Who are the Irish fans in New Zealand? Emigrants to Australia turn out in force

THE HUGE crowd that roared Ireland on to victory over Italy yesterday prompted an obvious question: where did they all come from?

Best estimates suggest that between 2,000 and 3,000 Irish fans have made it to New Zealand for the World Cup from Ireland, despite the recession and the huge costs involved.

However, the number of fans in the stadium yesterday was a multiple of that, perhaps as many as 25,000. It is unlikely that all of them were drawn from the ranks of the Irish based in New Zealand.

In the year to the end of June, Immigration New Zealand issued 2,700 Irish working holiday visas, more than 900 temporary work visas and 215 permanent residence, just about enough to fill a corner of the stadium. In addition, about 12,000 people who live in New Zealand are Irish-born or claim to be Irish, according to the last census carried out in the country in 2006.

Given those statistics, it looks like the Irish in Australia are making up the numbers and travelling across the Tasman Sea to cheer on Ireland’s most successful odyssey to date in the World Cup.

Australia remains a magnet for the Irish, particularly young Irish people.

According to the Australian department of immigration and citizenship, the number of Irish people who received working holiday visas for that country increased by nearly 50 per cent, to 21,784, in the 12 months ending June 30th.

Rodney Harrex, Tourism Australia’s general manager for the UK and northern Europe, recently described the rise in applications from Ireland as “staggering”.

In the 2006 Australian census, the last for which figures were available, 50,256 Australian residents declared they were born in the Republic and thousands more were born in Northern Ireland.