| Group: | European Irish |
| Population: | 3,900,000 Irish trips to Continental Europe in 2006. 70 million Irish 1st and 2nd Generation live abroad, 4% in Continental Europe, equates to 2.8 million Irish people in Continental Europe(Central Statistics Office (Ireland).) |
| Regions: | All over continental Europe, particularly France and Spain |
| Langs: | English, Irish |
| Rels: | Christian (Roman Catholicism, Protestantism) |
| Related: | Irish people, Overseas Irish |
Irish people in mainland Europe are members of the Irish diaspora who reside in mainland Europe.
Irish presence in Central Europe dates back to the Middle Ages, when Irish monks established several monasteries, including the Schottenstift in Vienna in 1155.[1]
There were 1,830 and 257 Irish people in Poland and Slovakia, respectively, according to the 2011 Polish census and 2021 Slovak census.[2] [3]
Thirty thousand Irish live in France; this number includes more than 15,000 in Paris.[4]
Irish presence in Germany dates back to the Middle Ages, as by the turn of the 13th century Irish Benedictines established monasteries in Regensburg, Würzburg, Constance, Erfurt and Nuremberg, and several priories.[5]
Over 2,800 people moved to Germany from Ireland in 2012, including almost 800 German citizens.[6] As of 2021, about 35,000 Irish live in Germany.[7] Together with Germans interested in Irish culture, some of these emigrants organise Irish cultural events across the country.
In Belgium, St Anthony's College, Leuven was an important centre of early modern migration, hosting priests and theological students from the 1600s until the early 1980s. The college's students helped preserve national traditions and the Irish language during the penal laws period. Sean O’ Dubhghaill suggests a population of around 11,000 Irish nationals in 2019, though advertising for The Gathering Ireland 2013 claimed a much higher number of around 400,000 people with either Irish nationality or heritage.[8] Belgium's national statistics office Statbel distinguishes between Belgians, neighbouring nationalities (France, Netherlands, Luxembourg and Germany), EU and non-EU nationals, but does not disclose exact figures for individual nationalities.
There were 10,241 Irish people registered as living in the Netherlands at the beginning of 2023.[9] The leader of the Dutch agrarian party Farmer-Citizen Movement, Caroline van der Plas, is of maternal Irish descent.
According to Statec, approximately 2,400 Irish nationals reside in Luxembourg as of January 2024.[10]
See main article: Irish Russians.