Thursday, September 17, 2009

Ireland 1926 census

The Ireland Funds - A comparative review of international diaspora strategies: "The Irish diaspora is quite staggering in size and depth. In addition to over 34 million Irish Americans registered in the 2000 census, not including 5 million who claimed to be Scots Irish, there are also 3.8 million Irish Canadians, 1.9 million Irish Australians and 500,000 Argentineans of Irish heritage.3 Add to that 800,000 Irish-born people living overseas and an estimated 6 million people in Britain having a close Irish relative and the sheer scale of this diaspora becomes both impressive and daunting.
There are now 3.1 million Irish citizens living outside the country and this number is increasing, with 72,000 passports issued in 2007 alone.4 There is also a growing next generation, with more than 10 million Irish Americans under the age of 18.5 Although Ireland itself has only a population of approximately 4.4 million and constitutes just 1 per cent of the total population of the EU, when looking through the lens of the diaspora, we are in fact a highly globalised country with over 70 million members in our transnational community."

Following on from the main article published in the September issue of 'Ireland's Genealogical Gazette' - the monthly newsletter of the Genealogical Society of Ireland – available at http://www.docstoc.com/docs/10652119 you may like to read the report from The Ireland Funds. The report - A Comparative Review of International Diaspora Strategies is downloadable, free of charge, in pdf format and makes for very interesting reading. Click on http://www.irlfunds.org/news/ffund/diaspora.asp to download a copy. Indeed, this Society's campaign to have the Statistics Act, 1993 amended to allow for a 'special heritage status' to be applied to the 1926 Census of Ireland and thus permitting its release to the public through the National Archives of Ireland would most certainly be a significant contribution to The Ireland Funds' strategy of promoting an awareness, appreciation and knowledge of Ireland amongst her Diaspora.

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