Applications from Britons for Irish citizenship soar by almost 1,200% since Brexit
Film-maker David Puttnam, who became an Irish citizen last week, says UK is no longer ‘the country I was born into’
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Film producer David Puttnam, a former member of the House of Lords, after receiving his Irish citizenship along with his wife, Patsy, at the Gleneagle INEC Arena in Killarney on Monday June 20th. Photograph: Sally MacMonagle
By Brian Hutton
Mon Jun 27 2022 – 06:00
The number of British people being granted Irish citizenship has ballooned by almost 1,200 per cent since the UK voted to leave the European Union, according to official figures.
Days after Oscar-winning film producer David Puttnam was formally naturalised as an Irishman, citing how political agendas meant the UK was no longer “the country I was born into”, fresh data shows a big surge in his fellow Britons also taking up Irish and EU citizenship.
Records released to The Irish Times by the Department of Justice show that in 2015 there were just 54 people from Britain granted Irish citizenship. The following year, when the UK voted to leave the EU, the figure almost doubled to 98. This then increased to 525 in 2017 and 685 in 2018, with a slight dip to 664 in 2019 before rising to 945 in 2020 and 1,191 last year.
In 2015, successful British applications accounted for 0.4 per cent of the 13,543 total applications from about 180 countries across the globe. This increased to 12 per cent of last year’s total of 9,788.
The figures do not include successful applicants from Northern Ireland. There were none between 2015 and last year, but there have been five to date this year. Anyone born in the North before 2005 can claim Irish citizenship. An automatic right to such citizenship — as for anyone born on the island — was removed from the Constitution the same year.
The official figures also show a marked decline in Irish citizenship being granted to people from countries associated with the “new Irish” as immigration soared in response to the country’s rising economic fortunes. Successful applications from Poland dropped from 1,159 in 2015 to 819 last year — down almost 30 per cent. A total of 1,362 Nigerians were granted Irish citizenship in 2015 but this fell to 744 last year (down 45 per cent).
The figures show an overall decline in the numbers granted Irish citizenship during the Covid-19 pandemic, though these have started to rebound towards previous levels.
Citizenship applications are different to passport applications. Last month, The Irish Times disclosed more Irish than UK passports are being issued in the North for the first time on record.
At a ceremony in Co Kerry last week, close to his long-time West Cork home, Mr Puttnam was among more than 900 people who became Irish citizens. He said: “I’ll tell you what — there are no queues like this in England.”
He announced his retirement from the House of Lords in October, citing the “pig-ignorance” of some British legislators about Ireland among his reasons for leaving.
Of Britain, he said: “It has ceased to have the values I really believed it to have, and this is a very painful thing to say.”
Wish we had some kind of residency requirement for citizenship. Like two years even.
It’s shite that people can just get a passport of convenience without having any interest in Ireland.
I’m not thrilled with this, especially the Brexiteers who do this so they get all the EU benefits, but I also understand people like him who maybe see it as a form of protest, or who really identify as European. I’d do it if I was them. But maybe they should have to pay some annual taxes or something…. Also it complicates any push for the right to vote from abroad
They hate us for 800 years and now they want to be us
Passport processing delays explained.
Probably an unpopular view with a lot of people but I think that Irish citizenship criteria needs a lot of tightening. People who have a single Irish grandparent who have never been to the country or have any intention of living in Ireland being entitled to an Irish passport just seems wrong to me, particularly the number of Brexit voters I’ve met in the UK suddenly applying for one.
Even those British people who were against Brexit, a member of the House of Lords applying for an Irish passport?… Just seems off
I would introduce a minimum residency period of 2-3 years before being entitled to apply for citizenship, i.e – you have the right to move to Ireland like an EU citizen but no right to an Irish passport.
I’ve been here for about five years now, still waiting for my citizenship application to go through. Feels a bit shite that people can claim citizenship without ever having been to the country.
I wish all the best to them though, I’m sure anyone who voted against Brexit would do the same if they could.
And if some recent posts are to be believed, we can expect a wave of American Roe v. Wade refugees incoming too.
Brits out.
To slightly alter a phrase from the bull McCabe “GO HOME TAN!!”
Please God no
I do think we need to flip the priorities on getting Irish citizenship.
The people who have been here for years, doing everything right, doing all the paper work, integrating into Ireland? Those people should be processed first.
We we’re done with those, then we can process all the “my great granmuvver was from island.” applications.
We really have to be stricter with who can get citizenship. We had it out like hot cakes. It should go from one Irish grandparent to one Irish parent
Hope they are denied. They made their bed they can lie in it.
This is why you dont let the diaspora vote, even on seemingly meaningless things like the president.
If you don’t pay tax in the country you don’t get to vote!
16 comments
Copy/paste from article:
Applications from Britons for Irish citizenship soar by almost 1,200% since Brexit
Film-maker David Puttnam, who became an Irish citizen last week, says UK is no longer ‘the country I was born into’
Expand
Film producer David Puttnam, a former member of the House of Lords, after receiving his Irish citizenship along with his wife, Patsy, at the Gleneagle INEC Arena in Killarney on Monday June 20th. Photograph: Sally MacMonagle
By Brian Hutton
Mon Jun 27 2022 – 06:00
The number of British people being granted Irish citizenship has ballooned by almost 1,200 per cent since the UK voted to leave the European Union, according to official figures.
Days after Oscar-winning film producer David Puttnam was formally naturalised as an Irishman, citing how political agendas meant the UK was no longer “the country I was born into”, fresh data shows a big surge in his fellow Britons also taking up Irish and EU citizenship.
Records released to The Irish Times by the Department of Justice show that in 2015 there were just 54 people from Britain granted Irish citizenship. The following year, when the UK voted to leave the EU, the figure almost doubled to 98. This then increased to 525 in 2017 and 685 in 2018, with a slight dip to 664 in 2019 before rising to 945 in 2020 and 1,191 last year.
In 2015, successful British applications accounted for 0.4 per cent of the 13,543 total applications from about 180 countries across the globe. This increased to 12 per cent of last year’s total of 9,788.
The figures do not include successful applicants from Northern Ireland. There were none between 2015 and last year, but there have been five to date this year. Anyone born in the North before 2005 can claim Irish citizenship. An automatic right to such citizenship — as for anyone born on the island — was removed from the Constitution the same year.
The official figures also show a marked decline in Irish citizenship being granted to people from countries associated with the “new Irish” as immigration soared in response to the country’s rising economic fortunes. Successful applications from Poland dropped from 1,159 in 2015 to 819 last year — down almost 30 per cent. A total of 1,362 Nigerians were granted Irish citizenship in 2015 but this fell to 744 last year (down 45 per cent).
The figures show an overall decline in the numbers granted Irish citizenship during the Covid-19 pandemic, though these have started to rebound towards previous levels.
Citizenship applications are different to passport applications. Last month, The Irish Times disclosed more Irish than UK passports are being issued in the North for the first time on record.
At a ceremony in Co Kerry last week, close to his long-time West Cork home, Mr Puttnam was among more than 900 people who became Irish citizens. He said: “I’ll tell you what — there are no queues like this in England.”
He announced his retirement from the House of Lords in October, citing the “pig-ignorance” of some British legislators about Ireland among his reasons for leaving.
Of Britain, he said: “It has ceased to have the values I really believed it to have, and this is a very painful thing to say.”
Wish we had some kind of residency requirement for citizenship. Like two years even.
It’s shite that people can just get a passport of convenience without having any interest in Ireland.
I’m not thrilled with this, especially the Brexiteers who do this so they get all the EU benefits, but I also understand people like him who maybe see it as a form of protest, or who really identify as European. I’d do it if I was them. But maybe they should have to pay some annual taxes or something…. Also it complicates any push for the right to vote from abroad
They hate us for 800 years and now they want to be us
Passport processing delays explained.
Probably an unpopular view with a lot of people but I think that Irish citizenship criteria needs a lot of tightening. People who have a single Irish grandparent who have never been to the country or have any intention of living in Ireland being entitled to an Irish passport just seems wrong to me, particularly the number of Brexit voters I’ve met in the UK suddenly applying for one.
Even those British people who were against Brexit, a member of the House of Lords applying for an Irish passport?… Just seems off
I would introduce a minimum residency period of 2-3 years before being entitled to apply for citizenship, i.e – you have the right to move to Ireland like an EU citizen but no right to an Irish passport.
I’ve been here for about five years now, still waiting for my citizenship application to go through. Feels a bit shite that people can claim citizenship without ever having been to the country.
I wish all the best to them though, I’m sure anyone who voted against Brexit would do the same if they could.
And if some recent posts are to be believed, we can expect a wave of American Roe v. Wade refugees incoming too.
Brits out.
To slightly alter a phrase from the bull McCabe “GO HOME TAN!!”
Please God no
I do think we need to flip the priorities on getting Irish citizenship.
The people who have been here for years, doing everything right, doing all the paper work, integrating into Ireland? Those people should be processed first.
We we’re done with those, then we can process all the “my great granmuvver was from island.” applications.
We really have to be stricter with who can get citizenship. We had it out like hot cakes. It should go from one Irish grandparent to one Irish parent
Hope they are denied. They made their bed they can lie in it.
This is why you dont let the diaspora vote, even on seemingly meaningless things like the president.
If you don’t pay tax in the country you don’t get to vote!
Tell them to go and wait in Rwanda.