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Irish ethnicity is common in the world, as many people are descended from Ireland or share an Irish heritage.
Irish people
Holinshed, speaking of the Irish, observes:—"Greedy of praise they be, and fearful of dishonour; and to this end they esteem their poets, who write Irish learnedly, and pen their sonnets heroical, for the which they are bountifully rewarded; if not, they send out libels in dispraise, whereof the lords and gentlemen stand in great awe. They love tenderly their foster children, and bequeath to them a child’s fortune, whereby they nourish sure friendship,—so beneficent every way, that commonly 500 cows and better are given in reward to win a nobleman’s child to foster; they love and trust their foster children more than their own. Proud they are of long crisped bushes of hair, which they term libs. They observe divers degrees, according to which each man is regarded. The basest sort among them are little young wasps, called daltins: these are lacqueys, and are serviceable to the grooms, or horseboys, who are a degree above the daltins. The third degree is the kaerne, which is an ordinary soldier, using for weapon his sword and target, and sometimes his piece, being commonly so good marksmen, as they will come within a score of a great cartele. The fourth degree is a gallowglass, using a kind of poll-axe for his weapon, strong, robust men, chiefly feeding on beef, pork, and butter. The fifth degree is to be a horseman, which is the chiefest, next to the lord and captain. These horsemen, when they have no stay of their own, gad and range from house to house, and never dismount till they ride into the hall, and as far as the tables."
Descent In the Republic of Ireland most people consider themselves to be descended from a mixture of two broad groups; the successive waves of Celts from continental Europe arriving between 700 BC and 100 BC; and several subsequent ones from Great Britain, beginning with the Normans who invaded the country after 1169 AD.
Surnames 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 High King of Ireland 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 word "fis" meaning son. A few names that begin with Fitz are: FitzSimmons, FitzGibbons, FitzPatrick and FitzRoy. All Irish names that begin with the Norman Fitz were originally like other Irish names, but were then 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 to 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 do not have any ethnic differences with the Gaelic-Irish, since they are predominately Gaelic in origin themselves.
Recent History 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 James I of England (reigned 1603 - 1625), Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell (term 1653 - 1658) , William III of England (reigned 1689 - 1702) and their 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 independence, 6 counties in Ulster which all had a small protestant majority were 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 Catholics tend to have Irish surnames.
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