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.

In answer to your question OP, yes of course they should. They are legally entitled to apply because of their heritage and legal rights are not just for people deemed 'suitable', they're for everyone equally.

Also, how could passport application possibly be based on voting record? Voting is a secret ballot for a good reason and removing that right would be a total disaster for democracy.

YANBU. But they voted for Brexit so they can't be very bright and are more likely than not to be racists/Reform voters, so the moral bar is already set quite low I think.

I’m so glad that I married into the EU. But I do feel sorry for young people who didn’t vote for Brexit and have had their job/travel plans curtailed.

If I did bother to get my Irish passport my Irish state pension would be higher than the UK one.

Are we so concerned about British citizens moving here? I don’t think we are, in the least, and it’d be no new thing after all. I’d say we’ve a very harmonious coexistence, and that’s been the case for yonks.
We can get a bit salty about people who settle for 5 years in order to become naturalised citizens, expressly to feck orf into the wide blue yonder once they've the passport they needed.
That's seen as very poor form (and it’s contrary to the acceptance conditions of the acquired citizenship, by the way)

Well they’re legally entitled to do it but is freaking galling that they contributed to pulling out the rug from job opportunities for British youngsters. They so patriotic about Ireland that they want a passport, be glad if they moved there. Bet they’re freaking reform enthusiasts too.

British people have long had the right to live and work in Ireland, and the Irish in Britain, because of the Common Travel Area agreement, which had been in place for over 100 years now.
I've never sensed that people here thought that would be exploited after Brexit. For years, traffic has been mostly one-way, from Ireland to Britain, and that was for economic reasons.
If our wee island is now appealing to our closest neighbours to work and live in, that's great and you're all very welcome.
Céad míle fáilte!
https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/government-in-ireland/ireland-and-the-uk/common-travel-area-between-ireland-and-the-uk/

But they are part of the group who destroyed it for the rest of us.
I would like my EU passport back please.

If they're British citizens they can go through the British embassy. If they've never held a British passport, Irish may be quicker, but either way all they need to do is get back to the common travel area.

People are remarkably vindictive about their fellow citizens on this thread. A majority of the British electorate voted for Brexit. There's no reason to assume they were all racist. There were plenty of other reasons to vote that way and plenty of signals from (then) mainstream politicians,Labour and Conservative, that this was a sensible choice.

If you're still wanting to dismiss and punish these people a decade on, you'd be better off focusing on how to work for greater unity in your own country than on European Union.

And there it is in black and white.

Yep. It is there in black and white. I’ve never hid that I voted Brexit. It just seems a huge waste of energy that people are still bringing it up years later. It’s happened, and no amount of angst or name calling is going to change it. It’s a done deal.

52% of your fellow citizens should be wiped out?

Well that sounds like a democratic solution to disagreement.

🙄

Don’t you think that people are “still bringing it up years later” because it’s still having a huge negative impact and will for many years to come?
I will always, always be absolutely furious about Brexit.

What group destroyed what for the rest of you?

Who are the rest of you?

I voted remain but I do hope I'm not counted in this "rest of us" them and us group.

Well I don’t suppose you can stop them but they’ve got some brass neck all right - I would be ticked off too.

Yep, the entitlement is eye watering, but shhh, they don't like us talking about what a bunch of hypocrites they are.🤫🙄

By rest of us I mean those who weren't not taken in by Boris Johnson's lies and appreciated the benefits of being in a large community.

Right. So you characterise half the British electorate as having been "taken in" by lies, because obviously they are very stupid, not like the superior intelligence of all of us who weren't "taken in". They couldn't have had any other motives other than stupidity and being taken in?

I wonder why they didn't appreciate the benefits of being in a large community. It can't possibly be that they had rational reasons for non appreciation, could it, it could only be because they were stupid enough to be taken in.

If this hideously snobbish tone continues towards a large number of our fellow citizens, don't be surprised if we are afflicted with a Reform government in the next four years.

I'm not singling you out btw, I have been shocked by the contemptuous and dehumanising tone the snobs on this thread have taken to their fellow citizens. I voted to remain, but I'm ashamed of how vicious the class warfare is from some of the people who voted the same way.

I know the eligibility criteria. It's ridiculous to hand out a passport to someone who has no connection to the country themselves apart from an ancestor.

Well for starters there's been the whole issue with HMRC looking at passport data for the child benefit so if you think things aren't tracked ... they are.
France, for example, your passport is swiped on entry and exit. If you entered on 1 passport and left on a different one, they would have no record of your departure as Joe Bloggs id xxxx and therefore next time you tried to enter they'd probs flag that up at least.
Some countries are stricter than others. I'm not saying it's a guaranteed issue but in any case I have, as an Irish passport holder, been in the Irish embassy abroad and seen people very upset when they realised their lost passport means a trip back to Dublin and not back to UK where they live. So that's all I was saying²

If you and others vote Reform because of snobbishness on mumsnet, there's not much anyone can say. Although I can't really see how it's going to help with that.
Brexiteers have to live here too (apart from the ones with Irish passports) and if it is going well for them, well then they've voted the right way for them. It hasn't gone well for me and I will continue to feel annoyed about it for quite a lot longer.

That's ok. There's no need for a passport travelling between Ireland and the uk

There are people living outside the UK who get British passports even if they've never set foot in the country so it works both ways

52% of those who voted voted to leave - not half the electorate. No one can say which way the non voters would have voted if they'd cast a vote.