Are Irish people violent?

Common stereotype: The Fighting (“ foightin' “) Irish. The reality: Ireland is a remarkably violent country. For example, the U.S. has a violent crime rate of 429.4 per capita [4]. Ireland has an assault rate of 347.9 for the same period [5]. “But that's great! Almost ten points less violent than the U.S.! read more

Looking a little further back, the historical reputation for violence and drunkenness of the Irish in the US is likely influenced by the despair, hardship, and poverty Irish immigrants of the early to mid 19th century faced after emigrating to the likes of New York, Boston, and Chicago. read more

The Irish figure above is for assault only, whereas the U.S. figure is for all violent crime (e.g. including homicides, excluded from the Irish figure) - the two countries simply do not record crimes in the same way, due to different legislation in each jurisdiction. read more

Most Irish people are very kind and polite the violent ones are in the minority. Try meeting a few. read more