The Irish in Britain regard themselves in ways that do not accord with how we in Ireland are inclined to think about them, writes Brian Walker
At Westminster on May 15th, Irish and British leaders acknowledged the new relationship between Ireland and Britain. During these proceedings, attention focused not just on how the two countries now relate to each other but also on how Irish people have contributed and continue to contribute to society in Britain.
Links between the two countries are perhaps most vividly illustrated by the fact that both the current British prime minister and his predecessor are qualified by virtue of Irish family links to be considered for the Republic of Ireland soccer team. In the case of the former, this is due to his Irish mother (born in Co Donegal) while in the case of the latter it is thanks to an Irish grandmother.
The movement of population from Ireland to England, Scotland and Wales over the last two centuries has been extensive. There was an important wave of emigration from the 1840s until the 1860s. By 1861 the Irish born section of the population in Britain stood at just over 800,000.
There was another significant period of emigration from the 1930s until the 1960s. In 1971 the total of Irish born in Britain stood at about 952,000. In that year the population for the whole of Ireland was only four and a half million.
A majority of these immigrants have come from what is now the Republic of Ireland, but significant numbers have also come from Northern Ireland. Most have been Catholic, but it is reckoned that about 25 per cent have been Protestant.
The recently published 2001 census results cast a new and controversial light on the very many people in Britain born in Ireland, or the descendants of Irish born. For the first time, the census allowed people to record an Irish ethnic background.
This move came partly in response to a number of individuals and voluntary Irish groups in England which argued that the Irish in Britain were a marginalised and disadvantaged group. What emerged, however, was very different from what had been expected.
First, in spite of the presence today in Britain of three quarters of a million people born in Ireland, including both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, and of the many offspring of these emigrants and of the millions of earlier arrivals, a surprisingly low figure was recorded. The number to declare an Irish ethnic background came to only 691,000 persons, of whom nearly three-quarters were born in Ireland.
Secondly, although the picture is not a full one, analysis of the data about this Irish section by the Office of National Statistics revealed a view of Irish people in Britain very much at odds with some previous reports of their position.
Its 2006 report on ethnicity and religion stated that "the historical stereotype of the Irish manual labourer bears no relation to the factual evidence about occupational structure of the White Irish population".
It was revealed that the proportion of Irish men in a routine or manual occupational group was smaller not only than all other immigrant groups but also than "White British", while "more than one in three men and women of working age belonged to a managerial or professional occupational group, the highest proportion for any ethnic group".
In nearly half the households, Irish people shared with partners or children who classified themselves as "White British".
Various explanations have been put forward to explain the low numbers to record an Irish ethnic identity. The best reason, however, lies in the high degree of successful integration of Irish born people and their descendants into British society, and a consequent decline in Irish identity.
This point is evident when we consider individuals with an Irish background who have played or play today an important part in British society. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the political field.
At Westminster on May 15th, Prime Minister Tony Blair referred to his maternal grandfather who was a Co Donegal Orangeman, while the speaker of the House of Commons, Michael Martin, described how his forebears had come to Scotland from Co Cavan in the 1870s.
In his speech Taoiseach Bertie Ahern stated that at least 100 members of the current British parliament have an Irish background. Good examples are cabinet ministers Ruth Kelly, born in Limavady, and Des Browne, whose mother comes from Warrenpoint.
Former prime minister John Major in his memoirs has recorded how one of his grandfathers "married a young Irish girl, Sarah Anne Marrah; illiterate, my grandmother signed my father's birth certificate with an 'x'".
Recently, Chris Patten, last governor of Hong Kong, has remarked on the irony of his role as the great grandson of an Irish potato farmer in overseeing the closure of the last part of the British empire. The mother of Lord Patrick Mayhew, former secretary of state for Northern Ireland, was a member of the Co Cork family of Roche, barons of Fermoy.
Curiously, in spite of having another well known Cork name, it seems that former prime minister James Callaghan cannot be included in this list. In his autobiography he revealed that his father only assumed the name when he joined the navy, to escape his family, a fact which his son appears to have learned only after he became prime minister in 1976.
We can note, however, that the father of his deputy prime minister Dennis Healey was born at Kiltyclogher, Co Leitrim.
The successful integration of the vast majority of those with an Irish background into mainstream British society helps in large part to explain why more people were not willing to record an Irish ethnic category. Again, it is likely that the effect of IRA bombing in Britain was to cause many to wish to reaffirm their British identity at the expense of an Irish identity. In the census people could not choose a dual Irish British identity, and, faced with a choice, most selected British.
While the number of those who decided to acclaim an Irish identity in the 2001 census was low, this is not to say that the many others, who did not register, felt no affinity with Ireland or had lost all their Irish identity.
Under new circumstances, arising from the peace process and improved relations between the Irish and British governments, more people in Britain may well feel keener to acknowledge an Irish identity, although not necessarily through the census as a minority, since most see themselves as part of the mainstream.
These people can be regarded as British and Irish, similar to those who are British and English, Scottish or Welsh.
There has been a reluctance to accept this dual identity, partly because Irish and British are often seen as opposing identities. Many Irish people, especially in Ireland, are keen to distinguish between the two. At the same time many people in Britain have a restrictive sense of British identity which excludes an Irish dimension. Such sensitivities must be understood and appreciated.
Nonetheless, it must also be acknowledged that there are millions of people in Britain today who have an Irish background and identity alongside their British citizenship and identity, and this should be recognised. Indeed, appreciation of such a joint identity may now be possible, thanks to the example of the Belfast Agreement which accepted the right of the people of Northern Ireland to identify themselves "as Irish or British or both, as they may so choose".
This matter is of some importance for Irish identity on these islands. Given the number of people who have emigrated from Ireland to Britain over the last two centuries (at least three million) and their offspring, one could speculate that there are as many such Irish in Britain, as in all of Ireland with its population of about six million.
The 2001 British census recorded an acknowledgment of this Irish background by a relatively small proportion of the total Irish population. An acceptance of the validity of a British/Irish or an Irish/British identity may allow a recovery of Irish identity by many more of these people.
• Brian Walker holds the chair of Irish Studies at Queen's University Belfast