Irish Canadians are immigrants and descendants of immigrants who originated in Ireland. 1.2 million Irish immigrants arrived, 1825 to 1970, at least half of those in the period from 1831–1850. By 1867, they were the second largest ethnic group (after the French), and comprised 24% of Canada's population. The 1931 national census counted 1,230,000 Canadians of Irish descent, half of whom lived in Ontario. About one-third were Catholic in 1931 and two-thirds Protestants. The Irish immigrants were largely Protestant before the famine years of the 1840s, when the Catholics arrived in large numbers. However, most Catholic Irish after 1850 usually headed to the U.S., England and Australia.

The 2006 census by Statistics Canada, Canada's Official Statistical office revealed that the Irish were the 4th largest ethnic group with 4,354,000 Canadians with full or partial Irish descent or 14% of the country's total population. This was a large and significant increase of 531,495 since the 2001 census, which counted 3,823,000 respondents quoting Irish ethnicity.

A Documentary exploring Canada's compassion in welcoming the 109,000 Irish emigrants fleeing the Great Famine in 1847.

Irish emigration to Canada in the 1820s

Irish Canadian Immigration Seminar Toronto July 2018

Canada's Newest Irish Immigrants

The Irishman in Canada
By Nicholas Flood Davin
The Irish Canadian Rangers
Published in 1916 (pdf)
Irishmen in Canada
Their Union not inconsitent with the development of Canadian National Feeling by J. George Hodgins, LL.D. (1875) (pdf)
Scenes and Incidents in Irish Life
By an Irishman (1884) (pdf)
A York Pioneer's Recollections
Of a Visit to “The Emerald Isle,” and his native town after an absence of forty years (1876) (pdf)
Sons of the Emerald Isle
Or, Lives of one thousand remarkable Irishmen; including memoirs of noted characters of Irish parentage or descent by William L. MacKenzie (1844) (pdf)