Dual GB and Irish nationality

[passportadvice]

My boys have UK and Irish passports. Both parents have Irish passports and no intention of getting UK ones. We all live in the UK. Boys were born in UK. Simple process to get a UK passport. All their lives they refer to themselves as Irish and we only ever travel on Irish passports. Registered with School/Bank/Doctor as Irish.

We got them the UK passports after Brexit and all the Windrush stuff as a back up just in case. Assume they should never be needed. We just renew them and never intended using them. But now 2 things have arisen

1. Older son is applying for provisional drivers license and with his UK license he can just apply online and get one with this Irish passport he will have to go to the post office etc. No big deal
2. Son is going on a school trip to Andorra with school is it easier for him to being his UK passport to stay with the group etc at passport control

Just wondering does is matter/get recorded anywhere or can you just use interchangeably?

You can use interchangeably. But generally best to pick one for each international trip (as in do both airport journeys for that trip with the same passport)

thanks I'm sure they will always travel on Irish passports with us and by themselves. I suppose I'm thinking more of government things like applying for a drivers license or to University. Does it matter if you chop and change as convenient?

I have both, had them my whole life,
same as your sons my parents are Irish, I was born and raised in the Uk but consider myself Irish.

I prefer to use my Irish passport but use both interchangeably depending on who I’m travelling with and where I’m travelling to.
I definitely recommend using the Uk passport for any Uk government issued things, driving license etc.

@aletterfromseneca is right, you have to use one passport on a trip, you can’t fly out on one and back on the other, it creates red flags at customs and gets you interrogated….. I know from personal experience.

It technically shouldn’t. You might want to use the one that makes things simplest. The only time I’d expect you to have an issue is maybe if you used both passports at one place, but you wouldn’t be breaking the law or anything, just making an administrative headache

thanks that makes sense.

while they are travelling with us we will always use the Irish ones don't want to ever risk being split up at borders but now they are older and starting to travel alone/with friends I started to wonder

school saying it will be easier if he travels on UK passport is just rubbish. I can see it’s not ideal if he ends up going through the EU lane on his own at the airport however no one will bat an eyelid if he joins the non EU queue

thank you. Just want to keep it simple.

The other half travels a lot for work and has dual passports. Mix and matching was what security said the problem was that led to being pulled in for questioning every couple of months.

Personally I would encourage them to travel on one passport only, unless they travel so rarely that it’s unlikely to be picked up.