Do you think giving birth in Belfast will become a thing post Brexit?

[Lalaloveyou2020]

Since 2005 a person born on the island of Ireland (including NI) to Irish or British parents has a right to apply for Irish citizenship/a passport. I read an article in the FT yesterday discussing the obstacles UK business travellers would face in a post Brexit word, which ended with this:

"There’s one group that will do well out of this: UK-based EU passport holders, who will be able to advertise themselves, both to British employers and to EU service buyers, as being able to travel unhindered around the bloc. Best-placed of all will be Irish passport holders, who can not only travel in the EU, but live and work freely in the UK too. Cecil Rhodes, the British mining magnate and colonialist, once described being English as “the greatest prize in the lottery of life”. Post-Brexit, it’s the Irish who hold the winning ticket."

If you really really wanted your child to have access to the EU in the future, would you be willing to move to Belfast for your birth so that your child could then claim an Irish Passport?

This is meant as a light-hearted discussion more than anything else, though if anyone from NI could chime in on how difficult it would actually be to do, please do so! Reason for going to Northern Ireland over the Republic is the access to the NHS and an automatic right to be both Irish and British at birth.

@Cattenberg

I pay into the same NHS that you use, YouBoughtMeAWall.

I want my child to have the same opportunities I had, especially as the UK is going downhill fast. Brexit taught me that I can’t afford to care about people who couldn’t care less about me.

Sorry that was meant to be a quoted post!

I find this attitude unbelievable. I'm alright Jack..,

@ChikiTIKI

I wouldn't want to give birth over there. I've heard it's quite backwards in terms of letting women have their rights in childbirth.

Heard from your equally thick mates? When I had DS the consultant gave me exactly the birth I wanted, and I spent two days on a ward with amazing midwives bringing all my meals to me, extra tea and toast in the evening and they took my baby when he cried in the night so I could get some sleep. The care here is excellent, particularly when you factor in how unbelievably under funded we are compared to England.

Our waiting lists for operations and treatment in N.I. (can't speak for ROI) is the worst in the U.K. so I think it is a bit mercenary and selfish to burden our already overstretched health system.

Heard from your equally thick mates?

@Haffiana

Fuck me, this thread has gone off on one, hasn't it.

It's almost as though it gets people angry when their country is invaded by a foreign power and then the people of that foreign power start a discussion about using and abusing what little resources the country has as they struggle with the aftermath of decades of civil war.

When the referendum happened I applied for my Irish passport, born in England to Irish parents. So now my children can get Irish citizenship through grandparents, any future grandchildren of mine can get it but my GC born earlier can't. They are so annoyed with me but I think their parents are just as much to blame as they could have applied anytime. My GC aren't accepting my excuses.

The NI budget had just been announced one of the things they didn't say was 'our health system is rolling in money".

Anyone considering coming over and giving birth here and stretching resources further so women who live here might not get treatment they need when they need it should be ashamed of themselves.

It's almost as though it gets people angry when their country is invaded by a foreign power and then the people of that foreign power start a discussion about using and abusing what little resources the country has as they struggle with the aftermath of decades of civil war.

☝️

This already happens with other countries, so I'm sure it'll start happening with NI too.
eg My cousin is british and working abroad, but she will travel back to teh UK at 35 weeks to have her baby here so the baby can be British. She was born in mainland Europe so her baby would otherwise not be entitled to british citizenship. Her Husband is from another non-EU country.

@OwMyNeck

Why move to Belfast when you could move to Dublin and achieve the same thing?

I don't think you are automatically granted Irish citizenship just on account of being born there.

I'm from NI (consider myself British!) and still live there. I have an Irish passport just because I can!

@BadEyeBri

ButwhereisMYcoffee What she said with fucking great, big knobs on. Honestly OP take your head out of your entitled arse. Also, as a small aside, could British people PLEASE learn the difference between GB and UK. They are not the same and cannot be used interchangeably.

GS living with me for lockdown and we had that talk last week. I am always surprised that people don't understand the difference between GB and UK, I also get annoyed about the Miraculous and Immaculate Conception but that's for another thread.

I'm so embarrassed about the lack of knowledge that British politicians have displayed over Ireland and the institutions we have built across Europe to prevent politics exploding into war.
I'm furious with my parents, their own Irish parents would be utterly perplexed why they would vote for anything that would disrupt peace in Ireland and the rise of terrorism.

I hope Brexit makes GB look ridiculous, that we learn from it, it strengthens the bonds in Europe and that GB ends up humiliated, wiser and crawling back for forgiveness and inclusion.

I am 47 and DH has had a vesectomy, so it'll be a miracle If I trouble your maternity wards!

@ancientgran

When the referendum happened I applied for my Irish passport, born in England to Irish parents. So now my children can get Irish citizenship through grandparents, any future grandchildren of mine can get it but my GC born earlier can't. They are so annoyed with me but I think their parents are just as much to blame as they could have applied anytime. My GC aren't accepting my excuses.

why blame you though ? they have parents who should be doing this sort of thing. everyone should have their baby in the country they live in, op and so many like here are selfish beyond words. you can't cherry pick the bits you like and ignore everyone elses rights, trampling over them in the process.

@BlackBucketOfCheese

I hope not. As if British people haven’t fucked over the island of Ireland enough without abusing resources and claiming citizenship in order to get a handier passport and job opportunities.

I really take offence to this TBH.

I voted remain, I descend from refugees of the Irish famine.

How have I screwed you over?

@warmandtoasty2day I think it because there will be a difference between them and any future grandchildren. They aren't raging at me or anything, just wish I'd done it earlier. None of my children have done it although they could, I think they appreciate that they have the option but not sure how it would affect their partners. My husband also had dual citizenship with another country but the children don't have an automatic right to citizenship of that country, they can apply and get a sort of temporary citizenship but have to live there for a number of years to qualify. My sibling's children have a right to 3 citizenships.

@JustAnotherUserinParadise it's expected to happen in the ROI too,not just with British citizens but citizens of the EU who also would like an Irish Passport so their children can have the opportunity to live and work in the UK. If you are in Germany, Poland, France or anywhere with a relatively mobile job and are planning to have a baby it would be easy enough to decamp to Ireland for a year to six months to do it. I'm genuinely sorry for any upset caused but the situation between Ireland, NI and GB regarding citizenship is fairly unique and it wouldbe foolish to think that it won't be exploited by some in the future.

I hope Brexit makes GB look ridiculous

Already granted. But you have to remember the Brexiteer mindset really doesn't care what foreigners (and that means anyone from Norther Ireland) think. It's like a cult. Even last year, when the UK was on the verge of making itself North Korea, they were singing the praises of treaty breaking as if it was a noble thing.

@DGRossetti

I hope Brexit makes GB look ridiculous

Already granted. But you have to remember the Brexiteer mindset really doesn't care what foreigners (and that means anyone from Norther Ireland) think. It's like a cult. Even last year, when the UK was on the verge of making itself North Korea, they were singing the praises of treaty breaking as if it was a noble thing.

you obviously have no idea what life is like in north korea so that comment is daft.

I understand wanting the best for your children. I understand them not wanting to be stuck on an ever regressing island but can you not see how it is disgusting to abuse an island the British have already abuse to the hilt, for personal gain?

Is it abuse to want to be transferred from one CCG to another? Wouldn’t the funding follow? But, if not, I’d have been happy to go private. It would have been a stretch financially, but worth it.

I find this attitude unbelievable. I'm alright Jack..,

I’m not alright! However, if you have an Irish passport, I envy you tremendously. I wonder how many of you would like to swap places with me?

Cor! I would

Ireland is my favourite place in the whole wide world and I’ve lived and travelled all over. To almost every single country. Bar a few.

I’d go back to Ireland every time. Love north. South. Anywhere in Ireland.

@BlackBucketOfCheese

It's almost as though it gets people angry when their country is invaded by a foreign power and then the people of that foreign power start a discussion about using and abusing what little resources the country has as they struggle with the aftermath of decades of civil war.

☝️

My thoughts exactly. I'm in the North of Ireland and it's sickening that the British just can't stop exploiting this place.

I cannot wait for full independence.

I don't think you are automatically granted Irish citizenship just on account of being born there

You are if you are born to a British parent. Again, CTA.

@Marmunia1975

I'm from NI (consider myself British!) and still live there. I have an Irish passport just because I can!

You might consider yourself British but I can guarantee no one else does.

*It's almost as though it gets people angry when their country is invaded by a foreign power and then the people of that foreign power start a discussion about using and abusing what little resources the country has as they struggle with the aftermath of decades of civil war.

That's a bit simplistic, especially when that "foreign power" is actually the same country, and at least half of the "invaded" choose to align themselves by identifying as that "foreign power". NI is part of the UK, you can't really call other people in the UK "people of a foreign power" and leave it at that.