Brits queuing up for Republic of Ireland passports

Since the result of the Brexit referendum was announced, there’s been a massive surge in the number of Brits applying for Irish passports.

In the year before the referendum, some 46,000 applications for Irish passports were processed, all of which went to citizens in mainland UK rather than to Northern Ireland. By the beginning of January 2017, the number of applicants had almost doubled to 81,000, mostly due to the fact that the Republic of Ireland will remain within the European Union, meaning its citizens will still have freedom of movement within the EU. Between January and the end of May this year, 45,000 Britons whose parents or grandparents were born in what is now the Republic of Ireland had joined the queue for passports.

According to chair of the Irish Senate Brexit committee Neal Richmond, around 10 per cent of the population of Britain could well qualify for Irish passports due to family connections with the Republic in times long past. Richmond considers the diaspora will strongly benefit post-Brexit Anglo-Irish relations as it’ll be built on those wishing to reconnect with their Irish heritage. He doesn’t expect the rush for passports to diminish, stating that 2018 is going to be the Irish Embassy’s busiest year ever.

For those hoping to join the queue, the qualifying rules for entitlement to an Irish passport are complex, to put it mildly. Obviously, if you were born in Ireland, then you’re an Irish citizen from the get-go, as you are if you were born there after 2005 and one or both your parents are citizens. If you were not born in Ireland and one parent was also not born there, you are still entitled to Irish citizenship. Finally, if neither you nor your parents were born in Ireland but one grandparent was, you’re fully entitled to Irish citizenship.