Editing Irish diaspora (section)

==Causes==
{{external media| float = right| video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?152623-1/great-shame-part-1 Part One of ''Booknotes'' interview with Thomas Keneally on ''The Great Shame and the Triumph of the Irish in the English-Speaking World'', 2 January 2000], [[C-SPAN]]| video2 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?154122-1/great-shame-part-2 Part Two of ''Booknotes'' interview with Keneally, 9 January 2000], [[C-SPAN]]}}
The Irish, who were called by the Romans ''[[Scoti|Scotti]]'' but called themselves [[Gaels]], had raided and settled along the West Coast of [[Roman Britain]], and numbers of them were allowed to settle within the province, where the [[Roman Army]] recruited many Irish into auxiliary units that were dispatched to the German frontier. The [[Attacotti]], who were similarly recruited into the Roman army, may also have been Irish settlers in Britain. The movement between Ireland and the classical Britain may have been two-way as similarities between the medieval accounts of [[Túathal Techtmar]] and archaeological evidence indicate that the Romans may have supported the invasion and conquest of Ireland by Irish exiles from Britain with the hope of establishing a friendly ruler who could halt the raiding of Britain by the Irish, and some historians have also suggested that the [[Cruthin]] of the north of Ireland may have been [[Picts]].<ref>''Tuathal Techtmar: A Myth or Ancient Literary Evidence for a Roman Invasion?'' By R. 8. Warner, The [[Ulster Museum]].</ref> After the departure of the Roman army, the Irish began increasing their footholds in Britain, with part of the north-West of the island annexed within the Irish kingdom of [[Dál Riata]]. In time, the Irish colonies became independent, merged with the [[Pict]]ish kingdom and formed the basis of modern [[Scotland]].

The traditionally [[Scottish Gaelic|Gaelic]]-speaking areas of Scotland (the [[Scottish Highlands|Highlands and Hebrides]]) are still referred to in the Gaelic language as ''a' Ghàidhealtachd'' ("the Gaeldom"). Irish monks and the [[Celtic Church]] engineered a wave of Irish emigration to Great Britain and Continental Europe and were possibly the first inhabitants of the [[Faroe Islands]] and [[Iceland]].<ref>The 9th-century Irish monk and geographer [[Dicuil]] describes Iceland in his work [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Dicuil/De_mensura_orbis_terrae/text*.html ''Liber de Mensura Orbis Terrae''].</ref> Throughout the [[Early Middle Ages]], Great Britain and Continental Europe experienced Irish immigration of varying intensity, mostly from clerics and scholars who are collectively known as ''peregrini''.<ref name="On Google Books"/> Irish emigration to [[Western Europe]], especially to Great Britain, has continued at a greater or lesser pace since then. Today, the ethnic Irish are the single largest minority group in both England and Scotland, most of whom eventually made it back to Ireland.

The dispersal of the Irish has been mainly to Britain or to countries colonised by Britain. England's political connection with Ireland began in 1155, when [[Pope Adrian IV]] issued a [[papal bull]] (known as ''[[Laudabiliter]]''), which gave [[Henry II of England|Henry II]] permission to invade Ireland as a means of strengthening the papacy's control over the Irish Church. That was followed in 1169 by the [[Norman invasion of Ireland]], which was led by the general [[Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke|Richard de Clare]], or ''Strongbow''.

The [[English Crown]] did not attempt to assert full control of the island until after [[Henry VIII of England|Henry VIII]]'s repudiation of [[papacy|papal]] authority over the [[Church in England]], and the subsequent rebellion of the [[Earl of Kildare]] in Ireland in 1534 threatened English [[hegemony]] there. Until the break with [[Holy See|Rome]], it was widely believed that Ireland was a papal possession, which was granted as a mere [[fiefdom]] to the English king and so in 1541, Henry VIII asserted England's claim to Ireland free from the papal overlordship by proclaiming himself [[King of Ireland]].

After the [[Nine Years' War (Ireland)|Nine Years' War]] (1594 to 1603), political power rested in the hands of a [[Protestant Ascendancy]] minority and was marked by a Crown policy of [[Plantations of Ireland|plantation]], which involved the arrival of thousands of English and [[Scottish people|Scottish]] [[Protestantism in Ireland|Protestant]] settlers and the consequent displacement of the pre-plantation [[Catholicism in Ireland|Roman Catholic]] landholders. As the military and political defeat of [[Gaelic Ireland]] became more pronounced in the early 17th century, [[sectarian]] conflict became a recurrent theme in [[Irish history]].

Roman Catholics and members of [[Nonconformist (Protestantism)|dissenting Protestant denominations]] suffered severe political and economic privations from [[Penal Laws (Ireland)|Penal Laws]]. The [[Parliament of Ireland|Irish Parliament]] was abolished in 1801 in the wake of the [[Irish republicanism|republican]] [[Irish Rebellion of 1798|United Irishmen Rebellion]], and Ireland became an integral part of a new [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland]] under the [[Act of Union 1800|Act of Union]].

The [[Great Famine (Ireland)|Great Famine]], during the 1840s saw a significant number of people flee from the island to all over the world. Between 1841 and 1851, as a result of death and mass emigration, mainly to Great Britain and North America, Ireland's population fell by over 2 million. In [[Connacht]] alone, the population fell by almost 30%.

[[Robert E. Kennedy (University president)|Robert E. Kennedy]] explains, however, that the common argument that the mass emigration from Ireland was a "flight from famine" is not entirely correct. Firstly, the Irish had been coming to Great Britain to build canals there since the 18th century, and as soon as conditions in Ireland improved, their emigration did not slow down. After the famine ended, the four years that followed it were marked by more emigration than the four years of the blight. Kennedy argues that the famine was considered the final straw because it convinced more people to move even though several other factors influenced their decision.

By 1900, the population of Ireland was about half of its 1840 peak, and it continued to fall during the 20th century.

In the decades that followed independence in the 1920s, emigration accelerated for economic and social reasons,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Croffey |first=Amy |title=Many emigrants fled Ireland because they were the victims of sexual abuse |url=https://www.thejournal.ie/irish-migrants-alcohol-abuse-939045-Jun2013/ |access-date=2022-04-29 |website=TheJournal.ie |date=6 June 2013 |language=en |archive-date=19 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230919055622/https://www.thejournal.ie/irish-migrants-alcohol-abuse-939045-Jun2013/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-03-17 |title=A forgotten diaspora: The pregnant Irish women who fled to America |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/abortion-nothern-ireland-legalised-us-states-irish-migration-a9400546.html |access-date=2022-04-29 |website=The Independent |language=en |archive-date=19 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230919055619/https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/abortion-nothern-ireland-legalised-us-states-irish-migration-a9400546.html |url-status=live }}</ref> and with the preferred destination switching from the United States to Great Britain, over 500,000 emigrated in the 1950s and 450,000 in the 1980s, and over 3 million Irish citizens resided outside Ireland in 2017.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=20 Jun 2017 |title=Irish Emigration patterns, and citizens abroad. |url=https://www.dfa.ie/media/dfa/alldfawebsitemedia/newspress/publications/ministersbrief-june2017/1--Global-Irish-in-Numbers.pdf |journal=Ireland: Department of Foreign Affairs |volume=Irish abroad Unit |access-date=29 November 2018 |archive-date=20 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230920031339/https://www.dfa.ie/media/dfa/alldfawebsitemedia/newspress/publications/ministersbrief-june2017/1--Global-Irish-in-Numbers.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

Irish people who still lived in Ireland were subjected to discrimination by Great Britain based on their religion. Evictions increased after the repeal of the British [[Corn Laws]] in 1846, the passage of the [[Encumbered Estates' Court]] in 1849 and the removal of existing civil rights and class norms. Any remaining hope for change was squashed by the 1847 death of [[Daniel O'Connell]], the political leader who championed liberal and reform causes and emancipation for Ireland's Catholics, and the failed rising of the [[Young Ireland]]ers in 1848. More was to be gained by immigrating to America from Ireland, and the [[California Gold Rush|1848 discovery of gold]] in the [[Sierra Nevada (U.S.)|Sierra Nevada]] lured away more.<ref>Kennedy, Robert E. ' 'The Irish: Emigration, Marriage, and Fertility.' ' Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973.</ref>