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:
“Nothing could be more inappropriate to American literature than its English source since the Americans are not British in sensibility.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“I have simplified my politics into an utter detestation of all existing governments; and, as it is the shortest and most agreeable and summary feeling imaginable, the first moment of an universal republic would convert me into an advocate for single and uncontradicted despotism. The fact is, riches are power, and poverty is slavery all over the earth, and one sort of establishment is no better, nor worse, for a people than another.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“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)
“Genealogy. An account of one’s descent from an ancestor who did not particularly care to trace his own.”
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914)