Photo: RNZ / Dan Cook
It's not hard to find New Zealanders with Irish heritage, but for the first time we have a better understanding of just how many there are.
A world-first project mapping the Irish in Aotearoa has sparked interest around the globe.
The research was published a year ago - the first time an Irish Embassy has tried to get a comprehensive idea of how many people of Irish heritage live in a country, and where they've ended up living.
It confirms estimates that one in six New Zealanders have Irish links - and it's possible that number could actually be far higher.
The report's lead investigator, Otago University professor of Irish studies Sonja Tiernan, has now been asked to share details of the project with other countries, like Canada.
While the Irish migrated across the world, those who came to New Zealand were different: Tiernan says they were more educated, didn't tend to meet the cliche of starving potato farmers and had largely come via other countries. Once they got here, they didn't stay together in Irish "ghettos" and many married into Māori and other non-Irish families.
Many of them were soldiers who came with the British colonising forces.
"We have to own that as well, we were actually part of the colonising forces. The Irish were doing it for money, it wasn't any great alignment with the British Empire," Tiernan says.
"For many Irish soldiers it didn't sit well with them and they left [the army], but they stayed in New Zealand.
"Huge numbers of them inter-married with Māori and that's where we've got these cultural connections ... this idea of hospitality, of community, of family.
"In many other countries, say for example in America or in England, the Irish tended to stay together in their own communities, or near ghettos, and marry other Irish people. That doesn't happen in New Zealand, so therefore you've got a huge number of people who have one parent who's Irish, hence we have this huge population."
The report comes at a time when Ireland and New Zealand are building strong ties: there's a surge in professionals from Ireland migrating to Aotearoa; the establishment of embassies in each other's countries for the first time; and links building on commonalities such as the fostering of indigenous language, climate change, disarmament, sustainable development and human rights.
Despite the work done as part of the Irish in Aotearoa project, it's still not clear exactly how many New Zealanders have links, recent or ancient, to Ireland. Some of the problems involved in gathering the data include the fact census information doesn't delve that deeply.
But there was there a huge response in New Zealand to the information-gathering exercise and 600 of the respondents also wanted to tell their personal family stories. They aren't in the report, but they will be used by the Irish Embassy in digital form.
Tiernan says there's a recognition in both countries that we are very similar.
"When we think of even the fact that they're both island nations, they have a very similar population. Even geographically … very similar looking environment, very similar even climate-wise where we end up very green and lush."
Add to that New Zealand has been very supportive of Ireland as an independent country, which celebrates its free-state centenary this year.
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