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The Irish diaspora consists of Irish emigrants and their descendants in countries such as the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Quebec and Australia. By one estimate, the diaspora contains as many as 60 million people.
There are also large Irish communities in every EU member state as well in Japan, Argentina and Brazil. The classic image of an Irish immigrant is led occasionally by racist and anti-Catholic stereotypes. In the US, the Irish are perceived as hard workers and hard drinkers - most notably they are associated with the position of policeman in the larger Eastern-Seaboard metropolitan areas. In Great Britain the Irish are viewed by some with derision, due in part to the late twentieth century IRA bombing campaign there; a perception exists that the Irish are involved in the building trade, probably because of the influx of navvies to build the canal, road and rail networks in the 19th century.
Over the centuries, political oppression, joblessness, and hunger in a sometimes harsh land have forced the sons and daughters of Irish parents to leave to other shores, particularly the shores of "Amerikay," where a livelihood was (it was hoped) easier.
This experience was immortalized in the words of many songs including the famous Irish ballad, "The Green Fields of America":
- So pack up your sea-stores, consider no longer,
- Ten dollars a week is not very bad pay,
- With no taxes or tithes to devour up your wages,
- When you're on the green fields of America.
See also - Biography
See also - General
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