Making and Maintaining the Irish Diaspora

This is the English version of an article to be published in Catalan in the special Ireland issue of DCIDOB in 2010The story of the Irish diaspora is intertwined with that of English colonial rule and after Irish independence with post-colonial interdependence. During the 120 year period stretching from 1801 to 1921, some eight million people emigrated from Ireland, the migratory tendency only being reversed in the very late twentieth century. It is now likely that the economic demise of what had been called the “Celtic Tiger” - but in retrospect was it only ever a paper tiger ? - will once see again young Irish emigrants seeking economic refuge in established diasporic communities, or in new ones