WikiPortalus: Irish people

The Irish people (Irish: Muintir na hÉireann, na hÉireannaigh, na Gaeil) are a Western European ethnic group who originate in Ireland, in north western Europe. Ireland has been populated for 9,000 years, with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolgs, Tuatha Dé Danann and the Milesians — the last group supposedly representing the "pure" Gaelic ancestry, and still serving as a term for the Irish race today. The main groups that interacted the Irish in the Middle Ages include the Scottish people and the Vikings, with the Icelanders especially having some Irish descent. The Anglo-Norman invasion of the High Middle Ages, the English plantations and the subsequent English rule of the country introduced the Normans, Welsh, Flemish, Anglo-Saxons, and Bretons into Ireland.

There have been many notable Irish people throughout history. The 6th century Irish monk and missionary Columbanus is regarded as one of the "fathers of Europe". The Anglo-Irish scientist Robert Boyle is considered the "father of chemistry". Famous Irish explorers include Brendan the Navigator, Ernest Shackleton, and Tom Crean. The first European child born in North America had Irish descent on both sides. An Irishman was also the first to set foot on American soil in Columbus' expedition of 1492.

People of Irish ethnicity outside of Ireland are common in many western countries, particularly in English-speaking countries. Historically, emigration has been caused by politics, religious oppression and economic issues. Over 80 million people make up the Irish diaspora today, which includes Great Britain, Australia, Canada, Argentina, New Zealand, Mexico, France and Germany. The largest number of people of Irish descent live in the United States — about ten times more than in Ireland itself.

History

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 Fir Bolgs, and the Tuatha Dé Danann, though with the exception of the Fir Bolgs, they are now treated as mythical rather than actual human incursions.^{citation needed}

The ancient peoples of Ireland—such as the creators of the Céide Fields and Newgrange—are almost unknown. Neither their languages nor terms they used to describe themselves have survived. 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, including Banba, Scotia, Fódla, Ériu by the islanders, Hibernia and Scotia to the Romans, and 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 gwyddel (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 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.

One legend states that the Irish were descended from one "Milesius of Spain", whose sons supposedly conquered Ireland around 1000 BC or later.^[8] The character is almost certainly a mere personification of a supposed migration by a group or groups from Hispania to Ireland. It is from this that the "Irish Race of to-day" is popularly known as "Milesian".^[9]

It is thought that the Basque Country and neighbouring regions served as a refuge for palaeolithic humans during the last major glaciation when environments further north were too cold and dry for continuous habitation.^{citation needed} When the climate warmed into the present interglacial, populations would have rapidly spread north along the west European coast. Genetically, in terms of Y-chromosomes and Mt-DNA, inhabitants of Britain and Ireland are closely related to the Basques,^[10][8] reflecting their common origin in this refugial area. Basques, along with Irish, show the highest frequency of the Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup R1b in Western Europe; some 95% of native Basque men have this haplogroup. The rest is mainly I and a minimal presence of E3b.^[10] The Y-chromosome and MtDNA relationship between Basques and people of Ireland and Wales is of equal ratios than to neighbouring areas of Spain, where similar ethnically "Spanish" people now live in close proximity to the Basques, although this genetic relationship is also very strong among Basques and other Spaniards. In fact, as Stephen Oppenheimer has stated in The Origins of the British, although Basques have been more isolated than other Iberians, they are a population representative of south western Europe. As to the genetic relationship among Basques, Iberians and Britons, he also states:

Brian Sykes's book based on his genetic research, Blood of the Isles, comes to similar conclusions. Sykes uses the terms "Celts" and "Picts" to designate the pre-Roman inhabitants of the Isles who spoke Celtic languages, rather than the Celts of central Europe:

Early expansion and the coming of Christianity

One Roman historian records that the Irish people were divided into "sixteen different nations" or tribes.^[15] Traditional histories assert that the Romans never attempted to conquer Ireland, although it may have been considered.^[15] The Irish were not, however, cut off from Europe; they frequently raided the Roman territories,^[15] and also maintained trade links.^[16] Irish regiments, referred to as the "Primi Scotti", are recorded in Roman service along the Rhine front.^[15] Carausius, appointed Commander in Gaul by Emperor Diocletian, may also have been an Irishman.^[17]

Among the most famous people of ancient Irish history are the High Kings of Ireland, such as Cormac mac Airt and Niall of the Nine Hostages, and the semi-legendary Fianna. The 20th century writer Seumas MacManus wrote that even if the Fianna and the Fenian Cycle were purely fictional, it would still be representative of the character of the Irish people:

The introduction of Christianity to the Irish people during the 5th century brought a radical change to the Irish people's foreign relations.^[19] The only military raid abroad recorded after that century is a presumed invasion of Wales, which according to a Welsh manuscript may have taken place around the 7th century.^[19] In the words of Seumas MacManus:

However, Christianity in Ireland appears never to have expanded outside the religious sphere of influence, whereas for the English people and the people of continental Europe it became a whole social system. Therefore, the Irish secular laws and social institutions remained in place.^[20]

Migration and invasion in the Middle Ages

Around the 5th century, Gaelic language and culture spread from Ireland to Scotland — the Dál Riata. The Gaels soon spread out to most of the rest of the country. The cultural and linguistic dominance of the "Scoti" is the origin of the name "Scotland". The territories of the Gaels and the native Picts merged together to form the Kingdom of Alba. The modern Scottish people have therefore been influenced historically by both the Irish people and the English people to the south. The Isle of Man and the Manx people also came under massive Gaelic influence in their history.

Common to both the monastic and the secular bardic schools were Irish and Latin. With Latin, the early Irish scholars "show almost a like familiarity that they do with their own Gaelic".^[22] There is evidence also that Hebrew and Greek were studied, the latter probably being taught at Iona.^[23]

The influx of Viking raiders and traders in the 9th and 10th centuries resulted in the founding of many of Ireland's most important towns, including Cork, Dublin, Limerick, and Waterford (earlier native settlements on these sites did not approach the urban nature of the subsequent Norse trading ports). The Vikings left little impact on Ireland other than towns and certain words added to the Irish language, but many Irish taken as slaves inter-married with the Scandinavians, hence forming a close link with the Icelandic people. In the Icelandic Laxdœla saga, for example, "even slaves are highborn, descended from the kings of Ireland."^[26] The first name of Njáll Þorgeirsson, the chief protagonist of Njáls saga, is a variation of the Irish name Neil. According to Eirik the Red's Saga, the first European couple to have a child born in North America was descended from the Viking Queen of Dublin, Aud the Deep-minded, and a Gaelic slave brought to Iceland.^[27]

Surnames

It is common for Irish Gaelic surnames to be anglicised when used in English, and retain their Gaeilic version for use in Gaelic, just as many surnames of non-Gaelic origin have adapted their own Gaelic versions for use in Gaelic. (This dual language system for surnames dates to when the language spoken in Ireland changed from the Irish language to the English language due to the plantations in the 1600s.)

It is very common for people of Gaelic origin to have the English versions of their surnames beginning with "O'" or "Mc" (less frequently "Mac" and occasionally shortened to just "Ma" at the beginning of the name). "O'" comes from the Gaelic Ó which in turn came from Ua (originally hUa), which means "grandson", or "descendant" of a named person. Names that begin with "O'" include Ó Briain (O'Brien), Ó Ceallaigh (Kelly), Ó Dónaill (O'Donnell), Ó Maille (O'Malley), Ó Néill (O'Neill), and Ó Tuathail (O'Toole).

"Mac" or "Mc" means "son of". Names that begin with Mac include Mac Diarmada (MacDermott), Mac Cárthaigh (MacCarthy), Mac Dómhnaill (MacDonnell), and Mac Mathúna (MacMahon, MacMahony, etc.). However, "Mac" and "Mc" are not exclusive, so, for example, both "MacCarthy" and "McCarthy" are used. While both "Mac" and "O'" prefixes are Gaelic in origin, "Mac" is more common in Ulster, and "Ó" is far less common in Scotland than it is in Ireland.

There are a number of Irish surnames derived from Norse personal names, including MacSuibhne (Sweeney) from Swein and McAuliffe from Olaf. The name Cotter, local to County Cork, derives from the Norse personal name Ottir. Though these names were of Viking derivation most of the families who bear them appear to have had native origins.

"Fitz" is a corruption of the French phrase fils de, used by the Normans, meaning son of. The Normans themselves were descendants of Vikings, who had settled in Normandy and thoroughly adopted the French language and culture. Names that begin with Fitz include FitzGerald (Mac Gearailt), Fitzpatrick (Mac Giolla Phádraig), and FitzHenry (Mac Anraí), most of whom descend from the initial Norman settlers. A small number of Irish families of Gaelic origin came to use a Norman form of their original surname — so that Mac Giolla Phádraig became FitzPatrick — while some assimilated so well that the Gaelic name was dropped in favor of a new, Hiberno-Norman form. Another common Irish surname of Norman Irish origin is the 'de' habitational prefix, meaning 'of the' and originally signifying prestige and land ownership. Examples include de Búrca (Burke), de Brún, de Barra (Barry), de Stac (Stack), de Tiúit, de Faoite (White), de Paor (Power). The Irish surname "Walsh" was routinely given to settlers of Welsh origin, who had come during the Norman invasion.

It should be emphasised, especially with Gaelic surnames, that there may be two or more unrelated families bearing the same or similar surnames. There were, for example, 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. Different branches of a family with the same surname sometimes used distinguishing epithets, which sometimes became surnames in their own right. Hence the chief of the clan Ó Cearnaigh (Kearney) was referred to as An Sionnach (Fox), which his descendants use to this day.

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

Late Medieval and Tudor Ireland

The Irish people of the Late Middle Ages were active as traders on the European continent.^[28] They were distinguished from the English (who only used their own language or French) in that they only used Latin abroad — a language "spoken by all educated people throughout Gaeldom".^[29] The explorer Christopher Columbus visited Ireland to gather information about the lands to the west.^[28] A number of Irish names are recorded on Columbus' crew roster, preserved in the archives of Madrid, and it was an Irishman named Patrick Maguire who was the first to set foot on American soil in 1492.^[30]

An English report of 1515 states that the Irish people were divided into over sixty Gaelic lordships and thirty Anglo-Irish lordships.^[31] The English term for these lordships was "nation" or "country".^[31] The Irish term "oireacht" referred to both the territory and the people ruled by the lord.^[31] Literally, it meant an "assembly", where the Brehons would hold their courts upon hills to arbitrate the matters of the lordship.^[31] Indeed, the Tudor lawyer Sir John Davies described the Irish people with respect to their laws:

Another English commentator records that the assemblies were attended by "all the scum of the country" — the labouring population as well as the landowners.^[31] While the distinction between "free" and "unfree" elements of the Irish people was unreal in legal terms, it was a social and economic reality.^[31] Social mobility was usually downwards, due to social and economic pressures.^[31] The ruling clan's "expansion from the top downwards" was constantly displacing commoners and forcing them into the margins of society.^[31]

As a clan-based society, genealogy was all important.^[31] Ireland 'was justly styled a "Nation of Annalists"'.^[33] The various branches of Irish learning — including law, poetry, history and genealogy, and medicine — were associated with hereditary learned families.^[34] The poetic families included the Uí Dhálaigh (Daly) and the MacGrath.^[31] Irish physicians, such as the O'Briens in Munster or the MacCailim Mor in the Western Isles, were renowned in the courts of England, Spain, Portugal and the Low Countries.^[35] Learning was not exclusive to the hereditary learned families, however; one such example is Cathal Mac Manus, the 15th century diocesan priest who wrote the Annals of Ulster.^[34] Other learned families included the Mic Aodhagáin and Clann Fhir Bhisigh.^[34] It was this latter family which produced Dubhaltach Mac Fhirbhisigh, the 17th century genealogist and compiler of the Leabhar na nGenealach.

Plantations

After Ireland was subdued by England, the English — under James I of England (reigned 1603-1625), the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell (1653-1658), William III of England (reigned 1689-1702) and their successors — began the settling of Protestant English and Scottish colonists into Ireland, where they settled most heavily in the northern province of Ulster. 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.

Many native Irish were displaced during the 17th century plantations. Only in the major part of Ulster did the plantations prove long-lived; the other three provinces (Connacht, Leinster, and Munster) remained heavily Catholic. 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, as well as the Catholic Church's Ne Temere decree for mixed marriages, which obliged the non-Catholic partner to have the children raised as Catholics.

Post-plantation

The Irish bardic system, along with the Gaelic culture and learned classes, were upset by the plantations, and went into decline. Among the last of the true bardic poets were Brian Mac Giolla Phádraig (c. 1580-1652) and Dáibhí Ó Bruadair (1625–1698). After the strict bardic schools closed down, the complex rhyming scheme and the literary standard of Classical Irish became impossible to maintain across the country. The Irish poets of the late 17th and 18th centuries moved toward more modern dialects. Among the most prominent of this period were Séamas Dall Mac Cuarta, Peadar Ó Doirnín, Art Mac Cumhaigh Cathal Buí Mac Giolla Ghunna, and Seán Clárach Mac Domhnaill. Irish Catholics continued to receive an education in secret "hedgeschools", in spite of the Penal laws.^[36] A knowledge of Latin was common among the poor Irish mountaineers in the 17th century, who spoke it on special occassions, while cattle were bought and sold in Greek in the mountain market-places of Kerry.^[37]

Northern Ireland and the Free State

It is predominately religion, historical, and political differences that divide the two communities of (Irish nationalism and British unionism). Four polls taken between 1989 and 1994 revealed that when asked to state their national identity, over 79% of Northern Ireland Protestants replied "British" or "Ulster" with 3% or less replying "Irish", while over 60% of Northern Ireland Catholics replied "Irish" with 13% or less replying "British" or "Ulster".^[38] A survey in 1999 showed that 72% of Northern Ireland Protestants considered themselves "British" and 2% "Irish", with 68% of Northern Ireland Catholics considering themselves "Irish" and 9% "British".^[39] The survey also revealed that 78% of Protestants and 48% of all respondents felt "Strongly British", while 77% of Catholics and 35% of all respondents felt "Strongly Irish". 51% of Protestants and 33% of all respondents felt "Not at all Irish", while 62% of Catholics and 28% of all respondents felt "Not at all British".^[40]^[41]

"Ulster-Irish" surnames tend to differ based on which community families originate from. Ulster Protestants tend to have either English or Scottish surnames while 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. According to Lecky, conversions also occurred to a lesser extent, which were mostly class-based; Catholics sometimes become Protestant to keep their lands and titles or to gain advantages, while some Protestants who were from the lower classes or who had fallen on hard times would become Catholic.

Recent history

In the Republic of Ireland, as of 2006, 3,681,446 people or about 86.83% of the population are Roman Catholic.^[42] 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 Catholic at approximately 43.8%, as of 2001.

The 31st International Eucharistic Congress was held in Dublin in 1932, that year being the 1,500th anniversary of Saint Patrick's arrival. Ireland was then home to 3,171,697 Catholics, and Time Magazine noted the Congress' special theme with regard to the Irish people:

Irish diaspora

There are also large Irish communities in some mainland European countries, notably in France and Germany. Between 1585 and 1818, over half a million Irish departed Ireland to serve in the wars on the continent, in a constant emigration romantically styled the "Flight of the Wild Geese".^[48] In the early years of the English Civil War, a French traveller remarked that the Irish "are better soldiers abroad than at home".^[49] Later, Irish brigades in France and Spain fought in the Wars of the Spanish and Austrian Succession and the Napoleonic Wars.^[48] In the words of Arthur Wellesley, the Irish born Duke of Wellington, "Ireland was an inexhaustible nursery for the finest soldiers".^[50]

The most famous cause of emigration was Irish Potato Famine of the late 1840s. A million are thought to have emigrated as a result of the famine.^[51] For both the native Irish and those in the resulting diaspora, the famine entered folk memory^[52] and became a rallying point for various nationalist movements.

In the mid-19th century large numbers of Irish immigrants to the United States were conscripted into the army at the time of the Mexican-American War. Many defected to the Mexican army and eventually settled in Mexico in order to escape the strong anti-Catholic discrimination in America. One important Irish group in the history of the Americas are the "Patricios", or Saint Patrick's Battalion. This group of European Catholic immigrants, led by John O'Riley and mostly Irish, left the American side during the Mexican-American War and joined the Mexican Army. Although many of them were caught and executed by the American government, some escaped and remained in Mexico. The battalion is commemorated in Mexico on Saint Patricks's day and on September 12, the anniversary of the first executions.

It is believed that as many as 30,000 Irish people emigrated to Argentina between the 1830s and the 1890s, having a "seismic" impact on Argentinian society.^[6] Today Irish-Argentines number over 500,000 — about 3% of the population.^[6] Some famous Argentines of Irish descendent include Che Guevara, former president Edelmiro Farrell, and admiral William Brown. There are Irish descent people all over South America, such as the Chilean liberator Bernardo O'Higgins and the Peruvian photographer Mario Testino. Although some Irish retained their surnames intact, others were assimilated into the Spanish vernacular. The last name O'Brien, for example, became Obregón.

List of notable Irish people

Aidan of Lindisfarne - Bishop of Lindisfarne, died 651
Brigid of Kildare - Saint, died c.525
Cerball mac Dúnlainge - King of Osraige 842-888
Dicuil - 8th and 9th century geographer
Feidlimid mac Cremthanin - King of Munster, 820-846
Flann Sinna - King of Mide and High King; c.847-916
Johannes Scotus Eriugena - philosopher, died 877
Máel Sechnaill mac Maíl Ruanaid, Irish High King, died 862
Marianus Scotus - chronicler, died c.1083
Bertie Ahern - Irish Taoiseach 1997-2008
Francis Bacon (painter) - Artist, 1909-1992
George Berkeley - Philosopher,1685-1753
James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde - statesman and soldier, died 1688
Ninette de Valois - ballerina and founder of the Royal Ballet, died 2001
Paddy Finucane - Battle of Britain flying ace, 1920-1942
Veronica Guerin - journalist, murdered 1996
Arthur Guinness - brewer and founder of the Guinness dynasty
William Rowan Hamilton - mathematician and scientist
Margaret Hassan - humanitarian, kidnapped and murdered in Iraq
John Hume - Politician, Nobel Laureate, born 1937
Caitlín R. Kiernan - fantasy/science fiction writer, born 1964
Francis Ledwidge - poet and political activist, killed in action 1917
Mary McAleese - President of Ireland since 1997
Dermot MacMurrough - King of Leinster, died 1171
Eamonn McCann - political activist, born 1943
David Norris, Senator and Civil Rights Activist, born 1944
Daniel O'Connell - barrister and Irish emancipator
Francis Martin O'Donnell - senior UN diplomat
Grace O'Malley - Irish chieftain and pirate, c.1530-c.1603
Samantha Power - born 1970, journalist, writer, and academic
Mary Robinson- seventh Irish president, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
Adi Roche - humanitarian
Lorcan Ua Tuathail - Archbishop of Dublin, died 1180
Mary Ward (scientist) - world's first motor vehicle accident victim.

Irish people

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