Not every country’s diaspora is the same in relative size or in the scope of its dispersion. Nor is every country’s diaspora treated the same by the home country in how they select those who represent it, regardless of the rules being the same regarding qualification for selection.

It’s more pronounced in the selection of the national soccer team than in the selection of the Irish Olympic team, but the point remains the same.

Ireland has a tradition of being more aggressive than most countries in tapping into its diaspora. And Ireland’s diaspora has exhibited a stronger inclination, than the diasporas of most other countries, in choosing to identify with its mother country. The recent amendment to Article 2 of the Irish Constitution recognizes this tradition when it states the Irish nation cherishes its special affinity with people of Irish ancestry living abroad who share its cultural identity and heritage.

It’s true that a significant number of the US Olympic team were born outside the US but they aren’t representative of a greater American diaspora beyond the US; they are individual cases of American naturalisation following immigration into the US and are included in the official US population.

Rather than double-counting if you include diasporas, you are ignoring whole sections of populations if you exclude them. There is a significant population in England, Scotland and America that, more than being eligble to represent Ireland would choose to do so by default. So yes for comparison purposes that also means the populations of some countries should be reduced by the number of its citizens that would choose to represent another country.

It might seem silly, but it’s a fairer picture of how a country is performing relative to its population. Of course I don’t know what the magic number is, and 40 to 50 million might well be a stretch, but I’d be very surprised if it was less than 20 million.

I accept it’s larger than 4.5 million because in sports that are organised on an all-Ireland basis see NI competitors competing for Ireland*. However to say there are 40 to 50 million people to choose from is a stretch. I bet Carl Lewis or Michael Johnson could have run for some west african nation if they so chose. You would double-count millions of people if you were to rely on the diaspora for comparison of olympic performances across nations.

*By definition “Ireland” in the Olympics includes NI as there is no NI team and no UK team. Some competitors choose to opt for GB if their sport is not organsied on an all-Ireland basis

Great blog, keep up the good work & at least it didn’t rain today !

Regards,

Conor,

http://www.irishcoincufflinks.com

The Irish Olympic team is drawn from the population of the Republic plus the population of Northern Ireland that chooses Ireland instead of GB as its team (allowable under an agreement between the Olympic Council of Ireland and the British Olympic Association), plus that part of the diaspora that qualifies and opts to represent Ireland.

So the true population for comparison purposes isn’t the 4 and half million of the Republic, but is well, who knows, 40 or 50 million probably?