ABSTRACT
Irish people make up the largest ethnic minority group in Great Britain. Yet despite this, and particularly from the point of view of research and practical initiatives in health and health services, they remain a peculiarly ‘invisible’ minority. On the whole, both the study of health amongst ethnic groups and the implementation of health initiatives amongst ethnic minorities have overlooked the Irish. It seems to have been tacitly assumed that their social conditions, culture and lifestyle are not substantially distinct from those of the majority of the white community. The assumption that the white ethnic group is homogeneous not only belies well-established evidence of significant and enduring social class inequalities in health, but also assumes a degree of assimilation by white minorities into the majority white community that is not reflected in hard data.1 In the past two decades, the limited amount of research that has been conducted that considers the Irish as a distinct ethnic group, has revealed some possibly unexpected facts about their physical and mental health. Amongst other things, this research has shown that:
• Irish-born men aged between 15 and 64 have the highest death rates of any immigrant group in England and Wales;2
• Irish-born men constitute the only immigrant group with whose health is worse in this country than in their homeland;3
• Irish-born women have the highest rates of mental hospital admission of any group in England.4
