The Irish

The Irish: Emigration, Marriage, and Fertility by Robert E. Kennedy, Jr. is a groundbreaking sociological and demographic analysis of one of Europe’s most paradoxical populations. While Ireland lost more than half its population between 1841 and 1966, it simultaneously exhibited a striking combination of postponed marriage, high rates of permanent celibacy, and the highest marital fertility in the West. Kennedy uses rich census and vital registration records, alongside social history and literature, to disentangle what is truly unique about Irish demographic patterns and what represents extreme versions of wider European trends. Through careful attention to mortality, migration, and fertility, he demonstrates how Ireland became a test case for middle-range theories of social change, from the “flight from famine” to the effects of agricultural modernization and the selective pressures of emigration.

Placing Ireland within a broader comparative framework, Kennedy shows how social institutions such as the “stem family” shaped the acceptance of delayed marriage and permanent singleness, while also fueling high fertility among those who did marry. His analysis extends to Protestant–Catholic contrasts, the role of nationalism in shaping migration, and the persistent subordination of women in rural society—all factors with deep implications for Ireland’s demographic trajectory. By linking nineteenth-century experience with mid-twentieth-century trends, The Irish reframes Irish uniqueness as both a legacy of historical constraints and a laboratory for understanding how societies manage population growth. For scholars of history, sociology, demography, and Irish studies, this book offers not only a definitive account of Irish population change but also a comparative lens on the dilemmas of modernization still faced in many developing nations.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1973.