Should people who voted for Brexit be allowed to apply for an Irish Passport?

[Berlinlover]

I have two cousins who were born and raised in England who have an Irish father and an English mother. Both my cousins voted for Brexit and are now applying for Irish passports. I’m Irish and living in Ireland and this makes me absolutely furious. They are both women in their 50s who never wanted an Irish passport until now. They have no interest whatsoever in Irish history and anything related to Ireland. They’re not even embarrassed that they voted for Brexit and see an Irish passport as a way of skipping queues at the airport. It seems so unfair on those who voted to remain but don’t have an Irish parent/grandparent so can’t apply for an Irish passport.

The op's question was if people who voted for Brexit should be allowed to apply for an Irish passport. In other words, she's asking if your right to apply for a passport you're entitled to should be determined by you holding the "correct" political views.
People talking about the hypocrisy of Brexiteers getting an Irish passport are missing the bigger and more serious question at play here, and that is whether you should be able to strip people of their legal rights and entitlements if they hold a political view that you don't like.

You could have applied for citizenship through naturalisation while you were living here. That door was open to you.
https://www.irishimmigration.ie/how-to-become-a-citizen/become-an-irish-citizen-by-naturalisation/#processing

Of course they should. It might be infuriating, hypocritical, and leave a very sour taste, but a modern and democratic society absolutely cannot strip individuals of fundamental rights like the right to citizenship just because they voted a certain way at a specific point in time (in a different country!).

Are you seriously proposing we track people’s voting records to hold them to account? We remove the anonymity of the ballot box just to stick it to people that don’t vote the way we want them to? That doesn’t sound terrifying at all…

If Irish people have an issue with the way people are now accessing Irish passports, they need to take it up with the Irish Government and seek to make it more restrictive. It has nothing to do with votes in the UK.

Is it just Ireland or should the same rules be implemented across the EU to make sure people aren’t accessing passports for EU countries when they might not have bothered before…

A suggestion, everyone on this thread telling everybody else to “just move on” (presumably because they voted for Brexit)need to demonstrate a little bit of humility and say that they are at least a little bit sorry.

Then I for one am willing to “move on“.

You seem to be taking the question more seriously than me. Of course there is no democratic way to actually stop them.

What I would like though is for the brexiteers themselves to believe enough in life outside of Europe to not get the EU passport in the first place. They need to look at their own moral compasses and not apply.

Dh and his brothers all now have Irish passports. I doubt any of them voted for Brexit though - dh certainly didn’t.

But it does irritate me a bit that dh now makes a lot of his (southern) Irish roots, even though it was down to one GM who left for the U.K. as a very young woman, and never went back to live.
As I like to tell him, as far as I’m concerned, the GM wasn’t even ‘proper’ Irish, the family were all staunch Protestants, probably descended from Scots way back.

It would be interesting if they changed the rules and you were only allowed 1 passport - either Irish or British. Wonder which one most would opt for?

I'd choose British.

That’s a bit insulting. My DH is a proud Irishman and brought up a Protestant. Some of his ancestors were Scottish, English, Dutch and Hugenot but he’s still ‘proper’ Irish.

Maybe those who dont support Brexit could also show a little kindness and not name call and be aggressive. It's a two way street where maybe respect could be reciprocated.

The same here except it's my own mother. So annoyed

Yes. Ultimately, the British government offered a referendum, and the electorate had the right to assume either outcome was possible and reasonable, not some sort of bear trap.

Jeez
Surely someone is still not whinging about a vote that was 9 years ago
Move on

Maybe they should get a passport to Romania that is in the EU

Don't worry because if they ever lose their Irish passport when abroad, they'll get a piece of paper entitling them passage to Ireland and not UK!

I think some of their moral compasses were off kilter before they voted Leave so I'm not overly shocked about their hypocrisy now.

Freedom of movement for me, not thee.

Daft of them since they could just use their parents details 🤔

Not if they are not citizens.

People from Ireland and Britain can both hold dual citizenship. They don't have to give up one to avail of the other.

So, no apology then?

Figures.

Seriously? You think someone who has been called stupid/dumb/brain dead, should show humility and empathy to those people, by apologising for a vote held years ago whereby a majority voted in favour? Why? I’m not sorry I voted Brexit, so any apology would be a fake one I’m afraid.

Very likely, but it’s my comeback when he’s gloating a bit about having an Irish passport, for which he’s done absolutely nothing, while I am not entitled to one. 😈

Yes but if you are travelling abroad presumably you dont carry all your passports ? And if you are abroad with the Irish one and travel back on the British one then that can also land you into hot water as there's no record of you leaving / entering. Anyone with dual nationality is advised to be consistent with passport usage when travel.

I'd choose Irish. I could still live in the UK and also in any EU country. When my parents no longer need my help, my plan is to move to Ireland and live and work there for at least five years. Once DD and I have Irish citizenship, we might move on, or we might stay. The important thing is that we will have a lot of choices.

I know some Irish MNers are worried that too many British people will move to Ireland, but many Irish people also make use of their right to live and work in the UK.

Even if this was the case (which it’s not, of course there’s a record 🥴) why would they actually need a record if you leaving? What “hot water” would you be in?

Because most countries have a limit to how long foreign nationals can stay, even those that don't require visas. Try going back into the US, if according to your passport you are already in the country, see what happens with ICE! Or if you go to the EU on a UK passport, and there's no record of you leaving on the same one within 180 days. That will also cause issues.