British People of Irish Descent

British People Of Irish Descent

Irish people in Great Britain are members of the Irish diaspora who reside in Great Britain, the largest island and principal territory of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

The Irish have a long history in Great Britain, owing to the close proximity of the islands of Ireland and Great Britain, and the various political entities that have ruled them. Ireland was a feudal Lordship of the Kings of England between 1171 and 1541; a Kingdom in personal union with the Kingdom of England and Kingdom of Great Britain between 1542 and 1801; and politically united with Great Britain as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland between 1801 and 1922. Today, Ireland is divided between the independent Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, which is part of, and is administered by, the UK.

Today, millions of residents of Great Britain are either from the island of Ireland or have Irish ancestry. It is estimated that as many as six million people living in the UK have an Irish grandparent.

Read more about British People Of Irish Descent:  History, Medieval Era, Early Modern Times, 19th Century Onwards, Terminology, 2001 Census, Places With Significant Irish Population, Culture and Influence, Notable Britons With Irish Ancestry

Famous quotes containing the words british, people, irish and/or descent:

    “I ... would rather be in dependance on Great Britain, properly limited, than on any nation upon earth, or than on no nation. But I am one of those too who rather than submit to the right of legislating for us assumed by the British parliament, and which late experience has shewn they will so cruelly exercise, would lend my hand to sink the whole island in the ocean.”
    —Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)

    “No people in the world can make you feel so small as the English.”
    —Robertson Davies (b. 1913)

    “I rather think the cinema will die. Look at the energy being exerted to revive it—yesterday it was color, today three dimensions. I don’t give it forty years more. Witness the decline of conversation. Only the Irish have remained incomparable conversationalists, maybe because technical progress has passed them by.”
    —Orson Welles (1915–1984)

    “In the world of the celebrity, the hierarchy of publicity has replaced the hierarchy of descent and even of great wealth.”
    —C. Wright Mills (1916–1962)