The headline figure broadcast by the mainstream media on the release by the Central Statistics Office of data from the 2022 Census on the demographic makeup of the state might in other circumstances attract the attention of the ubiquitous “fact-checkers.”
Some of the chief self-designated “fact checkers,” decided instead that the best news from the Census was that the number of people identifying as Catholics had fallen. Where they reported on demography, they concentrated on the percentage of non-Irish citizens living in the state.
RTÉ was citing the CSO which decided that the best way to present the data was to point out that “just” 12% of those who completed the Census form were of other than Irish citizenship. And that this represents a small increase of 1% on the figure from the 2016 Census.
The obvious takeaway is that that all the talk of mass immigration and a much higher proportion of the population being non-Irish must be untrue, if not the invention of malicious disinformation merchants.
That, however, would not be an accurate take on the Census findings. Quite the opposite in fact.
If you dig down into the tables, the CSO release itself baldly states that the number of people living in Ireland who were born outside of the country in 2022 was 20%.
That is close enough to the 971,946 people who did not state that they were Irish citizens – over 160,000 did not even complete that section – and of course well over 120,000 people who were born outside of the country and are now Irish citizens.
The Census also found that 750,000 people speak a language other than English or Irish at home.
Presumably illegal immigrants mostly did not volunteer any details to the Census – and it is likely that many of the people living in illegally overcrowded accommodation also ignored the state’s tally.
The much-reported 12% figure also excludes a full 8% of the population who either listed no citizenship details or who are of dual or even multiple citizenship.
What the CSO tells us baldly is that more than a million people living within the Irish state were not born here.
They tell us that “the number of people who usually lived in Ireland but were born elsewhere stood at 20% of the population.”
“This represents 1,017,437 people, an increase from six years previously.”
As our previous analyses of demographics have concluded, that is the absolute baseline. The true figure could be tens of thousands greater.
No one knows, not even the sections of the state administration tasked with such matters. They offered an amnesty for illegal immigrants and can still not put a figure on the true number. Nor on the unenumerated unfortunates trafficked here as slaves.
No matter what way one looks at this, it is an extraordinary situation. Not only the fact that any state should be host to so many people who were born in a different country, but the rapidity with which this has taken place is staggering.
The equivalent figure for the UK in 2020 was 14% born outside of the state which was the same as the United States in 2018. Think about that for a moment.
Along with that, the forecasts by the ESRI and others, and the projections upon which the National Development Plan and Project 2040 are based, look increasingly out of line with even their most radical demographic forecasts.
I made that point almost three years ago and noted that John McGuirk of this parish had commented that no state which was refusing to seriously set about controlling inward migration could have any idea of what future housing, welfare, policing, and other requirements might be.
In this scenario, any document claiming to be a ‘National Development Plan’ has as much likelihood to predict the future as Mystic Meg.
That the population would possibly – and at most – increase by one million between the 2016 Census as forecast by the ESRI and others is, at current levels of migration and even setting aside the supposedly “temporary” nature of the growing intake of Ukrainians, likely to be well below what was forecast.
At current rates of immigration, the population will have increased to more than 6 million by 2040 and the vast bulk of that increase will be made up of non-Irish nationals. Going by current PPS issues, with Irish people accounting for around 23% in recent years, at least 70% of the population increase will comprise non nationals.
The proportion of the population of the state made up of people born outside of the state and of people who are second generation non-nationals will be approaching or have surpassed two million or at least one third of the population of the state.
Other projections, including one made in 2005 when it was lampooned, have forecast that at least half of the population of the state will be non-nationals by 2050.
Some people believe that this is a good thing. They range from people whose only moral or intellectual yardstick is their bank account to far-left extremists who believe that mass immigration will help to destabilise the country. Don’t mind all their nonsense about integration. They see it as a means to bring about social collapse and their taking power.
Both extremes no doubt look on the other as being among Lenin’s “useful idiots.” Given that it is the rich ones or the state, or a combination of, who are mostly paying the wages of the lefties, you may make a shrewd stab at that.
In between there are a range of people who tend to one side or the other or who Pollyanna-like inanely believe all that they hear about diversity and think that the country is already a soft-focus TV advertisement, and that if it is not that it ought to be.
What those who know exactly what is happening at both extremes seem to share is a determination to conceal all of this from people who rely on misleading headlines that in no way accurately reflect the radical, rapid and ongoing shifts in the demographic makeup of the Irish state.
For people who believe that all of this diversity is an unmitigated boon they appear to go to great lengths to conceal what is actually taking place.
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So called ‘multi culturalism has never and will never work. This government has and continues to oversee the plantation of Ireland. Soon native Irish people will be a minority in their own country. This is treason and the perpetrators should be treated as traitors.
If it’s 12% of people born abroad I do not see the Native Irish being a minority anytime soon
Ethnic Irish. They have already gone from 97% to 75% in 20 years
Mass immigration is counter to Government policies on climate change. Another contradiction.
That is the result of a pervasive attitude of “Ah shure it will be alright” that exists on every level in this country.
My guess is that it wont be allright. I strongly suspect that 2024 will see several incidents similar to the attack on Israel in several western countries. Diversity is likely going to be proven to be anything but a strength very soon.
That’s utter nonsense.
The attack on Israel came out of concrete historical and current circumstance.
Including multiple attacks by Israel over the past 40 years,
Israel has yet to attack any European country
In 1920 the population of what became the Free State (26 counties) was 4.2 million. Unless I’m reading the figures wrong, there’s less native Irish people in the country now than there was 100 years ago.
Thank you FF/FG/Lab.
4.2 million may have been the population of the whole island in 1922
Any figures on the age breakdown of the nationalities which would give a clearer picture of where Ireland will stand ethnically in 10 to 20 years.
Spot On.
The migrants are younger and are lnto having babies.
By ethnicity the number of under 45s irish has declined by 9% since 2011.
Replacement migration is a conspiracy theory remember ????
More than 8500 could have been added to the Irish population in 2022 through adoption of the babies that were aborted. I find it scandalous when politicians do not care about these babies but want to bring people in to Ireland to increase the younger population.
That 20% also include those in the border counties born in the North
It may already be too late
Being born outside the state does not mean a person is not Irish. Plenty of people with Irish parents were born outside the state, be it in Great Britain, Northern Ireland, USA, Australia etc. You do realise that a lot of Irish people emigrated elsewhere when life was hard here, had children overseas and returned with families when things improved. For flip sake, Gript editor’s erstwhile boss falls into that category.