
Noel Browne - Politician
Ray Burke - Politician
Michael Collins - politician & rebel
Patrick Collins - former mayor of Boston
Thomas F. Gilroy - former mayor of New York City
Bobby Sands - hunger-sriker & British MP
Charles Stewart Parnell - leader of Irish Home Rule Party
Daniel O'Connell - barrister and Irish emancipator
Mary Robinson- seventh Irish president, UN Commissioner for Human Rights
Hugh O'Brien - first Irish mayor of Boston
Charlie Haughey
William O'Dwyer - former mayor of New York City
William R. Grace - first Roman Catholic mayor of New York City
Eamon de Valera - former Taoiseach and Irish President

Science

Thomas Andrews - shipbuilder of the Titanic.
Robert Boyle - Natural philosopher, discoverer of Boyle's Law.
Patrick Browne - Doctor Botanist of Jamaica.
William Rowan Hamilton - mathematician & scientist, inventor of quaternions.
Lord Kelvin - mathematical physicist & Engineer.
Frank Pantridge - inventor of the portable defibrillator.
Ernest Walton - physicist & 1951 Nobel Prize winner for the first nuclear transmutation.
Nicholas Callan - priest at St. Patricks College, Maynooth, inventor of the induction coil.
Francis Beaufort - inventor of the Beaufort scale of wind intensity 1774-1857.
John Tyndall - physicist who discovered the Tyndall effect.
John Philip Holland - inventor of the modern submarine 1841 -1914.
George Johnstone Stoney - scientist who coined the word electron.
Kathleen Lonsdale - discovered the structure of benzene.

Sports

George Best - footballer
Steve Collins - Boxer
Padraig Harrington - Golfer
Alex Higgins - former World Snooker champion
Eddie Irvine - Formula One driver
Eddie Jordan - Formula One racing driver and team owner
Roy Keane - footballer
Eddie Macken - International Show Jumper
Barry McGuigan - Featherweight boxing champion
Sonia O'Sullivan - Olympic 5000m runner
Dennis Taylor - former World Snooker champion

Miscellaneous

Arthur Guinness

William Burke - Edinburgh serial killer (see West Port murders)
Tom Crean - Antarctic explorer
Bridget Dowling Hitler - sister-in-law of Adolf Hitler
Arthur Guinness - Brewer
William Hare - Edinburgh serial killer (see West Port murders)
Augustine Henry - Plantsman/Sinologist
James Hoban - designer of the White House
Grace O'Malley (Gráinne Ní Mháille) - pirate
Adi Roche - humanitar
Ernest Shackleton - Antarctic explorer

Business/Finance

Marcus Daly - Copper King of Butte, Montana
Joseph McGrath - Co-Founder Irish Sweepstakes
Tony Ryan - entrepreneur
Thomas McLoughlin - Initiator Shannon Hydroelectric Scheme
William Mulvany - pioneer of German Coal Industry, 1806 - 1885
Tony O'Reilly - entrepreneur
Cormac Ross - entrepreneur

Inventors

Harry Ferguson- Ferguson Tractor, 1936
Charles Parsons- Marine Turbine, 1854 - 1931

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

[media]

[Irish surname origins]
[Y-chromosome variation and Irish origins (PDF File)] ([Nature, March 2000])
[The Longue Durée of Genetic Ancestry: Multiple Genetic Marker Systems and Celtic Origins on the Atlantic Facade of Europe October 2004]
[A discussion board for Irish expatriates, Irish descendants and Irish people alike, specifically South East Ireland]
[Muhammad Ali Irish Heritage]
[link]
[link]
Scotchirish.net: "Pioneers". Discussion on disproportionate census numbers of Irish and Scotch-Irish Americans. [link]
[The Irishmen Fanlisting]
Genetic study that links the Irish to Basques [link]

References

↑ The Republic of Ireland [2002 census] reports 3,508,407 people who were born on the island of Ireland. The [2001 UK census], in Northern Ireland, reports 1,573,319 people born on the island of Ireland. The combined total is 5,081,726. However, the total population of Ireland is much higher, due to recent large influx of immigrants.
↑ The UK 2001 census shows 750,657 people living in Britain who were born in Ireland [link][link]. The census also reports 691,232 people living in Britain who identified themselves as belonging to the Irish ethnic group. [link]
↑ The [link] American Community Survey 2004 by the United States Census Bureau estimates 34,487,790 persons claiming Irish ancestry and 5,323,888 people claiming Scotch-Irish ancestry. These figures are likely to be an underestimate of the true number with Irish and Scotch-Irish ancestry as some people will not have been aware of their Irish and Scotch-Irish ancestry, or will have chosen not to mention it. Both figures represent an increase from the previous census in 2000. The figure for Irish ancestry increased by approximately 4 million from the [2000 census], but decreased by approximately 4 million from the [1990 census]. It should be mentioned that Irish was provided as one of the example responses on the 1990 census form, but not the 2000 census form[link]. This could be a partial explanation for the decrease in the number of those citing Irish ancestry in the censuses.
↑ The [Australian Bureau of Statistics] reports 1.9 million people of Irish ancestry in the 2001 Census. Up to two ancestries could be chosen. Recent increases in the number who identify as Australian suggest that this number is an underestimate of the true number with Irish ancestry. With that being said, the number claiming Irish ancestry from the previous census actually more than doubled. One reason, an improved image of what it means to be Irish according to the census experts, making Australians more proud to state their Irish ancestry.[link].
↑ [2001 Canadian Census] gives 496,865 respondents stating their ethnic origin as Irish as a single response, and 3,325,800 including multiple responses, giving a combined total of 3,822,665. The introduction of a "Canadian" ethnic origin category and the large numbers of responses to this category will again alter the data.
↑ The [2001 New Zealand census] reports 11,199 people stating they belong to the Irish ethnic group. The 1996 census, which used a slightly different question[link], reported 73,047 people belonging to the Irish ethnic group.
↑ The following article discusses St. Patrick's Celebrations in Buenos Aires 2005 [link].
↑ Y-chromosome variation and Irish origins [PDF File]. Emmeline W. Hill, Mark A. Jobling, Daniel G. Bradley. Nature, Vol 404, 23 March 2000. Retrieved 30 December 2005.
↑ EVOLUTIONARY GENETICS: Europeans Trace Ancestry to Paleolithic People[Abstract], Ann Gibbons, Science, 10 November 2000: Vol. 290. no. 5494, pp. 1080 - 1081. Retrieved 30 December 2005.
↑ [A Y Chromosome Census of the British Isles]; Cristian Capelli, Nicola Redhead, Julia K. Abernethy, Fiona Gratrix, James F. Wilson, Torolf Moen, Tor Hervig, Martin Richards, Michael P. H. Stumpf, Peter A. Underhill, Paul Bradshaw, Alom Shaha, Mark G. Thomas, Neal Bradman, and David B. Goldstein Current Biology, Volume 13, Issue 11, Pages 979-984 (2003). Retrieved 6 December 2005.

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