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The ‘John Hume Institute for Global Irish Studies’ is a UNSW research centre aimed at enhancing our understanding of Ireland and the Irish around the world. Irish people are one of the largest settler groups in Australia, and the connection between the two countries stretches back to the earliest days of European settlement. Globally, up to 80 million people claim Irish descent.

The Global Irish Institute (GII) embraces flexible and nuanced approaches to 'Ireland’ and ‘Irishness’ and seeks appropriate theoretical models in which to understand the Irish diaspora. The Institute adopts avowedly multi- and inter-disciplinary methods, drawing variously on history, politics, literary studies, social science, economics, music and the fine arts. Through fostering and disseminating scholarship and research of the highest standard, the GII seeks to probe and understand the past, present and future of the Irish in Ireland in Australia and around the world.

The Institute was founded in in November 2010 under the Directorship of the Australian Ireland Fund Chair in Modern Irish Studies, Professor Ronan McDonald. It operates as a sister to the UCD John Hume Institute for Global Irish Studies, founded in University College Dublin in 2007.