Diaspora

The Irish diaspora consists of Irish emigrants and their descendants. In the Middle Ages, there were important diaspora communities of Irish people in Britain, France, Italy, Germany and Iceland. Today the diaspora is largest in anglophone countries such as the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and nations of the Caribbean such as Jamaica and Barbados. These countries all have large minorities of Irish descent, who in addition form the core of the Catholic Church in those countries. Additionally, there are sizable minorities in continental Europe and in Latin America.

Today the diaspora is believed to contain an estimated 80 million people. ^[1] The size of the diaspora, more than thirteen times that of the island of Ireland itself, makes the diaspora an important constituent of the Irish people, and one whose members and achievements have been of major international significance. It is in part through the diaspora that the Irish are known internationally.

Ancient and early medieval diaspora

The earliest known phases of Irish settlement outside of Ireland were in early medieval Wales, Scotland and the Isle of Man, beginning in the 4th and 5th centuries. Ogham inscriptions show that Old Irish was spoken in the Kingdom of Dyfed in West Wales in the 5th century. The Isle of Man and the Manx people came under important Gaelic influence at this time, and the modern Manx language is descended from Old Irish. Scholars have traditionally held that the Goidelic language and Gaelic culture were first brought to Scotland by settlers from Ireland, who founded the Gaelic kingdom of Dál Riata on Scotland's west coast. ^{[2] [3]} The precise nature and extent of these early migrations however is disputed. ^[4] Dál Riata merged with the territory of the neighbouring Picts to form the Kingdom of Alba, and Goidelic language and Gaelic culture became dominant there. The country came to be called Scotland, after the Roman name for the Gaels: Scoti.

Irish people spread further afield as part of the early Christian missions of the 6th and 7th centuries. Irish missionaries such as Saint Columba of Iona and Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne spread Christianity through Pictish Scotland, northern Britain and the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. Other Irish missionaries today regarded as Christian saints, such as Columbanus, Kilian of Würzburg and Vergilius of Salzburg, were active on the continent from the 6th century onwards, establishing important monasteries and Irish religious communities throughout the Frankish Empire in what is now France, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. Among the most important of these foundations are Iona Abbey in Scotland, Annegray, Luxeuil, and Fontaines in France, Bobbio in Italy, and St. Gall and Reichenau abbey in Switzerland. This diaspora included a considerable presence of Irish scholars at the Frankish court, where they were renowned for their learning. ^[5] Among the most important of these intellectuals were the poet Sedulius Scotus, the geographer Dicuil, and the philosopher Johannes Scotus Eriugena, head of the imperial palace school of Aachen under the Frankish Emperor Charles the Bald. Fulco of Ireland was credited with leading four thousand Irish soldiers to France to serve Charlemagne.

Irish people expanded throughout the North Atlantic through the eremetical papar, who may have reached the Faroes and may have been the first to reach Iceland, and later through the Norse-Gaels of the 9th and 10th centuries. Hiberno-Norse dynasties such as the Uí Ímair held domains which extended outside of Ireland, encompassing the Kingdom of Northumbria and the Kingdom of Man and the Isles at different points in their history. Members such as Sitric Cáech and Amlaíb Cuarán ruled as kings of both Dublin and York. Norse-Gaels were active as seafarers, traders, raiders and mercenaries which brought them across the Irish Sea world. Irish slaves taken overseas also inter-married with the Scandinavians. This was especially pronounced in Iceland, where Gaels formed as much as 30-40% of the founding population and contributed an important part of the ancestry, culture and literature of the Icelandic people. ^{[6] [7]} This influence can be seen in the medieval Icelandic sagas. ^[8] The Saga of Erik the Red, which narrates the Norse discovery and settlement of Vinland in Newfoundland, suggests that the first child born to a European couple in North America held Irish descent on both sides. ^[9]

Later medieval diaspora

The High and Late Middle Ages brought a diaspora of both the Gaelic Irish and the Hiberno-Norman communities. Members of the Hiberno-Norman aristocracy, such as the family of William Marshal and Isabel de Clare, and later the FitzGerald dynasty, remained closely tied to Britain and to the Plantagenet and later Tudor realm by politics and marriage.

Lower down the social hierarchy, the Irish people were active as traders on the European continent, and could be found in the major port towns of England, France and Spain. From the 12th century, before the Norman conquest of Ireland, there is incidental documentary evidence of Irish trade with the English ports of Bristol, Chester, York, Exeter, Gloucester and Cambridge. ^[10] By the 15th and 16th centuries, the merchants of Ireland's independent corporate cities ( Wexford, Ross, Waterford, Dungarvan, Youghal, Cork, Kinsale, Dingle, Limerick, Galway, Sligo and Carrickfergus) had strong links with the French ports of Bordeaux and La Rochelle and with the ports of northern Spain. ^[11]

During this time, the religious diaspora from Ireland also continued. During the later 11th and 12th centuries, a number of monasteries known as Schottenklöster, intended for Irish monks exclusively, sprang up in Germany. The most notable of these was the Scots Monastery of St. James in Regensburg (1090), from which other houses were founded at Würzburg (about 1134), Nuremberg (1140), Constance (1142), Vienna (1158), Memmingen (1168), Eichstätt (1194), and Kelheim (1231). These, together with the Irish communities at Erfurt (1036) and Ratisbon, formed the famous congregation of the German Schottenklöster which was erected by Pope Innocent III in 1215. The first bishop of Mecklenburg, John Scotus, was a Gael of either Irish or Scottish birth. Two consecutive archbishops of Dublin following the Norman conquest of Ireland, the Gaelic Lorcán Ua Tuathail and the English-born John Comyn, spent time in effective exile in Normandy. The German Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland, Albert Suerbeer, was later appointed first Archbishop of Riga and papal legate to Russia.

Numerous Irish clerical and royal figures also travelled on pilgrimage during the later Middle Ages. The King of Munster and claimant to the high kingship of Ireland, Donnchad Ua Briain, died in Rome and was buried in the basilica of Santo Stefano al Monte Celio; while Lǫgmaðr Guðrøðarson, the eldest son of Guðrøðr Crovan, King of Dublin and the Isles, and King of the Isles, is believed to have died in Jerusalem around the time of the First Crusade.

Modern diaspora

Reformation and missionary diaspora

The Reformation in Ireland, the collapse of the Gaelic political order and the introduction of the Penal Laws in the wake of the Tudor conquests led to the partial exodus of the Catholic noble, clerical and scholarly communities from Ireland, many of whom became involved in the Counter-Reformation in Ireland and on the continent. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, some 34 Irish Colleges were founded on continental Europe in countries such as Belgium, France, Italy, Portugal and Spain, as centres of education for Irish Catholic clergy and lay people. Notable among these were the colleges at Douai, Leuven, Lille, Lisbon, Paris, Prague, Salamanca and Rome. Continental Irish scholars such as Mícheál Ó Cléirigh and Aodh Buidhe Mac an Bhaird were instrumental in the copying and preservation of Irish historical documents from destruction during this period.

Over the course of the early modern period and into the late modern period, Irish priests were also active as Christian missionaries in the New World, Africa, Asia and Oceania, where they often came to form a foundation of the ecclesiastical hierarchies of those countries. The priest Thomas Field, for example, arrived in Brazil in late 1577 and was further active in what is now Argentina and Paraguay. In North America, the Irish American prelate John Carroll served as first Roman Catholic bishop and archbishop in the United States.

The Wild Geese

Between 1585 and 1818, over half a million Irish departed Ireland to serve in the wars on the European continent and beyond, in a constant emigration romantically styled the " Flight of the Wild Geese". ^[12] The Irish formed brigades in the armies of Spain, France, Austria, Russia, Sweden and Poland, leading to the creation of large Irish communities, most notably in Spain, France and Germany. Jonathan Swift wrote in 1732: "I cannot but highly esteem those gentlemen of Ireland who, with all the disadvantages of being exiles and strangers, have been able to distinguish themselves by their valour and conduct in so many parts of Europe, I think, above all other nations." ^[13] In the words of Arthur Wellesley, the Irish-born " Iron Duke" of Wellington and perhaps the most celebrated representative of the Irish military diaspora, "Ireland was an inexhaustible nursery for the finest soldiers". ^[14]

The first Irish troops to serve as a unit for a continental power formed an Irish regiment in the Spanish Army of Flanders in the 1590s, ^[15] followed by new regiments officered by Gaelic Irish nobles in Flanders following the Flight of the Earls in the wake of the Nine Years' War. ^[16] A fresh source of recruits came in the early 17th century, when Roman Catholics were banned from military and political office in Ireland, leading to Catholic Old English officers such as Thomas Preston and Garret Barry seeking Irish service. The Irish regiments in Spanish service developed links with Irish Catholic clergy based there, creating the Irish Colleges. Though many of these Irish troops returned to Ireland to fight in the armies of Confederate Ireland, after the Confederate defeat and Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, around 34,000 Irish Confederate troops fled to Spain. Irishmen also saw service in the armies of Spanish Italy and in the Spanish Americas: the Irlanda Regiment (raised 1698) was stationed in Havana from 1770 to 1771, the Ultonia Regiment (raised 1709) in Mexico from 1768 to 1771, and the Hibernia Regiment (raised 1709) in Honduras from 1782 to 1783. ^[17] All three of these Irish infantry regiments still formed part of the Spanish army at the time of the Napoleonic Wars. Later, veterans of these wars fought against Spain in the so-called " British Legions" under Simón Bolívar, for the independence of Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Peru. ^[18]

From the mid-17th century or so, France overtook Spain as the destination for Catholic Irishmen seeking a military career. The reasons for this included the increased overlap between French and Irish interests and the ease of migration to France and Flanders from Ireland. ^[19] Five regiments under Justin McCarthy, Viscount Mountcashel, formed the nucleus of a French Irish Brigade in 1690, followed by a further 19,000 Irish Jacobites (14,000 soldiers and around 6,000 women and children) under Patrick Sarsfield, who sailed to France to enter the French service at the conclusion of the Williamite War in Ireland. France recruited many foreign soldiers, estimated to account for around 12% of all French troops in peacetime and 20% of troops during warfare. ^[20] During the late 1780s, there were three Irish regiments in France, ^[21] and by the time of the Franco-Prussian War a volunteer Irish medical unit, the Franco-Irish Ambulance Brigade, was serving with the French Army. ^[22] In common with the other foreign troops the Irish regiments were paid more than their French counterparts.

There were other destinations for Irish soldiers. Some 1,300 former rebel soldiers from Ulster served in the Protestant Swedish Army following their deportation there in 1609 by the Lord Deputy of Ireland, before deserting to Catholic Polish service during the Battle of Klushino and serving for several years during the Polish–Muscovite War (1605–1618). ^[23] The Irish entered Russian service soon after, taking Russian names and converting to Russian Orthodoxy, with notable Irish Russians including the poet-prince Pyotr Andreyevich Vyazemsky, the officer-counts Johann Georg von Browne, Yuri Yurievich Browne, and Ioseph Kornilovich O'Rourke, the Field-marshall Pyotr Petrovich Lassi, and the Soviet film director Alexander Arturovich Rou. Irish officers served in the armies of Savoy and Venice while the Limerick Regiment of Irish Jacobites transferred from Spanish service to that of the Bourbon king of Sicily in 1718.

There were also substantial numbers of Irish officers and men in the armies or service of the Austrian Habsburg Empire. ^[24] Notable officers of Irish birth or descent included the hussar Art Ó Laoghaire, General Maximilian Ulysses Graf von Browne, Laval Graf Nugent von Westmeath, Maximilian Graf O’Donnell von Tyrconnell (who saved the life of Emperor Franz Joseph I during an assassination attempt) and Gottfried von Banfield, the most successful Austro-Hungarian naval aeroplane pilot in the First World War. It was not uncommon for Irish commanders of the Habsburg Empire to encounter enemy armies led by other Irishmen, Irishmen who they would have previously fought alongside in rebellions against British rule in Ireland. Peter Lacy, a field marshal in the Imperial Russian Army, was the father of Franz Moritz Graf von Lacy who excelled in the Austrian service. ^[25] Recruitment for Austrian service included areas of the midlands of Ireland, and members of the Taaffe, O'Neill and Wallis families served with Austria. ^[26]

Irish recruitment for continental armies declined sharply after it was made illegal by the British government in Ireland in 1745. Replacements accordingly were drawn increasingly from the descendants of Irish soldiers who had settled in France or Spain, from non-Irish foreign recruits, or from natives of the recruiting countries. The last of the Irish regiments in Spain and France were finally dissolved at the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars. Meanwhile, in the late 18th century, the Penal Laws were gradually relaxed and in the 1790s the laws prohibiting Catholics bearing arms were abolished. Thereafter, the British began recruiting Irish regiments such as the Prince of Wales's Leinster Regiment, the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, the Irish Guards, the Royal Irish Regiment, the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, the Royal Irish Rifles, the Royal Irish Fusiliers, the Connaught Rangers and the Royal Munster Fusiliers. With the creation of the Irish Free State in 1922, five of the above regiments were disbanded, with most of the remainder undergoing a series of amalgamations between 1968 and 2006. The United Kingdom still retains three Irish-named regiments: the Irish Guards, the Royal Irish Regiment, and the London Irish Rifles.

Colonisation and transplantation

Like the movement of other European people to the Americas, Irish migration to the Caribbean and British North America had complex causes. The upheavals of the late 16th and early 17th centuries drove many Irish people to seek a better life, or survival, elsewhere. Like their English and Scottish counterparts, Irish people were active participants in the "rush for American colonies" during the early 17th century. Most travelled to the New World as indentured servants, but others were merchants and landholders who were key players in a variety of different trade and settlement enterprises. ^[27]

Some of the first Irish people to travel to the New World did so as members of the Spanish garrison in Florida during the 1560s, and small numbers of Irish colonists were involved in efforts to establish colonies in the Amazon, Newfoundland, and Virginia between 1604 and the 1630s. Significant numbers of Irish labourers began traveling to colonies such as Virginia, the Leeward Islands, and Barbados in the 1620s. ^{[28]: 56–7} Between 1627 and 1660, labourers from Ireland and Britain crossed the Atlantic in large numbers, with as many as 60-65% of 17th-century migrants being indentured servants. ^[29]: 67 By 1640, large numbers of Irish settlers were present in the West Indies, making up more than half the population of the region by some estimates. Most were indentured labourers, small farmers, or artisans. ^[30]

Many of the Irish labourers who crossed the Atlantic from the 1620s did so by choice. However, convict labour had been used in English colonies since the early 1600s, ^[31]: 20 with the forceful transportation of "undesirables" from Ireland to the West Indies beginning under Charles I. The type of labour being used in American colonies shifted dramatically after 1642, as the Irish Rebellion of 1641, the Irish Confederate Wars, and the Wars of the Three Kingdoms led to a reduction in the number of voluntary migrants, while growing numbers of prisoners of war, political prisoners, felons, and other "undesirables" were sent to labour in the colonies against their will. ^{[32]: 236  [33]: 507} The practice took place on a much larger scale during the rule of Oliver Cromwell, ^[33] under whom many prisoners were forcibly sent to the Caribbean, particularly to Barbados. After the Siege of Drogheda, for example, Cromwell ordered most of the Irish military prisoners who surrendered to be shipped to Barbados. ^[32]: 236 In 1654, the governors of several Irish counties were ordered to arrest "all wanderers, men and women, and such other Irish within their precincts as should not prove they had such a settled course of industry as yielded them a means of their own to maintain them, all such children as were in hospitals or workhouses, all prisoners, men and women, to be transported to the West Indies." ^[33]: 507

Many Irish people were also transported to the island of Montserrat, to work as indentured servants, exiled prisoners or slaves. Unlike African chattel slaves, the majority of Irish labourers who were sent to Montserrat did so by personal choice although they were tricked into doing so by the promise of payment and land of which they did not receive. ^[34] Afro-Caribbean people descended from Irish settlers in the Caribbean, especially those on Barbados and Montserrat, ^[35] are referred to as "Black Irish". The people concerned often have Irish surnames, speak a form of Caribbean English influenced by the Irish vernacular and, in some cases, sing Irish songs. ^[36] To this day, Montserrat celebrates St. Patrick's Day as a public holiday to commemorate the event. ^[37]

The Famine

The single largest migration of Irish in the modern era was a result of the Great Famine (Irish: An Górta Mór), which led to the deaths or emigration of millions of Irish people. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, Ireland experienced a major population boom as a result of the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions. In the 50-year period 1790-1840, the population of the island doubled from 4 million to 8 million. At its peak, Ireland's population density was similar to that of England and continental Europe. This changed dramatically with the famine, which occurred as a result of the infection with Blight of the extremely impoverished Irish population's staple food, the potato, at a time when the British ruling elite appropriated the surplus of other crops and livestock to feed Britain's armies abroad. ^[38] The famine lasted from 1845-1849, with the worst year in 1847 known as Black '47. British relief was minimal. In the area covering the present day Republic, the population reached about 6.5 million in the mid-1840s; a decade later, it was down to 5 million.

Irish people emigrated to escape the famine, journeying predominantly to cities on the East Coast of the United States such as Boston and New York, to Liverpool in England, and to other territories of the British Empire such as Australia, Canada and New Zealand. Emigrants travelled on vessels known as " coffin ships" (such as the Jeanie Johnston and the Dunbrody) due to their high mortality rates from disease or starvation. A million are thought to have emigrated to Liverpool alone as a result of the famine. ^[39] The Great Famine left a lasting legacy in the memory of the diaspora ^[40] and was a major factor in its support for Irish nationalism and independence in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Twentieth and twenty-first centuries

Despite a high birth-rate, the population of Ireland continued a slow decline due to high emigration well into the 20th century, with the Republic recording a low of 2.8 million in the 1961 census. ^[41] During the 1960s, the population started to grow once more, although slowly as emigration was still common. Only with the Celtic Tiger of the 1990s did immigration begin to far outweigh emigration. Many former Irish emigrants returned home, and the Republic became an attractive destination for immigrants from elsewhere. Since the post-2008 Irish economic downturn, however, the island has once again been experiencing net emigration.

Notable communities

Great Britain

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Spain and Latin America

In early modern Spain, legislation recognised the medieval origin myth which claimed that the Gaelic Irish had originated in the north of Spain. Thus, from the 16th till the 19th centuries, people born in Ireland were automatically considered natural subjects of the King of Spain with the rights and privileges of Spanish citizenship, without having to swear an oath of naturalisation. Political ties between Catholic Spain and the Catholic Gaelic order in Ireland during the Nine Years War and the Flight of the Earls contributed to the creation of an important Irish community in Spain and the wider Spanish Empire, so that people of Irish descent feature strongly in Latin America, especially in Argentina but with important minorities also in Mexico, Brazil and Chile. In Spain, the most notable Irish figure was the general and statesman Leopoldo O'Donnell, 1st Duke of Tetuán and Prime Minister of Spain on several occasions, whose descendants, the hereditary Dukes of Tetuan, retain leadership of the O'Donnell dynasty. Although some Irish retained their surnames intact such as the Chilean liberator Bernardo O'Higgins, others were assimilated into the Spanish vernacular. The last name "O'Brien", for example, became " Obregón", as notably borne by former president of Mexico Álvaro Obregón.

It is believed that as many as 30,000 Irish people emigrated to Argentina between the 1830s and the 1890s. ^[42] This was encouraged by the clergy, as they considered a Catholic country, Argentina, preferable to a Protestant United States. This flow of emigrants dropped sharply when assisted passage to Australia was introduced at which point the Argentine government responded with their own scheme and wrote to Irish bishops, seeking their support. However, there was little or no planning for the arrival of a large number of immigrants, no housing, no food. ^[43] Many died, others made their way to the United States and other destinations, some returned to Ireland, a few remained and prospered. Thomas Croke Archbishop of Cashel, said: "I most solemnly conjure my poorer countrymen, as they value their happiness hereafter, never to set foot on the Argentine Republic however tempted to do so they may be by offers of a passage or an assurance of comfortable homes." ^[44] Some famous Argentines of Irish descent include Che Guevara, former president Edelmiro Julián Farrell, and admiral William Brown.

In the mid-19th century, large numbers of Irish immigrants were conscripted into Irish regiments of the United States Army at the time of the Mexican–American War. The vast majority of the 4,811 Irish-born soldiers served in the U.S. Army, but some defected to the Mexican Army, primarily to escape mistreatment by Anglo-Protestant officers and the strong anti-Catholic discrimination in America. ^[45] These were the San Patricios, or Saint Patrick's Battalion—a group of Irish led by Galway-born John O'Riley, with some German, Scottish and American Catholics. ^[45] They fought until their surrender at the decisive Battle of Churubusco, and were executed outside Mexico City by the American government on 13 September 1847. ^[45] The battalion is commemorated in Mexico each year on 12 September. ^[46]

North America

People of Irish descent are the second largest self-reported ethnic group in the United States, after German Americans.

Nine of the signatories of the American Declaration of Independence were of Irish origin. ^[47] Among them was the sole Catholic signatory, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, whose family were the descendants of Ely O'Carroll, an Irish prince who had suffered under Cromwell. ^[48] At least twenty-five presidents of the United States have some Irish ancestral origins, including George Washington. ^{[49] [50] [51] [52]} Since John F. Kennedy took office in 1961, every American President (with the exception of Gerald Ford and Donald Trump) has had some Irish blood. ^{[53] [54] [55]} An Irish-American, James Hoban, was the designer of the White House. Commodore John Barry, who was born in County Wexford, was the father of the United States Navy. ^[56]

People of Irish descent are also one of the largest self-reported ethnic groups in Canada, after English, French and Scottish Canadians. As of 2006, Irish Canadians number around 4,354,155. ^[57]

Australia and New Zealand

During the 18th and 19th centuries, 300,000 free emigrants and 45,000 convicts left Ireland to settle in Australia. ^[58] Today, Australians of Irish descent are one of the largest self-reported ethnic groups in Australia, after English and Australian. In the 2006 Census, 1,803,741 residents identified themselves as having Irish ancestry either alone or in combination with another ancestry. ^[59] 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% of the population claim some degree of Irish ancestry. ^[60]

The Irish diaspora of the 19th century also reached New Zealand, drawn in some cases by the Otago Gold Rush, with many settling in Auckland, Canterbury and the West Coast. Today, there are roughly 600,000 New Zealanders of Irish ancestry, whose culture has mixed with other New Zealand European cultures to form modern-day culture of New Zealand. ^[61]

Asia and Africa

Irish people have travelled to Asia since the Middle Ages, during which period the most famous journeys were those of the Irish Franciscans Symon Semeonis and James of Ireland as far as Egypt, Sumatra and China. In modern times, the most famous Irishman in China was the influential Qing imperial official and moderniser Robert Hart, who headed China's Imperial Maritime Custom Service from 1863-1911. People of Irish descent in Hong Kong have included administrators J. J. Francis and G. S. Kennedy-Skipton, physician William Hartigan, and athletes Sean Tse and Siobhan Haughey, while Irish historian Francis John Byrne was born in Shanghai. From 1920 to 1954, hundreds of Irish men and women served as Roman Catholic missionaries in East Asia, including China, the Philippines, Korea, Burma and Japan, notably through the Missionary Society of St. Columban. Among these are the Columban Martyrs, killed by Japanese, North Korean or Chinese Communist forces during the 1920s-1950s. The Irish band The Chieftains visited China in 1985 shortly after the establishment of diplomatic relations, and became the first Western group to play on the Great Wall of China.

The first recorded Irishman in Japan was Robert Janson from Waterford, seized off the coast of Kyushu in 1704 during Japan's period of isolation and brought to Dejima Island. ^[62] Irish people have been present in Japan in greater numbers since the Bakumatsu and Meiji eras, which saw the arrival of mechanical engineer and naval architect Charles Dickinson West, civil architect Thomas Waters, ^[62] newspaper-owner and Japanese-language lexicographer Francis Brinkley, collector of Japanese legends and ghost stories Lafcadio Hearn, ^[62] and military bandmaster John William Fenton, known as the earliest promoter of Kimigayo as the national anthem of Japan and today considered "the father of band music in Japan". ^[62] More recent Irish people in Japan have included the footballers Robert Cullen, Colin Killoran, Niall Killoran and Naoise Ó Baoill, ^{[63] [64]} the singer Sowelu and the artist Shane Berkery.

Irish people have been present in the Indian subcontinent as traders or soldiers since the days of the East India Company, though the majority of these came from the Protestant Ascendancy. Prominent among them were the generals Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington and later Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and his brother Richard Wellesley, Governor-General of India and a great-great-great grandfather of Queen Elizabeth II. The Irish Protestant Celtic and Sanskrit scholar Whitley Stokes served in the civil administration in British India and was responsible for drafting much of the legal codes of civil and criminal procedure. Later in the Victorian period, many thinkers, philosophers and Irish nationalists from the Roman Catholic majority too made it to India, prominent among the nationalists being the theosophist Annie Besant. Other notable figures of Irish descent and Indian or Pakistani birth include the actresses Vivien Leigh and Amala Akkineni, the comedian Spike Milligan, the West Bengal politician Derek O'Brien and the Vice-Marshall of the Pakistan Air Force, Michael John O'Brian. Indian intellectuals such as Jawaharlal Nehru and V. V. Giri were inspired by Irish nationalists when they studied in the United Kingdom, and the Indian revolutionary group known as the Bengal Volunteers took this name in emulation of the Irish Volunteers.

In Africa, Irish communities can be found in Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Kimberley and Johannesburg, with smaller communities in Pretoria, Barberton, Durban and East London. A third of the Cape's governors were Irish, as were many of the judges and politicians. Both the Cape Colony and the Colony of Natal had Irish prime ministers: Sir Thomas Upington and Sir Albert Hime. Irish Cape Governors included Lord Macartney, Lord Caledon and Sir John Francis Cradock.