For the language Old English, see Old English language.

The Old English were a wave of early medieval Norman, French, Welsh, English, Breton and Flemish settlers who went to Ireland to claim territory and lands in the wake of the Norman invasion. Though English governments expected the Old English to promote English rule in Ireland, many soon abandoned their English identity, adopted the native Irish language and religious customs and marrying the mere Irish (contemporary term meaning pure Irish, mere meaning pure in contemporary English), and came to be called more Irish than the Irish themselves.

In contrast, the New English, the wave of invaders who came to Ireland from the Elizabethan era onwards, kept their English identity, religious, social and cultural traditions and unlike the Normans and the Old English, remained distinct and separate from the rest of Ireland.