Irish people in UK, do you have British citizenship?

[SomersetBrie]

As above. I'm Irish, lived here most of my adult life and live my life quite happily on my Irish passport. I can vote and do almost exactly what a British passport holder can do.
In the light of recent comments from Farage about immigration, are any Irish people thinking of becoming citizens, or had you done it already? I kind of resent paying £900 to do it, but I obviously will if it makes my rights here safer.

I dont think anyone is safe. It would be interesting to see some research into whether British people would have a problem (or even an opinion) on Irish unification . I'm not sure many people would be bothered and that could be an open door for Farage and co to head off in that direction next. Bear in mind that many Reform voters are older and have long memories of bombings in England during the 1970s - whatever the reasons for it.

Seems a good place to remind any Northern Irish people which side their bread is buttered

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-50041729

Id rather have an Irish passport so I could just move away from the UK and just live in the EU

It’s cheaper now for Irish to get UK passport as we no longer have to do the life in the UK test or a language test. I’m thinking about getting it for work purposes.

I had a Kafkaesque nightmare getting a UK NI number, in part because three different staff members, including the supervisor, at the jobcentre didn’t understand that Ireland and NI are not the same and kept telling me cheerily I ‘could just use my home number, because it was all the same system, wasn’t it?’ I laughed until I realised that Partition and Irish independence had actually passed them by.

It's never taught in schools. I suspect it may actually be illegal.

I recently caught the six-part (so 6 hours) history of Ireland from Daniel O'Connell to 1923 on "TRIH", and was embarrassed by how little I knew.

'three different staff members, including the supervisor, at the jobcentre didn’t understand that Ireland and NI are not the same'

I had a similar experience when I first moved to the UK. It also BLEW (some) PEOPLE'S MINDS that my home address in the Republic didn't have a postcode (late 90s) 😁

I still bristle when I hear people here talk about 'Southern Ireland' to mean the Republic. Southern Ireland is Cork and Kerry!

@Lottapianos
Cork and Kerry etc = The South of Ireland not Southern Ireland 😉

Similarily you’d say The West of Ireland rather than Western Ireland for the west coast.

Bear in mind that many Reform voters are older and have long memories of bombings in England during the 1970s - whatever the reasons for it.

Eh? So the IRA bombings in the 80s and 90s don’t count? You don’t have to be that old to remember / have been impacted by the bombings but even for those who do, why would that mean they vote Reform? That makes zero sense.

In my experience very few English people hadn't the faintest clue why they were being bombed. It's a weird sort of superpower in a way.

What do you mean ‘whatever the reasons for it’? Are you saying Reform voters, (or the British public in general?) didn’t understand the purpose of the IRA bombing campaigns? Or something else entirely.

I mean, I wouldn’t be surprised. When Brexit briefly made the DUP prominent in Westminster, I discovered that a freakish number of people had no idea that there were/are loyalist paramilitaries. They appeared to think the IRA was operating on its own.

Your experience is very different to mine then. I’ve never met anyone who didn’t know why the IRA were bombing the English. Disagreeing with it is not the same as not knowing why.

I started work in the City not long after the Bishopsgate bombing and every single employee had training on how to respond if they answered the phone to a bomb threat. It was an ever present threat and people were very aware. I find it hard to believe that the English “hadn’t the faintest clue” why it was happening.

No. Lived here since 1981 and have British husband and 4 British children. Never felt the need to get a British passport.

No I don’t and neither do either of my parents. I guess if the time comes and I have to, I will but for now I’m not bothered

What rights do you not have in Ireland as a British citizen? Only thing I’m aware of is not being able to vote in presidential elections.
What elections in Ireland don’t allow Irish born citizens to vote?

I am from NI and a Brit Citizen, who lives in London and has still never quite got round to getting an Irish passport.

OP, if I were you I would spend the £900. The idea that Irish citizens’ rights in the UK are untouchable (as per another poster) is naive imo. The truth is that a majority of Britons do not care about NI and would not consider it a loss to the UK (and I pass no judgement on that tbh; it upsets me on a personal level, but I can understand why people would feel like that). And with what appears to be a hardening of Nationalist attitudes I wouldn’t count on either ripping up the GFA or Irish reunification being seen as a failure for Farage if Reform get in. I even have fleeting concerns for my own position tbh, which is probably extreme, but I am old enough to have been spat upon, called a thick Irish paddy and a terrorist when in my late teens and early twenties in 90s London (by drunk men on nights out). And if people don’t care about NI I can’t see why they’d be interested in the rights of other Irish people.

https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/45756-how-would-britons-feel-if-parts-uk-left

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/feb/10/northern-ireland-unionism-england-british

‘This mainland indifference towards Northern Ireland was exemplified in a 2020 YouGov poll which showed that 54% of the British public would not be bothered either way by Northern Ireland leaving the UK.’

AFAIK British citizens can vote in elections that have the equivalence in Britain so local and general. They can't vote in presidential, referendums or EU elections

Only £900? Cheaper than the €1200 I have to pay to become an Irish citizen. (Brit living in Ireland)

@Shopgirl1 I can't vote in Presidential elections and referenda.

Anyway, after living in Ireland for many years I have finally applied. All these uncertain times are getting to me, and having an EU passport seems like a good deal. Wish I had done it many years ago.

I swear European passport officials become meaner when they see your blue passport.

Also: a passport card! Looking forward to that.

EU citizen here, in UK since 2012, British citizen since 2018. Always worked on a highly skilled job, never on benefits, rarely used the NHS.
I’ll be gone by 2029 at the latest (as soon as Farrightage comes to power).
Happy to have a choice.

(I paid £1300 in 2018 so Irish people you are already lucky enough)

I didn’t know this! I’ve lived in UK almost my entire life but never felt any desire to apply for UK passport but reason rhetoric has made me think twice.

I misread that as Daniel O’Donnell.

@underthewestway, I don’t think your position is extreme at all. I left the UK in 2019 because I’d found small but measurable post-Brexit increases in anti-Irish attitudes where I was living, and didn’t want my young son growing up with it. I couldn’t begin to recount the dreary list of stereotypes, insults, pejorative expressions and questions I’ve dealt with down the many years I lived in different parts of England — from a small minority of people, obviously, but certainly not all drunks, some in professional workplaces, some the families of my friends on public occasions. I remember being pulled aside at ferry ports when I first started going over in the early 90s, and I think I got my last terrorist comment at a bus stop in about 2015. I conclude that for a minority of racists, Irish people aren’t quite white. I’m sad it ended that way. It was home for years, and DS was born in London, a city I still love. And I’m sad to see it pulling itself apart at the moment, though I think it’s temporary. I’d probably be concerned, too, in your shoes.

He is, of course, a key figure in Irish history. 😀

⬆️ this. That's why DH and I are acting now. I was scuppered applying today as I'm waiting on a referee's passport number. I've no family left in Ireland now at all and my home is in the UK - my son is a dual citizen already.