Brexit sees 900,000 Irish passport applications in 2019

One of the outcomes of the utter insanity that is the current Brexit process is the significant rise in the number of passport applications for EU countries by UK residents. In 2019, some 900,000 people in Northern Ireland and Britain applied for an Irish passport for the first time, as outlined in the Belfast Telegraph today at https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/brexit/brexit-sees-record-900000-applying-for-irish-passport-38814356.html.

Indeed, yours truly spent many years prior to the Brexit vote dithering about whether to apply for an Irish passport myself, having spent an eternity struggling to define my identity as someone born in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. But when the MP Jo Cox was assassinated on June 16th 2016 by a right wing lunatic just prior to the Brexit vote (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Jo_Cox), I concluded that Brexit was indeed sadly going to happen, and duly applied a week before the day of the vote for Irish passports for myself and my two sons, so that we could join my wife in holding one (she being from the Republic). Brexit was not the only factor in making such a decision, but it was the final push needed, and I now predominantly travel on my Irish passport, though retain a UK passport and dual nationality as an interim measure here in Scotland.

My experience in how I obtained an Irish passport is outlined in a series of blog posts starting at http://britishgenes.blogspot.com/2016/06/claiming-irish-passport-1.html. The RootsIreland website also has a help page on how to claim an Irish passport at http://www.rootsireland.ie/help/help-civil-records/how-to-apply-for-an-irish-passport/.

If born in Ireland prior to January 2005, or if the child of a parent born in Ireland, the process is relatively straightforward, with applicants already considered to be Irish citizens (whether from the north or the south). But be advised that if applying through a grandparent, you will need to register first in the Republic of Ireland's Register of Foreign Births - see https://www.dfa.ie/citizenship/born-abroad/registering-a-foreign-birth/. This is an expensive process (€278 if aged over 18), but something I also discovered on behalf of a friend just a couple of weeks ago is that the time that it takes to do so is now between nine months and a year. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade link above provides further details - just be forewarned!

Chris

Order Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) at https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Irish-Family-History-on-the-Internet-Paperback/p/16483. and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records at https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Scottish-Ancestry-through-Church-and-State-Records-Paperback/p/16848. Further news published daily on The GENES Blog Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

Applying for an Irish passport

Today the Brexit negotiation process finally got underway. As someone personally appalled at the prospect of being taken out of the EU against my will, and as someone who has long struggled with my identity (as to whether I am British or Irish), I finally exercised my right last year to apply for Irish passports for myself and my two sons. We now have dual citizenship, confirming our Irish connection as well as our UK one, and maintaining EU access and rights for myself and my two boys. (I appreciate others may have a different view!

The Belfast Telegraph is noting that the number of applications for Irish passports is not slowing up, with 833 applicants on one day alone in March (see http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/833-irish-passport-applications-from-ni-in-a-day-35839433.html). Over the course of my own application I blogged a series of posts detailing the process (as an applicant in Scotland), including what ancestral connections qualify you to apply for a passport, and which genealogical records you may need for the process. If you too are interested in obtaining an Irish passport, my posts are still available at http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/claiming-irish-passport-1.html - links to subsequent posts are at the end of the first article.

Good luck if you choose to go for it!

Chris

My next 5 week Scottish Research Online course commences Sept 11th 2017 - details at https://www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=102.
For details on my Scottish & Irish genealogy guide books, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html.
For my genealogy research service, please visit http://www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk.

Confusion and joy from AncestryDNA test results

A few months ago Ancestry very kindly supplied me with an AncestryDNA kit for a review. The results from my test are now available - was it worth the effort?

There are two ways that AncestryDNA says it can help with your ancestral understanding, based on an examination of a tester's autosomal DNA, which is inherited from both parents. The first is to give you a statement as to your ethnic identity and make-up, the second is to match you to potential cousins. My conclusion from the results is that one of these is just odd in terms of what is presented, whereas the other is indeed likely to be a massively major tool for the ancestral toolkit.

Let's deal with the weird bit first - the ethnicity estimate. According to AncestryDNA, the following is my ethnic make-up:

 

Apparently I am 52% Irish and 24% Great Britain, with a superbly exotic 18% from 'Europe West'. But what is this actually telling me? What does Ancestry mean by 'Ireland'? What does 'Great Britain' mean? What does 'Europe West' mean?!

Superficially, my documentary research shows that in terms of geographic locations, I am about half to three quarters Irish, in the sense that I have a lot of ancestors from Ireland. And about a quarter of my documented lines do indeed come specifically from birthplaces in Great Britain. The problem is that those geographic locations do not take into account the specific ethnicity of those born in those regions - if such a unique thing even exists, bearing in mind what a mix of folk we are from town to town, and country to country, within the UK and Ireland.

Well over half of my lines do come from Ireland - but the vast majority of those lines are originally of Scottish stock from the 17th century Plantations period, possibly later, and mainly from Lowland Scotland - with, I suspect, a couple of lines possibly even coming from England, just beyond the realms of what I have been able to prove so far by way of documentation. Only one line I have identified so far is of Irish Catholic stock, my Mooney ancestors from Dublin. Another major chunk of my ancestry is directly Scottish, but that is a mixture of Highland and Lowland Scots - but again, some lines much further back, such as my Graham and Bruce ancestors, are likely to be of Norman French stock. So on an 'ethnic' level, well over half of my ancestral stock actually comes from Scotland, albeit with several lines taking the scenic route via Ulster in recent generations, possibly England, France, and perhaps even elsewhere in Ireland much further back.

AncestryDNA's definition of what 'Ireland' and 'Great Britain' mean is so vague it is effectively useless. I've read reports online that suggest 'Ireland' in this context actually means descent from some wider Celtic stock, i.e. Ireland, Scotland, Welsh and even some English (Cumbrian etc). Great Britain supposedly means 'Anglo-Saxon'. But if that's true, the Anglo-Saxons came from western Europe, so why would they not be classed as Europe West? What exactly is AncestryDNA describing me as? The only word I can find is 'paranoid'!

Anyone who has followed this blog knows that I suffer from Sruth na Maoile Syndrome, with my identity stuck somewhere between Ireland and Scotland, and on that front, this really doesn't help...! The red rag to a bull idea of an American genealogy corporation trying to tell an Ulsterman whether he is 'Irish' or 'British', given our recent troubled history, and the baggage that comes with both labels in terms of cultural identity as well as ethnic identity - when it doesn't actually clarify what they mean by those terms - probably means such a description lies somewhere between being delicously ironic and just irresponsible. I was seriously unimpressed with this, because I actually haven't got a baldies what it is supposed to mean.

On another front though, things are considerably more exciting...

AncestryDNA matches my results to others in its database who share parts of my autosomal DNA, which is inherited from both parents. Some matches will be from my father's side, some from my mother's, with the descendants of my most recent ancestors having enough lengths of identifiable DNA to flag up a possible connection to me. First cousins will share a lot of that DNA, making a match more likely, whilst fourth cousins may contain a much tinier fragment that is barely long enough to make a confident match. Ancestry identifies those with possible matches, indicating a possible relationship and a probability of them being connected.

So far, two of those results are spot on, identifying fourth cousins who I have in fact already been in touch with long before doing this test. The probability for each having a match to me is reassuringly noted as 'high'. So far so good. What is more exciting is that a couple of further matches are there, cited as possible third cousins - a closer connection by one generation - with an 'extremely high' probability of being connected to me. I've not heard of either of these folk before, so this bodes well. I'll be chasing them up shortly to work out exactly where the matches lie.

So is the AncestryDNA test worth doing. Yes absolutely. Just take the ethnicity descriptions with large columns of salt...!

AncestryDNA kits are £79, available from http://dna.ancestry.co.uk.

(With thanks to Ancestry for supplying a testing kit for review)

Chris 

For details on my genealogy guide books, including A Decade of Irish Centenaries: Researching Ireland 1912-1923, Discover Scottish Church Records (2nd edition), Discover Irish Land Records and Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html.

Claiming an Irish passport - Part 3

The process so far... Having decided I wanted to claim an Irish passport, I sought guidance from the Irish Government's Citizens Information website to see if I qualified, along with my children (see http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/claiming-irish-passport-1.html). Having done so, and found that we do indeed qualify, I then requested the relevant passport application forms from the Irish consulate in Edinburgh and sought a copy of my Northern Irish birth certificate (see http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/claiming-irish-passport-part-2.html).


The application forms duly arrived the following day, with my birth certificate arriving a day later. For anyone wishing to apply from now, that process may perhaps take a wee bit longer, as in the light of the Brexit vote there have been well over a million requests for such passports, an extraordinary demand. Because of the Brexit vote, however, I've decided to accelerate the application for my two boys now also, so this meant ordering up a couple of extra copies of my birth certificate. I was unclear if I could send all three applications together in one go with just the one cert, so figured it was best to play it safe - and the boys will both then have copies of my birth cert in future also (I'm still a genealogist; always thinking about legacy issues! lol)

With myself and my two boys applying for passports, we visited the local photographer in Largs to get passport photos (four have to be sent through for each applicant). The guidance from the consulate states that the preference is for black and white images, although colour images are acceptable. We've ended up getting colour images as the simplest option in town. 

Along with the application forms, the consulate also sent out a guidance form on how to fill them out, along with a covering letter. I filled out the three forms and then asked a friend of mine, who is a local solicitor, to act as a witness on them. The following are suitable candidates identified by the Irish government as witnesses:

Police Officer;
Member of Clergy;
Medical Doctor, Nurse, Pharmacist, Dentist; Vet
Lawyer, Solicitor and Legal Executives (registered with the law society or Institute of Legal Executives);
Bank Official (this includes building societies, credit unions, postmasters and sub-postmasters);
Elected Public Representative (this includes members of Parliment and Councillors);
Justice of the Peace, Notary Public, Commissioner for Oaths, Peace Commissioner;
Social Worker;
Teacher, Lecturer;
Accountant.

One of the requirements on the form requires the witness to formally stamp the back of two of the passport photographs, as well as the form itself. This threw us slightly, as my friend has no formal stamp, but we soon twigged a workaround, in the very cover letter that accompanied the application forms. This states the following:

"The witness should stamp and sign the back of two of the photographs and insert the form number displayed in Section 9. Please ensure the witness is easily contactable at their place of work, that they clearly print their address and contact number (mobiles not accepted). Your application will be returned if we are unable to contact the witness or the witness does not fully and accurately complete their section(s) of the form. The witness does not need to know the applicant for any length of time provided they are satisfied as to their identity. If the witness does not have an Official Stamp then please ensure they sign and date the back of the photographs and include the 8-digit Form Number and sign and date Section 9 of the application form. Where possible, a Business Card should be enclosed if there is no stamp available."

So, with business cards duly provided for the applications, instead of a stamp, that one is resolved! As well as the signed forms, the witness also certified a copy of my driving license, as proof of identity - the alternative was to send through my current British passport, but I don't want to send off such an important document in the post. Additional requirements on the ID front include documents to verify my name and address (eg household bills, tax returns, etc), easily sourced.

The next stage now is to post off the application. The cover letter from the consulate in Edinburgh noted that there was currently a seven week turnaround on applications. I suspect that may drift a bit, but I'll know soon enough!

NB: PART 4 is available at http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/claiming-irish-passport-part-4-claimed.html

Chris

For details on my genealogy guide books, including A Decade of Irish Centenaries: Researching Ireland 1912-1923, Discover Scottish Church Records (2nd edition), Discover Irish Land Records and Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html.

Claiming an Irish passport - Part 1

Many of you who have attended talks that I have given over the last few years might have heard me refer to the identity crisis that first led me to start researching my family history in 1999. As a child of both Irish and Scottish stock who grew up in the Northern Ireland of the Troubles, I was never comfortable with my description of 'British' or its alternative of 'Irish' - the idea that I was being labelled with an identity simply because of an accident of birth and history, which society dictated that I must adhere to, to become loyal to the ideals of one 'tribe', and not the other. Indeed, I've often jokingly referred to myself as suffering from something called Sruth na Maoile syndrome, the Gaelic phrase for the Straits of Moyle, which is the waterway that divides Scotland from Ireland - the inference being that my true identity is all at sea somewhere in between! (You can hear me discuss this in a talk I gave at St. Catherine's Ontario 2 years ago, at https://soundcloud.com/chrismpaton/genealogy-without-borders-lecture-in-niagara-may-2014).

Obviously since carrying out my ancestral research I have been able to throw all that baggage away, and discover from scratch my true identity for myself, which derives from the sum of all my ancestral parts, and not some politician's pen. As I have lived in the UK for all of my life to date, I currently have a British passport, issued by the government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. To me, my British passport does not indicate my identity - my family history reveals that - but it does permit me certain rights and protections as someone who has grown up in the UK when travelling. It is more than a British passport, though, in that a holder of a British passport is currently also a member of the European Union, and has the same rights in law as any other EU citizen when so doing - it's why all EU passports are the same shape, size, colour, and with similar wording. However, as you may be aware, next week we are having a referendum on whether the UK retains its membership of the European Union. As a consequence, these rights and protections as an EU citizen may soon be withdrawn.

I do not wish to give up my EU rights when travelling - and I have a way to bypass this eventuality. As someone who was born in Northern Ireland, on the island of Ireland, under the current rules in the Republic of Ireland I can also claim an Irish passport - indeed, so too can my children, as even though they were born in Scotland, under Irish law, they are automatically considered to be Irish citizens simply because they have Irish parents, irrespective of whether we are from the north or south (we come from each end of the island!). The Republic of Ireland is also a member of the European Union, and isn't planning on going anywhere on that front. Now, partly because of the entirely negative nature of the current UK referendum campaign, on both sides, and partly because I now feel comfortable in the fact that my true identity lies embedded across the islands of both Ireland and Britain, I have finally decided that I am going to exercise my right to claim dual citizenship. 

The ability to claim an Irish passport and hold dual citizenship is something that many people in Britain, and further afield, have enjoyed for decades. But what are the rules on eligibility? Well, it all depends on whether you have a connection to Ireland - and this is where the genealogy bit comes in! The Irish Government's Citizens Information site neatly outlines the criteria that must be fulfilled for qualification at http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/moving_country/irish_citizenship/irish_citizenship_through_birth_or_descent.html. This is the key part - for clarification, the use of the term 'Ireland' here refers to the island, encompassing both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland (the 'Irish state'):

Citizenship through birth in Ireland

If you were born in Ireland and your parent(s) were Irish citizens, then you are also an Irish citizen.

However, in certain circumstances some people born in Ireland have to claim Irish citizenship. You can find more details about claiming Irish citizenship through special declaration in 'Further information' below.

Children of foreign national parents

A child born in the island of Ireland on or after 1 January 2005 is entitled to Irish citizenship if they have a British parent or a parent who is entitled to live in Northern Ireland or the Irish State without restriction on their residency. A child born in Ireland to a parent who has been granted refugee status is also automatically entitled to Irish citizenship.

Under the provisions of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 2004, children born of other foreign national parents in the island of Ireland on or after 1 January 2005 are not automatically entitled to Irish citizenship. These parents must prove that they have a genuine link to Ireland. This will be evidenced by their having 3 out of the previous 4 years reckonable residence in the island of Ireland immediately before the birth of the child. On proof of a genuine link to Ireland their child will be entitled to Irish citizenship and can apply for a certificate of nationality - see 'How to apply' below.

Children born outside Ireland to Irish citizen parents

If either of your parents was an Irish citizen who was born in Ireland, then you are automatically an Irish citizen, irrespective of your place of birth.

Irish citizen parents born outside Ireland

If you were born outside Ireland to an Irish citizen who was himself or herself born outside Ireland, then you are entitled to become an Irish citizen. If your parent derived Irish citizenship in another manner, for example, through marriage, adoption or naturalisation, and was an Irish citizen at the time of your birth, you can become an Irish citizen.

However before you can claim Irish citizenship, you must have your birth registered in the Foreign Births Register, which is maintained by the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade - see 'How to apply' below. If you are entitled to register, your Irish citizenship is effective from the date of registration - not from the date when you were born.

If the parent through whom you derive Irish citizenship was deceased at the time of your birth, but would have been an Irish citizen if alive at that time, you are also an Irish citizen. Also, you derive citizenship through an Irish parent whether or not your parents were married to each other at the time of your birth.

Citizenship through descent from Irish grandparents

If one of your grandparents is an Irish citizen who was born in Ireland, but none of your parents was born in Ireland, you may become an Irish citizen. You will need to have your birth registered in the Foreign Births Register.

If you are entitled to register, your Irish citizenship is effective from the date of registration. The Irish citizenship of successive generations may be maintained in this way by each generation ensuring their registration in the Foreign Births Register before the birth of the next generation.

Since 1 July 1986, a person registered in the Foreign Births Entry Book after 1986 is deemed to be an Irish citizen only from the date of his/her entry in the Register and not from the date of birth. This means that children born to that person before his/her date of entry in the Register are not entitled to citizenship.

People registered before July 1986 are deemed Irish citizens either from the date the original Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act came into force, that is, 17 July 1956, or their date of birth, whichever is later. Only children born after 17 July 1956 can claim citizenship in such cases.

Other Irish ancestors

Unless at least one parent or an Irish-born grandparent was an Irish citizen at the time of your birth, you cannot claim Irish citizenship on the basis of extended previous ancestry (that is, ancestors other than your parents or grandparents). In addition, you cannot claim Irish citizenship on the basis that relation such as a cousin, aunt or uncle was an Irish citizen if none of your parents or grandparents was an Irish citizen at the time of your birth.

In case it should provide some assistance to anyone else who may be interested in doing likewise, I've decided I will share my experience in claiming an Irish passport over the next few weeks.

The first stage will be to initiate the application process, and to get a copy of my birth certificate, the processes for which I will outline in due course!

NB:
PART 2 at http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/claiming-irish-passport-part-2.html
PART 3 at http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/claiming-irish-passport-part-3.html 
PART 4 at http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/claiming-irish-passport-part-4-claimed.html

Chris

For details on my genealogy guide books, including A Decade of Irish Centenaries: Researching Ireland 1912-1923, Discover Scottish Church Records (2nd edition), Discover Irish Land Records and Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html.