{"id":242694,"date":"2025-12-20T12:01:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T12:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/242694\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T12:01:19","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T12:01:19","slug":"an-irish-citizenship-ceremony-in-pictures-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/242694\/","title":{"rendered":"an Irish citizenship ceremony in pictures \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Citizenship ceremonies were first introduced in 2011 by then minister for justice <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/alan-shatter\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/alan-shatter\">Alan Shatter<\/a> to mark the solemnity and dignity of the occasion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Our pictures show some of the 5,200 people who were granted citizenship over two days at the events centre at the Gleneagle Hotel in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/killarney\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/killarney\">Killarney<\/a> earlier this month.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Software engineer Varun Menon agreed he had his priorities right: he was becoming a citizen of Cork and joked he felt more Cork than Irish.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Arriving from Mumbai in 2017 to study for his master\u2019s in computer science, Varun, like many Indians who became Irish citizens in Killarney, is from Kerala in southern India.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">People born in India were the single largest group taking Irish citizenship this December.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Terin Thomas, originally from  India, and who lives in Drogheda, Co Louth, following the citizenship ceremony in Killarney\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/EALVQ5MJ6JH5BNW3JRSEI2AW3I.JPG\"   width=\"800\" height=\"533\"\/>Terin Thomas, originally from  India, and who lives in Drogheda, Co Louth, following the citizenship ceremony in Killarney <img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Katya Gubanova, born in Russia, and living in Dublin, gets a hug from her daughter Ella (7)\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/PVXY4MP3KBHZPCRM46VCBAHWCA.JPG\"   width=\"800\" height=\"533\"\/>Katya Gubanova, born in Russia, and living in Dublin, gets a hug from her daughter Ella (7) <img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Tobi Akinmuda, born in Nigeria and living in Portlaoise, congratulated by her husband, Opeyemi Alaka, and baby, Ayomide\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GFH3UP5RCZFPFBUY7LHISDBXQM.JPG\"   width=\"800\" height=\"533\"\/>Tobi Akinmuda, born in Nigeria and living in Portlaoise, congratulated by her husband, Opeyemi Alaka, and baby, Ayomide <img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Alan Duffy congratulates his wife, Kimberly Duffy, who was born in the US\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/LO6A5L6QERAP5PJBOP4BXRGAYI.JPG\"   width=\"800\" height=\"533\"\/>Alan Duffy congratulates his wife, Kimberly Duffy, who was born in the US <img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Varghese Olangattu-Poulose, born in India, who lives in Mayo with his wife, Anumol, and daughter, Celine (5)\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/L3OAYWPGHRFPZP7OVY5LRPHICI.JPG\"   width=\"800\" height=\"533\"\/>Varghese Olangattu-Poulose, born in India, who lives in Mayo with his wife, Anumol, and daughter, Celine (5) <img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Neenu Baby and Priyannkaa Jose, both born in India and living in Galway\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/OBJA7YPXFJEBPB6WX2YAPXR76Q.JPG\"   width=\"800\" height=\"533\"\/>Neenu Baby and Priyannkaa Jose, both born in India and living in Galway <img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Chatting following citizenship ceremony\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/S5WO3W2Y4VF4TNVDUMW7LWXSVM.jpg\"   width=\"800\" height=\"533\"\/>Chatting following citizenship ceremony <img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Albin Scaria, born in India and living in Leopardstown, and Paulo Soares, Brazil\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/UG4IFPV7J5DFZCGBOICMDT5D54.jpg\"   width=\"800\" height=\"536\"\/>Albin Scaria, born in India and living in Leopardstown, and Paulo Soares, Brazil <img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Citizenship ceremony in Killarney\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/6VN5FIVVKZFSNCOJTUDURSCQOE.jpg\"   width=\"800\" height=\"533\"\/>Citizenship ceremony in Killarney <img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"The citizenship ceremony in Killarney\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/OANR3MPZLZGEPBQNJ4YOUXEIQY.jpg\"   width=\"800\" height=\"533\"\/>The citizenship ceremony in Killarney <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">US-born Kirsten Fossum came to Galway a decade ago to do her PhD in atmosphere physics \u2013 and stayed. Now working in the Mace Head Atmospheric Research Station in Co Galway, Kirsten had no regrets about swapping the blue skies of Los Angeles for the grey and the rain \u2013 a yellow warning was in place for much of the morning in Kerry.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">She was accompanied by her partner, Galway man Sam Keady, who works with Galway County Council. The pair met nine years ago. Fossum said becoming an Irish citizen undoubtedly would make life easier as she travels a lot to Europe in the course of her work.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cPlus, I love Ireland,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Galway is \u201ca really special place. We can build a life now and not worry,\u201d Fossum said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Citizenship ceremonies were first introduced in 2011 by then minister for justice Alan Shatter to mark the solemnity&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242695,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[127590,79,18,19,17,64626,2212],"class_list":{"0":"post-242694","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-alan-shatter","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-killarney","14":"tag-weekendreview"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115751795428456928","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}