The Republic of Ireland's Certificate of Irish Heritage scheme (www.heritagecertificate.ie) is to end after August 24th 2015, due to the fact that very few people have wanted to buy them. Since its launch in 2011, just 3000 of the certificates have been sold.
Despite its noble aim to allow those with Irish ancestry to register their family connection to Ireland - similar to our Book of Scottish Connections here (http://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/registration/book-of-scottish-connections) - the scheme became something of a shambles after it changed its levels of proof in 2012 which were required to establish such an Irish connection. This was done in a bid to reverse the low take up back then, but as is clear, even this did not work.
My blog post from the time can be read at http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/certificate-of-irish-heritage-shambles.html - it ends with my take on it back then: "I can't help feeling that if it looks like a dead duck, makes no noise like a dead duck, contributes to world peace as much as a dead duck, and swims as badly as a dead duck, then in all probability it is really very likely to be a dead duck...".
The BBC has the story at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-33973972.
Chris
For details on my genealogy guide books, including my recently released Discover Irish Land Records and Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html.
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