Irish Australian
Irish Australians (Irish: Gael-Astrálach) have played a long and enduring part in Australia's history. Many came to Australia in the eighteenth century as settlers or as convicts, and contributed to Australia's development in many different areas.
There is no definitive figure of the total number of Australians with an Irish background. At the 2011 Census, 2,087,800 residents identified themselves as having Irish ancestry either alone or in combination with another ancestry. This nominated ancestry was third behind English and Australian in terms of the largest number of responses and represents 10.4% of the total population of Australia. However this figure does not include Australians with an Irish background who chose to nominate themselves as 'Australian' or other ancestries. The Australian Embassy in Dublin states that up to 30 percent of the population claim some degree of Irish ancestry.
Read more about Irish Australian: Demographic History, Status of The Irish, Politics, Sports, Present Day
Famous quotes containing the words irish and/or australian:
“The Irish are a fair people; they never speak well of one another.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
“Beyond the horizon, or even the knowledge, of the cities along the coast, a great, creative impulse is at work—the only thing, after all, that gives this continent meaning and a guarantee of the future. Every Australian ought to climb up here, once in a way, and glimpse the various, manifold life of which he is a part.”
—Vance Palmer (1885–1959)