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From earliest recorded history to the present day there has been a continuous movement of people between the islands of Ireland and Great Britain due to their close proximity. This tide of people has ebbed and flowed in response to politics, economics and social conditions of both places.

According to the UK 2001 Census, there were 869,093 Irish-born residents in Britain, approximately 1.6% of the UK population.^{[citation needed]} In 1997, the Irish Government in its White Paper on Foreign Policy claimed that there were around two million Irish citizens living in Britain, the majority of them British-born.^{[citation needed]}

Contents 1 Use of Term 2 Irish in the UK 2.1 The Irish in England 2.2 The Irish in Scotland 2.3 The Irish in Wales 3 The Irish in Cornwall 4 The 2001 Census 5 Famous British Irish Names 5.1 Deceased 6 See also 7 External links

The term Irish Briton is rarely used, unlike the terms Irish American, Irish Australian, and Irish Canadian. The term "British Irish" is most often applied to politically and culturally pro-British Unionists in both the Republic and Northern Ireland. It is more common for people of Irish descent within Great Britain to describe themselves as "Cornish/English/Scottish/Welsh of Irish heritage" or "Cornish/English/Scottish/Welsh Irish", than British.

In 2001, there were 674,786 people in England (1.4 per cent of the population) who had been born in Ireland. This is the greatest concentration of Irish-born - as distinct from persons of Irish ancestry - abroad anywhere in the world, and equivalent to 12.1% of the population of the island of Ireland (5.6 million) in 2001.

Sports teams with links to the Irish community also exist in England, although this is not as marked as in Scotland. In football, Liverpool^{[citation needed]} and Arsenal have a tradition of representing the Irish communities in their area^{[citation needed]}. With the managership of Sir Matt Busby (a known catholic),Manchester United also emerged as a club with a considerable Irish following^{[citation needed]}, both on the UK mainland and in Ireland itself. In Rugby league, Dewsbury Celtic represented the large Irish community in Dewsbury, St Helens RFC represent communities in Merseyside and London Irish represented the community in London.

There are long standing migration links between Scotland and Northern Ireland, including between County Donegal, County Antrim, County Down and the west of Scotland. Considering the Dal Riata kingdoms and the Irishisation of Scotland in the early Middle Ages, it is difficult to determine how many Scots have genetic ancestry from Ireland historically or how many were Picts who adopted Irish lifestyles, although the general consensus is that both happened as Pictish culture vanished by the 11th century. In 2001, around 55,000 people in Scotland (1.1 per cent of the Scottish population) had been born in Ireland, while people of Irish (either Protestant or Catholic) heritage make up 20% of the Scottish population. Scotland is unusual in that it has a greater number of persons born in Northern Ireland (0.66 per cent) than in the Republic of Ireland (0.43%).

Support for particular football teams often reflects Catholic or Protestant heritage. Celtic F.C., Hibernian F.C. and to a lesser extent Dundee United F.C. are seen as Irish Catholic, while Rangers F.C., Dundee F.C., Heart of Midlothian F.C. and teams such as Kilmarnock F.C. and Airdrie United are seen as Protestant clubs.

A small minority of the Irish Catholic community in Scotland takes part in Irish republican marches (mainly in Strathclyde and Dundee), and the Orange Order has a large membership in Scotland, predominantly in Glasgow, Lanarkshire and Ayrshire. As well as Scotland's own parades, many Scottish bands parade in Northern Ireland on or around July 12.

In 2001, there were 20,569 people in Wales (0.7% of the population) who had been born in Ireland.^{[citation needed]}

Cornwall had a long history of trade with Ireland going back, at least, to the Bronze Age. The peak in Irish migration to Cornwall was in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. An upswing in the mining industry, foremostly in west Cornwall, encouraged settlement of significant numbers of people from Munster. Today, Munster surnames (for example, Power, Sullivan, Hogan) are common in old tin mining centres like Camborne and Redruth, although their bearers are not always aware of their links to Ireland.^{[citation needed]}

The 2001 British census was the first which allowed British citizens to express an Irish ethnicity. In all previous British censuses, figures for the Irish community were based on Irish birthplace.

In 2001, the percentage claiming Irish ethnicity in England and Wales were 1.2%, while the figure for Scotland was 0.98%. These figures were grossly below expectations.

The distributions across the country were:

• Urban areas:

3.07% of Londoners were Irish (of 7,172,036 inhabitants), 4.65% of Luton, 3.77% of Manchester, 1.2% of Liverpool, 3.46% of Coventry, 3.22% of Birmingham, 2.89% of Watford, 2.8% of Trafford, 2.28% of Corby, 2.19% of Hertsmere, 2.07% of Solihull, 2% of Warwick, 1.98% of Glasgow, 1.64% of West Dunbartonshire and 1.44% of Edinburgh.^{[citation needed]}

• Regions:

1.39% of the West Midlands, 0.85% of the East Midlands 1.15% of Northwest England, 0.35% in the Northeast, 1.14% of Eastern England, 0.66% in Yorkshire and the Humber, 1.03% of the Southeast, 0.66% in the Southwest, and 0.61% in Wales.^{[citation needed]}

Estimates of the Irish population of Great Britain, if the one-drop rule is applied, fall in the region of 10 million, or 17% of the population.^{[citation needed]}

Caroline Aherne, also known as Mrs Merton Anton Rogan The Pogues London Irish rugby team Tom Baker Danny Boyle Kathy Burke Kate Bush Tony Blair Daniel Carroll, also known as Danny La Rue Maurice O'Connor Drury Dido Amanda Donohoe Paul McCartney Paul McCartney's family tree Billy Connolly Sean Maguire Shane MacGowan Ralph Fiennes John Lydon, also known as Johnny Rotten Des O'Connor Lonnie Donegan Richard O'Brien Peter O'Donnell Peter O'Toole Tara Fitzgerald Rio Ferdinand Anton Ferdinand Wayne Rooney Alan Rickman Noel Gallagher Anne Robinson

Liam Gallagher George Galloway Elizabeth Hurley Daniel Day-Lewis Ray Davies Dave Davies Steven Morrissey Johnny Marr Bobby Gillespie George O'Dowd, also known as Boy George Dermot O'Leary (from Big Brother's Little Brother) Imelda Staunton Gordon Matthew Sumner, also known as Sting Catherine Zeta-Jones Pete Doherty Declan MacManus, also known as Elvis Costello Ian McLaglan Kevin Rowland Bernard Butler Siobhan Fahey Jacquie O'Sullivan Paul Merton Steve Coogan Spike Milligan Andy Townsend Martin Keown Gerry Rafferty Matt Holland Margaret Jay Clinton Morrison

• The Duke of Wellington
• Lord Kitchener
• Kenneth Bigley
• Elizabeth Bowen
• James Callaghan
• Arthur Conan Doyle
• George Harrison George Harrison's family tree
• Alfred Hitchcock
• John Lennon External link: John Lennon's family tree
• Cecil Day Lewis
• Viscount Montgomery of Alamein
• General Richard O'Connor
• Mary O'Brien, also known as Dusty Springfield
• Bernard Shaw
• Arthur Sullivan
• Oscar Wilde

• List of Ireland-related topics
• List of United Kingdom-related topics
• List of Irish Victoria Cross recipients
• Anglo-Irish

• Irishlinks.co.uk
• irishinbritain.com
• Irish Community in Britain Archive
• BBC News article 16 March, 2003: "City celebrates Irish influence"
• One in four Britons claim Irish roots
• Photo Gallery: Liverpool's streets broad and narrow
• Statistics Online
• Liverpool University's Institute of Irish Studies

v • d • e British Census: White British
Native inhabitants	Anglo-Irish • Brython • Cornish • English • Gael • Irish/Irish Traveller • Scottish • Welsh
Immigrants	Australian • French • German/German-Briton • Greek • Italian • Spanish • Polish • Russian