Who are the Irish in Britain? Evidence from Large-scale Surveys

Abstract

Large-scale surveys tell us a lot about the Irish in Britain, despite their relatively low proportion in the population. This chapter discusses the Labour Force Survey (LFS), the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) and the British portion of the multinational European Community Household Panel survey (ECHP). In this section a number of further characteristics of the Irish in Britain are examined, namely education, religion, health, region, and current employment status. However, it is also likely that the level of education in Northern Ireland is higher than that in the Republic as well as that in Britain. Britain has always been an important destination for migrants from Ireland. The Gaels of Scotland have Irish origins, and the Lleyn peninsula in Wales is named for the Leinster people who settled there. Throughout the industrial revolution the Irish provided a great deal of labour and are conventionally said to have dug the canals and built the railways.