THE IRISH in Britain have moved en masse from the building site to the boardroom, a new study has found.
The analysis of the UK’s Companies House records shows the Irish are now the most numerous of any foreigners in Britain’s boardrooms.
In all, there are 22,511 registrations for Irish people listed as members of boards of directors on companies in England, Scotland and Wales – ahead of the number from India, Australia and the United States.
The number rises to 44,352 when the 21,841 who actively declare themselves as Irish in Northern Ireland is included, according to research commissioned by Eulogy PR, the largest Irish-owned public relations company in the UK.
The figures, in the words of Giles O’Neill, Enterprise Ireland’s director in Britain, confirmed the deep business links between the Republic and the UK: “[It] should give us confidence that we can continue to trade successfully together through these challenging times.”
Compared to the Irish figures, India has 15,852 registrations listed; Australia 12,228, while the US has 10,360 of its citizens sitting on British boards and resident there, while Nigeria has 10,001, and Italians are in sixth place with 9,773.
Predictably, London and the south-east is the most heavily represented in the Irish figures, with 6,775 and 8,098 UK registered directors of Irish nationality respectively.
The northwest of England, Devon and Cornwall and the west midlands – particularly around Birmingham, traditional centres for Irish emigrants in the past – are the areas that come next for high Irish representation on boards.
Equally, the traditional emigration patterns are reflected by the low number of Irish directors registered in the northeast of England, in Newcastle and other such cities. Just 297 are listed for this region.
The figure for all of Wales, however, is strikingly low, with just 370 registrations.
The figures show more than 40 per cent of the total are women.
The best-represented age group for Irish directors in the UK is 41-45, though the five-year bands on either side are not far behind, according to the figures.
Ireland leads in every category except directors under the age of 30, where India comes top, said Eulogy PR chief executive Adrian Brady.
“However, over 25 per cent of Irish company directors are under the age of 40, which demonstrates the young Irish entrepreneurial spirit is still alive and thriving,” he added.
The large presence of Irish directors, and those of other nationalities, illustrates the international nature of business in the UK, said Iain Lovatt of Blue Sheep consultants who was involved in the survey. “This research sheds significant insight into the importance of international company directors and the role they play in UK economy as a whole.
“As the world pulls itself out of a difficult recessionary period, it is clear from these findings that the UK cannot see itself as an island.”