Irish nationality law details the conditions by which a person is a national of the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern ...

. The primary law governing these regulations is the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act, 1956, which came into force on 17 July 1956. Regulations apply to the entire island of Ireland, including the Republic of Ireland itself and

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label=Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. North ...

, a constituent part of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. Ireland is a member state of the European Union (EU) and all Irish nationals are EU citizens. They have automatic and permanent permission to live and work in any EU or

European Free Trade Association The European Free Trade Association (EFTA) is a regional trade organization and free trade area consisting of four European states: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. The organization operates in parallel with the European ...

(EFTA) country and may vote in elections to the European Parliament. All persons born in the Republic before 1 January 2005 were automatically citizens by birth regardless of the nationalities of their parents. Individuals born in the country since that date receive Irish citizenship at birth if at least one of their parents is an Irish citizen (or entitled to be one), a British citizen, or a long-term resident on the island of Ireland. Persons born in Northern Ireland are usually entitled to (but not automatically granted) Irish citizenship largely under the same terms. Foreign nationals may become Irish citizens by naturalisation after meeting a minimum residence requirement (usually five years). Ireland as a whole was previously part of the United Kingdom and local residents were British subjects. Although most of Ireland gained independence in 1922 and Irish citizens no longer hold British nationality, they continue to have favoured status when residing in the United Kingdom; they are considered to have automatic and permanent permission to live in the UK and are eligible to vote, stand for public office, and serve in non-reserved government positions.

Terminology

The distinction between the meaning of the terms

citizenship Citizenship is a "relationship between an individual and a state to which the individual owes allegiance and in turn is entitled to its protection". Each state determines the conditions under which it will recognize persons as its citizens, and ...

and

nationality Nationality is a legal identification of a person in international law, establishing the person as a subject, a ''national'', of a sovereign state. It affords the state jurisdiction Jurisdiction (from Latin 'law' + 'declaration') is th ...

is not always clear in the English language and differs by country. Generally, nationality refers to a person's legal belonging to a

sovereign state A sovereign state or sovereign country, is a polity, political entity represented by one central government that has supreme legitimate authority over territory. International law defines sovereign states as having a permanent population, defin ...

and is the common term used in international treaties when addressing members of a country, while citizenship usually means the set of rights and duties a person has in that nation. This distinction is clearly defined in non-English speaking countries but not in the

Anglosphere The Anglosphere is a group of English-speaking nations that share historical and cultural ties with England, and which today maintain close political, diplomatic and military co-operation. While the nations included in different sources vary, ...

. In the immediate period following Irish independence in 1922, Irish citizenship was a domestic status that existed as a subcategory within a wider British nationality ( British subject status) applicable to all citizens of the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading post ...

and

Commonwealth of Nations The Commonwealth of Nations, simply referred to as the Commonwealth, is a political association of 56 member states, the vast majority of which are former territories of the British Empire. The chief institutions of the organisation are the ...

. Despite Irish attempts to assert a separate nationality in the 1930s, this separation was not acknowledged by Britain until 1949. In the modern Irish context, there is now little distinction between the two terms and they are used interchangeably.

History

Pre-independence context

Since the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland in the late 12th century,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

has been politically and militarily involved on the island. English control was tenuous until the Tudor conquest in the 16th century, during which the entire island was assimilated into the Kingdom of Ireland. After passage of the

Acts of Union 1800 The Acts of Union 1800 (sometimes incorrectly referred to as a single 'Act of Union 1801') were parallel acts of the Parliament of Great Britain and the Parliament of Ireland which united the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ire ...

, Ireland was merged with the

Kingdom of Great Britain The Kingdom of Great Britain (officially Great Britain) was a sovereign country in Western Europe from 1 May 1707 to the end of 31 December 1800. The state was created by the 1706 Treaty of Union and ratified by the Acts of Union 1707, w ...

to form the

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was a sovereign state in the British Isles that existed between 1801 and 1922, when it included all of Ireland. It was established by the Acts of Union 1800, which merged the Kingdom of Gre ...

. Accordingly,

British nationality law British nationality law prescribes the conditions under which a person is recognised as being a national of the United Kingdom. The six different classes of British nationality each have varying degrees of civil and political rights, due to the ...

applied in Ireland. Any person born in Ireland, as a constituent part of the United Kingdom, or anywhere else within Crown dominions was a natural-born British subject. British nationality law during this time was uncodified and did not have a standard set of regulations, relying instead on past

precedent A precedent is a principle or rule established in a previous legal case that is either binding on or persuasive for a court or other tribunal when deciding subsequent cases with similar issues or facts. Common-law legal systems place great v ...

and

common law In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omniprese ...

. Until the mid-19th century, it was unclear whether rules for naturalisation in the United Kingdom were applicable elsewhere in the Empire. Colonies had wide discretion in developing their own procedures and requirements for naturalisation up to that point. In 1847, the

British Parliament The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the Parliamentary sovereignty in the United Kingdom, supreme Legislature, legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of We ...

formalised a clear distinction between subjects who naturalised in the UK and those who did so in other territories. Individuals who naturalised in the UK were deemed to have received the status by imperial naturalisation, which was valid throughout the Empire. Those naturalising in colonies were said to have gone through local naturalisation and were given subject status valid only within the relevant territory; a subject who locally naturalised in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

was a British subject there, but not in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...

. When travelling outside of the Empire, British subjects who were locally naturalised in a colony were still entitled to imperial protection. The British Parliament brought regulations for British subject status into codified statute law for the first time with passage of the British Nationality and Status of Aliens Act 1914. British subject status was standardised as a common nationality across the Empire.

Dominion The term ''Dominion'' is used to refer to one of several self-governing nations of the British Empire. "Dominion status" was first accorded to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, South Africa, and the Irish Free State at the 1926 ...

s that adopted Part II of this Act as part of local legislation were authorised to grant subject status to aliens by imperial naturalisation.

Partition and lingering imperial ties

Resistance to the Union and desire for local self-governance led to the

Irish War of Independence The Irish War of Independence () or Anglo-Irish War was a guerrilla war fought in Ireland from 1919 to 1921 between the Irish Republican Army (1919–1922), Irish Republican Army (IRA, the army of the Irish Republic) and United Kingdom of Gre ...

. Following the war, the island of Ireland was partitioned into two parts. Southern Ireland became the

Irish Free State The Irish Free State ( ga, Saorstát Éireann, , ; 6 December 192229 December 1937) was a State (polity), state established in December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. The treaty ended the three-year Irish War of Independ ...

in 1922, while

remains part of the United Kingdom. When the

Constitution of the Irish Free State The Constitution of the Irish Free State ( ga, Bunreacht Shaorstát Eireann) was adopted by Act of Dáil Éireann sitting as a constituent assembly on 25 October 1922. In accordance with Article 83 of the Constitution,Anglo-Irish Treaty, Northern Ireland was included in the Irish Free State on independence, but had the right to opt out of the new state within one month of its establishment. This option was exercised on 7 December 1922. The 24-hour period in which Northern Ireland was officially part of the Irish Free State meant that every person ordinarily resident in Northern Ireland on 6 December who fulfilled the citizenship provisions in the Constitution had automatically become Irish citizens on that date.

Dispute over imperial nationality status

At its inception, the Irish Free State gained independence as a

within the

. Imperial legislation at the time dictated that although individual Dominions could define a citizenship for their own citizens, that citizenship would only be effective within the local Dominion's borders. A Canadian, New Zealand, or Irish citizen who traveled outside of their own country would have been regarded as a British subject. This was reinforced by Article 3 of the 1922 Constitution, which stated that Irish citizenship could be exercised "within the limits of the jurisdiction of the Irish Free State". When Free State authorities were first preparing to issue Irish passports in 1923, the British government insisted on the inclusion of some type of wording that described the holders of these passports as "British subjects". The two sides could not reach agreement on this issue and when the Irish government began issuing passports in 1924, British authorities refused to accept these documents. British consular staff were instructed to confiscate any Irish passports that did not include the term "British subject" and replace them with British passports. This situation continued until 1930, when Irish passports were amended to describe its holders as "one of His Majesty's subjects of the Irish Free State". Despite these disagreements, the two governments agreed not to establish border controls between their jurisdictions and all Irish citizens and British subjects continued to have the ability to move freely within the Common Travel Area.

Delayed citizenship legislation

Although the Constitution provided a definition of who acquired citizenship at the time of independence, it contained no detail on how to acquire it after 1922. This created a number of anomalous situations, including the inability to naturalise foreigners resident in Ireland and foreign spouses of Irish citizens being unable to acquire citizenship. By the end of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fig ...

, the other Dominions had exercised increasing levels of autonomy in managing their own affairs and each by then had developed a distinct national identity. Britain formally recognised this at the 1926 Imperial Conference, jointly issuing the Balfour Declaration with all the Dominion heads of government, which stated that the United Kingdom and Dominions were autonomous and equal to each other within the British Commonwealth of Nations. Full legislative independence was granted to the Dominions with passage of the

Statute of Westminster 1931 The Statute of Westminster 1931 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that sets the basis for the relationship between the Commonwealth realms and the Crown. Passed on 11 December 1931, the statute increased the sovereignty of t ...

. Legislation clarifying citizenship acquisition was delayed due to the government's desire to negotiate an exception in British subject status with the rest of the Commonwealth. Ultimately, no compromise on the issue was reached but Ireland did not pass its own nationality legislation until after passage of the Statute of Westminster 1931. The Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act enacted by the Oireachtas in 1935 provided a full framework detailing requirements for obtaining citizenship.

Clarified requirements

Under the 1935 Act, any individual who was born in the Irish Free State on or after 6 December 1922, or born overseas to an Irish father who himself was born in the state, was a natural-born citizen. Children born abroad to an Irish father who himself was not born within the Free State were required to have had their birth registered within two years. Northern Ireland was treated as outside of the Free State for the purposes of this Act. Any person born in Ireland before 6 December 1922 who did not automatically acquire citizenship under the Constitution due to their residence abroad on that date could acquire citizenship by becoming domiciled in the Free State, along with their children. Irish-born individuals continuing to live overseas became eligible to acquire Irish citizenship by registration, provided that they had not voluntarily naturalised as citizens of another country. Foreign nationals who resided in the Free State for at least five years could apply for naturalisation. Irish citizens older than age 21 who acquired foreign citizenship automatically lost Irish citizenship, and any Irish child who was registered in the Foreign Births Register was required after reaching age 21 to make a declaration of their intention to retain Irish citizenship and stating that they had renounced all other nationalities.

Conflicting definition for "Irish national"

During the period before passage of the 1935 Act, the government enacted several pieces of legislation that restricted certain types of economic activity to "Irish nationals". Under the Control of Manufactures Act 1932, Irish companies were required to be majority-owned by Irish nationals. Because legislation was not yet enacted that defined who was a national, this Act provided a separate definition: an Irish "national" was someone born within the borders of the Free State or had been domiciled there for at least five years before 1932. Significant portions of the Northern Irish population became treated as foreigners in commerce as a consequence of these provisions. This statutory definition differed based on the type of business that a particular Act was regulating. For agriculture and banking, a person born overseas must have been resident in the Free State for at least five years before 1933 to qualify as an Irish national. However, when determining the amount of stamp duty to be levied on property transactions, an Irish national was someone who had lived in the state for three years before 1947. This discrepancy between "Irish national" and "Irish citizen" was not resolved until legislative reform in 1956.

Common code noncompliance

Standard regulations in Commonwealth countries at the time strictly complied with the doctrine of coverture, where a woman's consent to marry a foreigner was also assumed to be intent to denaturalise. Women's rights groups throughout the Empire pressured the imperial government to amend nationality regulations that tied a married woman's status to that of her husband. Because the British government could no longer enforce legislative supremacy over the Dominions after 1931 and wanted to maintain a strong constitutional link to them through the common nationality code, it was unwilling to make major changes without unanimous agreement among the Dominions on this issue, which it did not have. The 1935 Irish legislation stated that marriage between an Irish citizen and foreign spouse did not affect the national status of either spouse, eroding imperial legal uniformity in this regard. New Zealand and Australia also amended their laws in 1935 and 1936 to allow women denaturalised by marriage to retain their rights as British subjects. Moreover, the 1935 Act further deviated from the common code by creating an Irish nationality distinct from British nationality and explicitly repeals all related British-enacted legislation. Despite this separation, British subjects from the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries remained defined as non-foreign in Irish law and those resident in Ireland continued to be treated almost identically to Irish citizens. Irish citizens have not been considered British subjects under Irish law since passage of this Act. Regardless, the British government continued to treat virtually all Irish citizens as British subjects, except for those who had acquired Irish citizenship by naturalisation since the Free State had not incorporated Part II of the British Nationality and Status of Aliens Act 1914 into its legislation. The Irish government rejected adopting this provision to avoid the appearance that the Free State was acknowledging in any way that Britain could legislate for Ireland and due to overwhelmingly negative public opinion of the post-independence populace. Although residents of Northern Ireland were disadvantaged in acquiring citizenship and conducting commerce under Irish law, the territory remained defined as an integral part of the state in the revised 1937 Constitution of Ireland.

Changing relationship with Britain and the Commonwealth

Diverging developments in Dominion legislation, as well as growing assertions of local national identity separate from that of Britain and the Empire, culminated with the creation of a substantive Canadian citizenship in 1946, breaking the system of a common imperial nationality. Combined with the approaching independence of

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

and

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

in 1947, comprehensive reform to British nationality law was necessary at this point to address ideas that were incompatible with the previous system. The British Nationality Act 1948 abolished the common code and each Commonwealth country would enact legislation to create its own nationality. British subject was redefined to mean any citizen of a Commonwealth country. Commonwealth citizen is defined in the Act to have the same meaning. British subject/Commonwealth citizen status co-existed with the citizenships of each Commonwealth country. Ireland formally declared itself a republic and removed the British monarch's remaining official functions in the Irish state in 1948, consequently ceasing to be a member of the Commonwealth after passage of the Ireland Act 1949 in the British Parliament. Despite this, Irish citizens continued to be treated as non-foreign in the United Kingdom, retaining the same rights and privileges exercised by Commonwealth citizens. Commonwealth citizens initially continued to hold free movement rights in both the UK and Ireland after 1949. British authorities systemically discouraged non-white immigration into the UK, but strong economic conditions in Britain following the Second World War attracted an unprecedented wave of colonial migration. In response, the British Parliament imposed immigration controls on any Commonwealth citizens originating from outside the British Islands with the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962. Ireland mirrored this restriction and limited free movement only to people born on the islands of

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

or Ireland. However, individuals born in the UK since 1983 are only British citizens if at least one parent is already a British citizen. The Irish regulation created a legal anomaly where persons born in Britain without British citizenship nevertheless held an unrestricted right to settle in Ireland; this inconsistency was removed in 1999.

Subsequent reforms as a republic

The Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1956 (which replaced the earlier 1935 Act) expanded the available pathways to acquiring citizenship and allowed more situations to retain it. Restrictions on holding multiple nationalities were repealed and any Irish citizen who acquired another nationality no longer automatically lost their Irish citizenship. Individuals could instead voluntarily choose to renounce their Irish citizenship, which was first allowed in this Act, and any person born in Northern Ireland who did not otherwise acquire Irish citizenship by descent could claim citizenship by making a formal declaration. Foreign wives of male Irish citizens could register as citizens with no further requirements and citizenship became transferable by descent through mothers as well as fathers. Although children born overseas to foreign-born Irish citizens were still required to be registered in the Foreign Births Register to claim citizenship, registration was no longer subject to a time limit. registered individuals were deemed to have been Irish citizens backdated to their date of birth, allowing their children born at any time to acquire citizenship as well. Foreign husbands of Irish citizens became eligible for citizenship by marriage with an amendment in 1986, but a three-year waiting period was introduced for applicants of either sex before eligible individuals could apply and couples were required to be living together in the same residence. Registration in the Foreign Births Register no longer makes citizenship effective from an applicant's date of birth but from the date of registration instead. The 1986 amendment provided for a six-month transition period ending on 31 December 1986 when registration continued to be backdated, triggering a rush among affected individuals to register before the new rules took effect. The sudden large volume of applications became impossible to process before the end of the year, resulting in some individuals losing their entitlement to citizenship from birth. A further amendment in 1994 allowed those who had applied during the transition period but did not have their applications processed in time to re-register under the 1956 Act. Since 2004, spouses of Irish citizens no longer have a facilitated path to acquiring citizenship.

European integration

Ireland joined the

European Communities The European Communities (EC) were three international organizations that were governed by the same set of institutions. These were the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom), and th ...

(EC) in 1973, a set of organisations that later developed into the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been ...

. Irish citizens have since been able to work in other EC/EU countries under the freedom of movement for workers established by the 1957

Treaty of Rome The Treaty of Rome, or EEC Treaty (officially the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community), brought about the creation of the European Economic Community (EEC), the best known of the European Communities (EC). The treaty was sign ...

and participated in their first European Parliament elections in 1979. With the creation of European Union citizenship by the 1992 Maastrict Treaty, free movement rights were expanded to all nationals of

EU member states The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...

regardless of their employment status. Following the United Kingdom's 2016 referendum in favour of leaving the EU, Irish citizenship applications from Britain (excluding Northern Ireland) increased substantially. While only 54 people from Britain naturalised as Irish citizens in 2015 before the referendum, this number had grown to 1,156 by 2021. Despite the UK's

withdrawal from the EU Withdrawal from the European Union is the legal and political process whereby an EU member state ceases to be a member of the Union. Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union ( TEU) states that "Any Member State may decide to withdraw from t ...

on 31 January 2020, Irish citizens continue to have free movement in the UK and Crown dependencies.

Citizenship by investment

In 1988, a citizenship by investment pathway was created to attract foreign investment into the country as a way to help lower the high unemployment rate. A foreigner could acquire Irish citizenship through this programme after investing IR£1 million in a business with the goal of creating or maintaining 10 jobs for at least five years. Investors were required to maintain an Irish address or live in the country for at least 60 days before receiving an Irish passport. Under the 1956 Act, the

Minister for Justice A Ministry of Justice is a common type of government department that serves as a justice ministry. Lists of current ministries of justice Named "Ministry" * Ministry of Justice (Abkhazia) * Ministry of Justice (Afghanistan) * Ministry of Just ...

has absolute discretionary power to waive any requirements for citizenship. The citizenship by investment programme was operated under this authority and was not publicly advertised. About 100 people were able to acquire Irish citizenship through this pathway before its end in 1998. A significant number of applicants who acquired Irish passports in this way never lived or even entered the country and their commitments to boosting Irish employment were not fulfilled.

Restrictions to birthright citizenship

Negotiations for the Northern Ireland peace process began between the British and Irish governments in 1991 and resulted in the 1998

Good Friday Agreement The Good Friday Agreement (GFA), or Belfast Agreement ( ga, Comhaontú Aoine an Chéasta or ; Ulster-Scots: or ), is a pair of agreements signed on 10 April 1998 that ended most of the violence of The Troubles, a political conflict in Nor ...

. Under these accords, Northern Irish residents were acknowledged as having the right to hold either or both British and Irish citizenships, and any person born on the island of Ireland had a right to hold Irish citizenship. Both of these changes became constitutional entitlements when the Nineteenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland was adopted in 1999. Although Ireland had long granted birthright citizenship to any person born on the island prior to this amendment as a part of statute law, increasing levels of immigration into the country soon affected the degree to which that entitlement would be given. In the 1990

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

case ''Fajujonu v Minister for Justice'', it was ruled that noncitizen parents of Irish-born children were entitled to remain in Ireland through their children's rights of residence. The application of this ruling was extremely permissive in the immediate subsequent period; any non-Irish parent of a child born in Ireland was permitted to remain. The scope of this entitlement was reduced in a 2003 Supreme Court ruling, which determined that the Minister for Justice could examine the circumstances by which a noncitizen parent was claiming a right to remain and held discretionary power to deport any such persons found to be acting contrary to national interest. For Irish-born children with one Irish citizen parent, the noncitizen parent continued to be granted a right to remain without any such qualifications. About 10,600 people were able to claim Irish residence through their Irish-born children. However, the scope of noncitizen parental residence rights in the EU was expanded in the 2004

European Court of Justice The European Court of Justice (ECJ, french: Cour de Justice européenne), formally just the Court of Justice, is the supreme court of the European Union in matters of European Union law. As a part of the Court of Justice of the European Unio ...

case ''

Chen v Home Secretary ''Chen v Home Secretary'' was a decision of the European Court of Justice which decided that a minor who is a national of a European Union member state has the right to reside in the European Union with his or her third-country national parents, ...

'' in which Man Lavette Chen, a Chinese woman who had traveled to Northern Ireland to give birth to her Irish citizen daughter then subsequently relocated to

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

with the intention of permanently living in the UK, was ruled to have a right of residence in the EU as the primary caregiver of an EU citizen exercising free movement rights in another member state. In response to the perceived "abuse" of citizenship, the Irish government proposed a constitutional amendment limiting birthright citizenship only to people with a sufficient existing connection to Ireland. The Irish and British governments issued a joint statement clarifying that the intent of the Good Friday Agreement was not to grant citizenship to persons unconnected to the country and that the proposed changes would not violate the existing agreement on Northern Ireland. Following a 2004 referendum, the

Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland The Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution Act 2004 (previously bill no. 15 of 2004) amended the Constitution of Ireland to limit the constitutional right to Irish citizenship of individuals born on the island of Ireland to the chil ...

was enacted that made the entitlement to birthright citizenship for people without Irish parents dependent on legislation rather than the Constitution. That entitlement was then revoked by the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 2004. Children born in Ireland beginning in 2005 are only granted citizenship by birth if at least one parent is an Irish citizen (or entitled to be one), a British citizen, or a long-term resident on the island of Ireland.

Acquisition and loss of citizenship

Entitlement by birth, descent, or adoption

All persons born in the Republic of Ireland before 1 January 2005 automatically received citizenship at birth regardless of the nationalities of their parents. Individuals born anywhere on the island of Ireland from that year on receive Irish citizenship at birth if they are not entitled to any other country's citizenship. Otherwise, they are entitled to (but are not automatically granted) citizenship if at least one parent is an Irish citizen or holds an entitlement to Irish citizenship, a British citizen, a resident with no time limit of stay in either the Republic or Northern Ireland, or a resident who has been domiciled in Ireland for at least three of the preceding four years. Any person entitled to Irish citizenship who performs an act that only an Irish citizen has a right to do, such as applying for an Irish passport or registering to vote in national elections, automatically becomes a citizen. Individuals born in Northern Ireland from 6 December 1922 to 1 December 1999 who did not have an Irish citizen parent were entitled to become Irish citizens by declaration. Any person born in that territory from 2 December 1999 to 31 December 2004 is entitled to Irish citizenship regardless of the statuses of their parents; this includes children born in Ireland between these dates to foreign government officials with

diplomatic immunity Diplomatic immunity is a principle of international law by which certain foreign government officials are recognized as having legal immunity from the jurisdiction of another country.

, who are eligible to claim citizenship by special declaration. Children born overseas are Irish citizens by descent if either parent is an Irish citizen (or entitled to be one) and was born in Ireland, while those born to a parent who was also born overseas are only entitled to Irish citizenship if their birth is registered at an Irish diplomatic mission or the parent was resident abroad while in public service. Irish citizenship can be continually transmitted through each generation born abroad provided that each subsequent generational birth is registered in the Foreign Births Register. About 1.47 million Irish citizens live outside of the Republic, although this number does not include those resident in Northern Ireland or Britain. Adopted children are automatically granted Irish citizenship if the adoption is completed in Ireland; parents adopting children overseas must register an adoption with Irish authorities for the process to take effect in Irish law and are required to apply for immigration clearance before any adopted children may enter the country as citizens. Abandoned children found in Ireland with unclear parentage are considered to have been born on the island to at least one Irish parent.

Naturalisation

Foreigners over the age of 18 (and minors if born in Ireland) may naturalise as Irish citizens after residing in the country for at least five of previous nine years, with one year of continuous residence immediately preceding an application. For applicants married to or in civil partnership with Irish citizens, the residence requirement is reduced to three of the last five years. Candidates must satisfy a good character requirement and intend to remain domiciled in Ireland after naturalising. Individuals under investigation by local police are routinely denied naturalisation. Successful applicants are required to take an oath of citizenship at a public citizenship ceremony. The Minister for Justice has discretionary power to waive any or all citizenship requirements for applicants who are of Irish descent or association, minor children of naturalised citizens, individuals in public service stationed overseas, or recognised refugees and stateless persons.

Loss and resumption

Irish citizenship can be relinquished by making a declaration of renunciation, provided that the declarant ordinarily resides overseas and already possesses or is in the process of obtaining another nationality. Renunciations cannot be made during wartime unless exceptionally approved by the

. Former citizens who were born on the island of Ireland may subsequently apply to reacquire citizenship. Previously naturalised individuals or those who had acquired citizenship by descent do not have a direct path to citizenship restoration and must complete the naturalisation process to regain Irish citizenship. Citizenship may be involuntarily removed from naturalised persons who fraudulently acquired the status, willfully perform an overt act that constitutes a breach of loyalty to the state, holds citizenship of a country at war with the Republic, or has voluntarily acquired another citizenship by any method except through marriage or civil partnership. Naturalised persons (other than those of Irish descent or employed in the

civil service The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

) who reside outside of the Republic for a continuous period of seven years without annually registering their intention to retain Irish citizenship are liable to be stripped of their citizenship. Individuals who obtained citizenship through their marriage or civil partnership to an Irish citizen before 2005 and who reside outside of the island of Ireland may also have their status removed. This provision for citizenship loss is not enforced in practice.

Honorary citizenship

On advice from the government, the President of Ireland has authority to grant honorary Irish citizenship to any person deemed to have rendered an extraordinary service to the nation. Despite being labeled "honorary", this type of citizenship is a substantive status and gives its holders all the rights and privileges that other Irish citizens have. Honorary Irish citizenship has only been awarded to eleven people: * Alfred Chester Beatty (1957) * Tiede Herrema and his wife Elizabeth (1975) * Tip O'Neill and his wife Mildred (1986) *

Alfred Beit Alfred Beit (15 February 1853 – 16 July 1906) was a Anglo-German gold and diamond magnate in South Africa, and a major donor and profiteer of infrastructure development on the African continent. He also donated much money to university edu ...

and his wife Clementine (1993) * Jack Charlton and his wife Pat (1996) * Jean Kennedy Smith (1998) * Derek Hill (1999)

Taoiseach The Taoiseach is the head of government, or prime minister, of Ireland. The office is appointed by the president of Ireland upon the nomination of Dáil Éireann (the lower house of the Oireachtas, Ireland's national legislature) and the offi ...

Seán Lemass intended to award United States president John F. Kennedy with honorary citizenship during his state visit to Ireland in 1963, but this was declined due to restrictions in U.S. law that made it difficult for the head of state to accept a foreign honour.

References

Citations

General sources

Publications

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Parliamentary debates

* * * * * * *

External links

Irish Immigration Service
{{Portal bar, Ireland, European Union Ireland and the Commonwealth of Nations Ireland and the European Union Irish-American history