Brian Walkerfinds that the definition of Irish among our diaspora is as varied as what constitutes being Irish on this island.
In recent times the Irish diaspora has been the subject of much renewed interest. David McWilliams has urged that the energy and enterprise of the 70 million members of the Irish diaspora should be harnessed for the good of contemporary Ireland. But who exactly are these people?
At a recent debate at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, former president Mary Robinson faced criticism that her promotion, as president, of the Irish diaspora as part of the "national family" had the unintended result of legitimising a concept of Irishness based mainly on blood.
Donald Keough, at the inaugural US-Ireland Forum in New York, has warned that concern for the Irish diaspora has left out the Scots-Irish in America.
The first point that must be made is that, in her famous speech on the Irish diaspora to the two Houses of the Oireachtas in 1995, Mary Robinson specifically rejected a narrow view of Irishness both at home and abroad.
She stressed not only the spread of Irish people in the world but also the diversity of the country of Ireland that provided this flow of people. She reminded her listeners of the varied groups, including not only Celts but also English and Scottish settlers and others, that had inhabited Ireland over the centuries.
She then warned that "if we expect that the mirror held up to us by Irish communities abroad will show a single familiar identity, or a pure strain of Irishness, we will be disappointed. We will overlook the fascinating diversity of culture and choice which looks back at us".
The examples of the US, Canada and Great Britain serve to illustrate the diversity of the Irish abroad, as well as recent changes that have occurred in the Irish diaspora.
The 1980 census report showed that 40 million Americans claimed to have Irish ancestry but did not record the religion of these people. For the first time, however, a series of authoritative opinion polls in the 1970s and 1980s sought to correlate ethnic background with religious affiliation.
To the surprise of many it was revealed that slightly over 50 per cent who said their primary ethnic identity was Irish were Protestant. How do we explain this fact?
The main explanation for the numerical predominance of Protestants today among the Irish in America lies in the historical pattern of emigration from Ireland to America.
The first waves of emigration occurred in the 18th century. Most of these people were Presbyterians and descendants of Scottish emigrants who had settled in Ulster during the 17th and early 18th centuries.
Between the early 18th century and the American Revolution up to 250,000 people left Ulster for the American colonies. These people called themselves, and were called by others, Irish, although the term Scotch Irish was sometimes used (today the term Scots Irish is more commonly employed). Not insignificant numbers of Protestants would continue to emigrate to America in the 19th and 20th centuries.
It is not until the 1830s that for the first time a majority of emigrants from Ireland to America were Catholic. Massive emigration would now occur during and after the Famine and the vast bulk of these emigrants were Catholic who would create important neighbourhoods in places like New York and Boston.
In common perception Irish identity in America became associated closely with the Catholic Irish, who were known as Irish-Americans, many of whom developed a strong religious and political identification with Ireland. The Protestant Irish population, including the Scotch Irish, were not part of the new Irish community and identity.
This pattern of emigration is the main reason why today a majority of those who claim an Irish background are Protestant rather than Catholic. Protestant emigrants came earlier to the colonies than Catholic emigrants and so, due primarily to a multiplier factor, more people with Irish ancestry are from a Protestant than a Catholic background. Analyses of the 1970s found that 83 per cent of Protestants were at least fourth generation while only 41 per cent of Catholics had such early origins in America.
Recent decades have seen a shift to a more pluralist view of the Irish diaspora in America. People today from an Irish-American background are much less differentiated by the distinctive political and religious features of earlier decades. Among descendants of the Irish Protestant emigrants there is a new awareness of their Irish background. There is a growing interest in Scotch Irish heritage, led by individuals such as Senator Jim Webb of Virginia.
The situation in Canada has always been different from that in the US. In 1991 around 3.8 million Canadians claimed full or partial Irish ancestry. It is believed that some 55 per cent of Irish settlers in Canada were Protestant. A majority of these Protestant emigrants, among whom members of the Church of Ireland were predominant, came from Ulster although significant numbers also came from elsewhere in Ireland.
There was a strong tendency for Irish settlers to congregate among members of their own faith. For example, Irish Catholics were very numerous in Newfoundland while Irish Protestants were strongly based around Ontario.
Both Irish communities retained a sense of Irish identity in their own manner. For Catholics, their sense of Irish identity was encouraged by organisations such as the Christian Brothers in the separate Catholic schooling system and by the Ancient Order of Hibernians.
For Protestants an important way in which the connection with Ireland was maintained was through the Orange Order. Orangeism, which was a distinctly Irish creation, spread significantly not only among Irish Protestants but also other Canadians, until by the end of the 19th century it is reckoned that one in three Canadian Protestant males was a member.
By the last quarter of the 20th century, however, denominational differences mattered little in Canada. Organisations such as the Christian Brothers and the Orange Order had ceased to have much influence. Members of both Irish communities are now fully integrated into Canadian society.
There has been constant emigration of people from Ireland to Great Britain throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. The bulk of these emigrants have been Catholic but it is believed that around 25 per cent have been Protestant.
Again there was a tendency for many of these emigrants to congregate around members of their own religious background and to create distinct communities in places such as Liverpool and Glasgow.
Today few such separate communities survive and the vast majority of Irish-born or descendants of Irish-born people are integrated successfully into British society.
Clearly then, as Mary Robinson remarked in 1995, the Irish abroad do not reflect a single familiar identity or a pure strain of Irishness, but a "fascinating diversity of culture and choice". If we fail to understand this we "miss the chance to have that dialogue with our own diversity which this reflection offers us".
The members of the diaspora remain diverse in various ways. Many of the American descendants of the Scotch Irish of Ulster are enthusiastic republicans while many of the Irish-born and descendants of Irish-born in Britain are well integrated British citizens.
In recent years there have been important changes in how the communities of the diaspora relate to Irish identity. Thanks in large part to a diminution of divisions in Christianity, the successful integration of most Irish emigrants into their new countries and a concern for the peace process in Northern Ireland, there has been a considerable reduction in religious and political links to Irish identity abroad.
There is now a widespread attempt among the Irish diaspora to see Irish identity in cultural, non-denominational and non-political ways. The enthusiastic support in many countries for the Ireland Funds is one example of new non-partisan identification with Ireland among the members of the Irish diaspora. Throughout the diaspora there is a strong interest in family and cultural attachments to Ireland.
The continued concern of many in the diaspora for Ireland should bring some comfort to David McWilliams's idea of using their support for the future. At the same time, it should be acknowledged that most of the Irish abroad now play a full part in their adopted countries and it would not be possible or desirable to take them from this.
Clearly, the diverse experiences of people in Ireland and overseas have great relevance for how we view our new immigrants. They are only the latest in a long line of people to come to Ireland. Millions of Irish people through the centuries have also faced the many challenges of living in another country.
To paraphrase Kipling: "What do they know of Ireland who only Ireland know?" Knowledge of the diversity and experiences of the Irish abroad can give us a special insight into the situation of our new arrivals today.
Brian Walker holds the chair of Irish Studies at Queen's University Belfast.