Anti-Irish sentiment, also Hibernophobia, is bigotry against the Irish people or individuals. It can include hatred, oppression, persecution, as well as simple discrimination. Generally, it could be bigotry against people from the island of Ireland, the Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland. Specifically, it could be directed against Irish immigrants, or their descendants, throughout the world, who are known as the Irish diaspora.
Anti-Irish sentiment has occurred from the early modern period up until current day. The British colonisation of Ireland heavily contributed to the public perspective of the Irish. Other instances were also recorded during Irish immigration to Great Britain, North America, Australia and New Zealand. Anti-Irish sentiment can include internal conflict dealing with social, ethnic and cultural discrimination within Ireland itself. Sectarianism and cultural, religious or political conflicts are referred to as the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
Hostility increased towards the Irish over the centuries, as they steadfastly remained Roman Catholic despite the fact that Edward VI and subsequent rulers used coercion to convert them to Protestantism. Penal laws were created to marginalize the Catholic population and convert them to Protestantism by taking away vital parts of everyday life such as owning land, voting, and education. The religious majority of the Irish nation was ruled by a religious minority, leading to perennial social conflict. During the Great Famine in the middle of the 19th century, some evangelical Protestants sought to convert the starving Catholics as part of their relief efforts. British colonisation of Ireland led to many discriminatory laws being passed against Catholics and the Irish population. These laws led to uprisings and wars between the Irish and British, leading to damaged relationships between the two. Although the Catholic population was persecuted to a great extent, Catholicism still remains the religion of the majority of the inhabitants of Ireland.
Negative attitudes towards the Irish was fostered through political propaganda and the views of the people that lived in the places the Irish immigrated to. The struggle to escape British power through wars and uprisings worsened anti-Irish sentiment in English individuals. The Irish were not widely accepted in the places they migrated to and often struggled to find work. The result of World War II deepened tension towards the Irish. Northern Ireland, which is a part of the UK, tends to be more Protestant but with a growing Catholic population. Discrimination in Northern Ireland is mostly a results from disputes between Protestant and Catholic faith.
Modern day anti-Irish sentiment no longer lies in immigration or religious tension, but rather notable individuals who discriminate against the Irish due to bad personal experiences. The Great Famine is often used against the Irish and remind them of their past. Ethnic stereotypes continue to be a source of negative sentiment towards the Irish.
Politics Politics often diminished the value of the Irish people. A British political cartoon called "Wild Beast" displayed the Irish as inferior wild animals that have no self control. The immigrant Irish population in the United States integrated themselves into American politics to climb the socioeconomic ladder, but in the process faced discrimination from the native population.Moynihan, E. (n.d.). An Irish attempt to acculturate: White Identity Politics, Denis Kearney. An Irish Attempt to Acculturate: White Identity Politics, Denis Kearney and the Workingmen’s Party of California. https://dash.harvard.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/030f8953-6b50-44dd-9eed-fc082b82e510/content
History Middle Ages The Middle Ages relates to the early modern period, which starts in 1500. The majority of anti-Irish sentiment in the Pre-modern era is due to English colonisation within Ireland. Negative English attitudes towards the Gaelic Irish and their culture date as far back as the reign of Henry II of England. In 1155, Pope Adrian IV (himself an Englishman) issued the papal bull called , that gave Henry permission to conquer Ireland as a means of strengthening the Papacy's control over the Irish Church, although the very existence of the bull is disputed by modern historians. Pope Adrian called the Irish a "rude and barbarous" nation. The Norman invasion of Ireland began in 1169 with the backing of Pope Alexander III, who was Pope at the time of the invasion and ratified the , giving Henry dominion over Ireland. He likewise called the Irish a "barbarous nation" with "filthy practices".
Gerald of Wales visited Ireland in 1183 and again in 1185 when he accompanied King Henry's son, John, on his expedition to Ireland. As a result of this he wrote the ("Topography of Ireland") and the ("Conquest of Ireland"), both of which remained in circulation for centuries afterwards. Ireland, in his view, was rich; but the Irish were backward and lazy:
Gerald's views were not atypical, and similar views may be found in the writings of William of Malmesbury and William of Newburgh. When it comes to Irish marital and sexual customs Gerald is even more biting: "This is a filthy people, wallowing in vice. They indulge in incest, for example in marrying – or rather debauching – the wives of their dead brothers". Even earlier than this Archbishop Anselm accused the Irish of wife swapping, "exchanging their wives as freely as other men exchange their horses".
One will find these views echoed centuries later in the words of Sir Henry Sidney, twice Lord Deputy of Ireland during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, and in those of Edmund Tremayne, his secretary. In Tremayne's view the Irish "commit whoredom, hold no wedlock, ravish, steal and commit all abomination without scruple of conscience". In A View of the Present State of Ireland, circulated in 1596 but not published until 1633, the English official and renowned poet Edmund Spenser wrote "They are all papists by profession but in the same so blindingly and brutishly informed that you would rather think them atheists or infidels". In a "Brief Note on Ireland", Spenser argued that "Great force must be the instrument but famine must be the means, for till Ireland be famished it cannot be subdued ... There can be no conformity of government where is no conformity of religion ... There can be no sound agreement between two equal contraries viz: the English and Irish".
Anti-Irish sentiments played a role in atrocities which were perpetrated against the Irish. For instance, in 1305, Piers Bermingham received a financial bonus and accolades in verse after beheading thirty members of the O'Conor clan and sending them to Dublin. In 1317, one Irish chronicler opined that it was just as easy for an Englishman to kill an Irishman or English woman to kill an Irish woman as he would a dog. The Irish were thought of as the most barbarous people in Europe, and such ideas were modified to compare the Scottish Highlands or Gàidhealtachd where traditionally Scottish Gaelic is spoken to medieval Ireland.
To prevent the English from integrating into Irish society, the Parliament passed the Statutes of Kilkenny in 1366. These acts forbade the speaking of the Irish language among English settlers and any Irish living with them. They also prevented marriages between English and Irish and segregated the churches. These were limited in area to the Pale and enforcement is debated. The first diligent attempt to phase out the Irish language and culture across the island came from Henry VIII in 1537. The 'Act for English Order, Habit and Language' required the Irish parishes to contain an English grammar school and required everyone to do their best to speak English and teach their children English language. The schools were not fully implemented till the National Schools in 1833. The act stated that the Irish possess "a certain savage and wild kind and manner of living" which it sought to remove.
Early modern period
The early modern period refers to time period of 1500-1800. Religious tension and British colonisation was the predominant cause of anti-Irish sentiment during the early modern period. In the early modern period which followed the advent of Protestantism in Great Britain, Irish Catholics were subjected to social and political discrimination because they refused to renounce Catholicism. Irish Catholics lost many rights concerning land, inheritance, voting, and they lost more rights under the penal laws. This discrimination sometimes manifested itself in areas with large Puritan or Presbyterian populations such as the northeastern parts of Ireland, the Central Belt of Scotland, and parts of Canada."Irish immigrants and Canadian destinies in Margaret Atwood's 'Alias Grace. Ecaterina Hanţiu University of Oradea. Thinly veiled nationalism under the guise of religious conflict has occurred in both the UK and Ireland.
In 1649, under Oliver Cromwell's control of the British Parliament, Cromwell organised the Siege of Drogheda in Ireland. The Siege of Drogheda brought thousands of innocent casualties to soldiers and civilians in Ireland. Cromwell gained inspiration for the conquest of Ireland through encouragement for British conquest, the spread of Protestantism, and plain animosity towards the Irish.Bernard, Nicholas, and George Walker. The whole proceedings of the siege of Drogheda. To which is added, A true account of the siege of London-Derry. Printed by R. Reilly on Cork-Hill, for S. Hyde Bookseller in Dame's-Street, M.DCCXXXVI. . Eighteenth Century Collections Online, link.gale.com/apps/doc/CW0107667814/ECCO?u=nd_ref&sid=summon&xid=d6c69431&pg=14. Accessed 29 Mar. 2026.
The Act for the Settlement of Ireland 1652 barred Irish Catholics from most public offices and confiscated large amounts of their land, much of which was given to Protestant settlers.John Morley, Biography of Oliver Cromwell. Page 298. 1900 and 2001. .; British National Archives web site. Accessed March 2007; From a history site dedicated to the English Civil War. "... making Cromwell's name into one of the most hated in Irish history". Accessed March 2007. Site currently offline. WayBack Machine holds archive here
Anti-Irish sentiment is found in works by several 18th-century writers such as the French philosopher Voltaire, who depicted the Catholic Irish as savage and backward, and defended British rule in the country.
19th century
Anti-Irish sentiment in the 19th century heavily involved negative images of the Irish due to political propaganda and immigration due to the poor economic state of Ireland. The immigration of the Irish to various places such as America and Europe brought mixed emotions amongst the native residents. Anti-Irish sentiments in Victorian Britain and 19th century United States manifested themselves the stereotyping of the Irish as violent and alcoholic. The Irish were consistently depicted as everything but civilised. Magazines such as Punch portrayed the Irish as having "bestial, ape-like or demonic features and the Irishman, (especially the political radical) was invariably given a long or prognathous jaw, the stigmata to the phrenologists of a lower evolutionary order, degeneracy, or criminality."