Home > Irish ethnicity

Irish ethnicity is common in the world, as many people are descended from Ireland or share an Irish heritage. In the independent Republic of Ireland most people are descended from a mix of two groups, the Gaelic Irish who came from Spain around 500 BC and the Norman Irish who invaded the country after 1169 AD. It is common for some Irish surnames to be anglicized, meaning that they were changed to sound more English. This usually occurred with Irish immigrants arriving in the United States during the 19th and early 20th centuries.

It is also very common for people of Gaelic origin to have surnames beginning with "O" or "Mac" (sometimes Mc and occasionally it has been shortened to just Ma at the beginning of the name, like with MaGuire). "O" comes from Ui which in Ancient Irish meant "grandson of", for example the descendants of King Brian Boru were known as the "Ui Brien" clan and later the O'Brien clan. "Mac" as with Scottish names (the Irish and Scottish sharing a similar Gaelic heritage) meant "son of", many names also begin with this. Some common surnames that begin with O are: O'Niell, O'Brien, O'Leary, O'Shaugnassy, O'Donnell, O'Toole, O'Meara, O'Malley, O'Hara, and O'Bradaigh. Some names that begin with Mac are: McGonigle, McGuinty, MacStiofain, MacDonagh, MacGuinness, McGroyn, MaGuire, MaGonigle, and many others.

"Fitz" is an Irish version of the old Norman French world "fils". A few names that begin with Fitz are: FitzSimmons, FitzGibbons, FitzPatrick and FitzRoy. All Irish names that begin with the Norse Fitz were originally like other Irish names, but where than Normanized through intermarriages and alliances. For example, FitzSimmons comes from MacSioman. All Irish people with Normanized Irish names are also of Gaelic descent, in the late 10th and 11th centuries Norman Barons invaded Ireland and took over parts of the country. However after a short while, their allegiance with England ended, they intermarried with ruling Irish clans, adopted Irish culture and the Irish language and as the English put it "became as Irish as the Irish themselves". The Normans became heavily assimilated into Irish culture and today the "Norman"-Irish really don't have any ethnic differences with the Gaelic-Irish, since they are predominately Gaelic in origin themselves.

In Northern Ireland a small majority of the population are Protestant, whilst a large minority are Roman Catholic. After Ireland became subdued by England in 1603 the English under King James 1st, Oliver Cromwell, William 3rd and successors, began the settling of Protestant English and later Scottish colonists into the northern province of Ulster. However they did not intermarry heavily or integrate upon arrival with the native Irish like the Normans did centuries earlier.

Hundreds of thousands of native Irish were forcibly removed during the 17th and 18th centuries from parts of Ulster and replaced by loyalist communities. It is predominately religion, history and political differences (Irish nationalism vs. British unionism) that divide the two communities, as most of the Scotch-Irish settlers are of Gaelic origin themselves and therefore related to their Irish Catholic neighbours. In 1921, with Irish independenceThe Irish Free State ( Irish language:, Saorstat Eireann was ( 1922 1937) the name of the state comprising the 26 of Ireland's 32 counties which were separated from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland under the Irish Free State Agreement (or A, 6 counties in Ulster which all had a small protestant majority where separated from the rest of the country to create the Northern Ireland. That is why Northern Ireland is almost split in half between Catholics and Protestants, while the Republic of Ireland is almost 96% Roman Catholic.

"Ulster-Irish" surnames tend to differ based on which community families originate from. Ulster Protestants tend to have either English or Scottish surnames while Irish CatholicIrish Catholics are persons of predominantly Irish descent who adhere to the Roman Catholic faith. The term excludes Scotch-Irish and Irish Protestants. The term has currency in Ireland, England, Canada, the United States and Australia.s tend to have Irish surnames.