There are no towns in Ireland where Irish people have become a minority, despite a claim made by Conor McGregor in the White House on St Patrick’s Day.
During his visit to US president Donald Trump, Mr McGregor said: “There are rural towns in Ireland that have been overrun in one swoop, that have become a minority in one swoop.”
However, the MMA fighter’s claim is incorrect, according to figures from the Central Statistics Office.
The results of the most recent census, taken in April 2022, highlight a large influx into Ireland of Ukrainians and others seeking asylum, but Irish residents still make up the majority of people.
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Details about immigration from census 2022 were released by the CSO in October 2023, showing that there were almost 632,000 non-Irish citizens living in Ireland at the time of the census, comprising 12 per cent of the population (up slightly from 11 per cent in census 2016).
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In census 2022, Ballyhaunis in Mayo was the town with the highest proportion of non-Irish residents at 37 per cent. Other towns with a large share of non-Irish citizens included the Longford towns of Ballymahon (33 per cent) and Edgeworthstown (31 per cent).
These figures may have changed since 2022, but not to the extent that Irish people are now a minority in certain towns.
Brian Killoran, chief executive of the Immigrant Council of Ireland, said migration to Ireland was “a massive success story”, both in terms of locals welcoming people and the people themselves giving back to their new communities.
Mr Killoran acknowledged there has been increased pressure on the international protection system in particular in recent years but added that there had been “unprecedented community-level engagement around these issues”.
“Thousands and thousands of people across the country, either voluntarily or working with organisations or community groups, [are] trying to build a welcome for those who have come to Ireland,” he said.
