WHO ARE THE IRISH?
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR.
Sul—Permit me to add a little to the information you have already given the public on this subject. By referring to the official returns of the last cen- sus of the population of Ireland, you will find that the number of Catholics in Ireland is six millions and a half; of Protestants, of all denominations, one million and a half. All the Catholics, every soul of six millions and a half, are Irish, no matter what race they may have originally sprung from. They are in every point identified with the Celtic Irish, the Os and Macs who form by far the greatest portion of the Irish people. Somehow or other, this race or family has multiplied much more than any other. Out of the one million and a half of Protestants must be taken, a great many Independents, Presby- terians, and Quakers, besides many Church of England Protestants, and added to the catalogue of the Irish. The number of Anti-Irish in Ireland will, after these deductions, be found to he very small; for many more are Irish than dare say so. This remainder chiefly consists of Tory landlords, ministers with good livings, Whig barristers waiting for place, peelers, parish-clerks, sextons, and some old women who make all religion to consist in thumbing the Bible. This is the true division of Irish and Anti-lrish: and by laying it before your readers, you will add a net unimportant item to their stock of statistical _Nola bene. Hundreds of thousands of us speak Irish : but the matter of lan- guage is neither here nor there—we can think in your own language against you as well as in the Celtic, just as the Yankees do. 'Tis no go, that point about language. Postscript. I'd just like to tell you that I am one of nine children ; have eighteen uncles and aunts, including my father and mother, and fifty-six MOWS, including brothers and sisters. I have a small matter of eight chil- dren to provide for myself, six of them born at three births. There are living near me, three ministers, one Tory and three Whig landlords, who, though buckled these many years, have not got a crathur at all.
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