By Kevin Meagher
Figures released last week by the Irish government got me thinking.
They showed that nearly quarter of a million Brits (242,772) applied for an Irish passport last year. Of these, 53% (128,669) were people living in Northern Ireland.
It’s not particularly earth-shattering as the trend has been heading in that direction for some time. According to FactCheckNI there were:
‘831,779 Irish passport applications (2010-19) represent[ing] 44.7% of the Northern Ireland-born population living in the UK at the time of the 2011 Censuses.’
Okay, let’s assume the figures from 2010-2015 and 2020-2025 contain some reapplications under the 10-year rule – impossible to determine how many – and instead focus on those from 2015 onwards.
Now when you add together the figures from 2015-2019 (523k) and those from 2020-24 (470k) you get 993k.
Now, as explained, that’s a conservative figure, but already represents 48% of people in Northern Ireland with an Irish passport. (By the end of this decade, on current trends, it will be two-thirds of the population).
Just think about that.
This disputatious place underwent 30 years of internecine warfare about which flag flew over it and to which state it belonged.
Yet nearly half of people in Northern Ireland – whatever their motives – have elected to apply for an Irish passport, thus also accepting citizenship of the Republic of Ireland in the process.
It would hardly be surprising if a majority of Catholic-Nationalists opted for an Irish passport – the Good Friday Agreement gave everyone the right to consider themselves British or Irish.
But that’s only part of the story.
What is perhaps more significant are the large numbers from a Protestant-Unionist background who are also applying for them.
I guess they will insist it’s nothing more than the ability to shave-off a 20-minute wait at Malaga Airport’s passport control on their annual hols. ‘Brexit convenience,’ if you will.
I’m not sure what their forefathers – who signed the Ulster Covenant in their own blood out of sheer hostility to the concept of living in an Irish state – would make of that?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for a bit of pragmatism and it’s likely that most middle-of-the-road small ‘U’ unionists that have an Irish passport think nothing of it. Many of them will of course have a British one too. Fair enough.
Perhaps what it shows is that many unionist voters who might not instinctively vote for Irish unity can nevertheless be won over by a rational argument?
Also, if they’re chilled enough about their constitutional status to obtain an Irish passport, then we don’t have to worry too much about the concept of ‘loser’s consent’ – when unionists eventually find themselves on the wrong side of a border poll result.
Moreover, the passport figures tell us that whatever heat and fury might be generated by a small minority of irreconcilable unionists as we move towards Irish unity, it will not be copied by their less politically committed confrères.
And while I’m on the subject, what does it mean for the Good Friday Agreement? Particularly the stipulation about a border poll being called only when it ‘looks likely’ that voters will opt for constitutional change.
Well, it does look likely, doesn’t it, when almost half of Northern Ireland’s population – of their own free will – has already volunteered to take of citizenship of the Republic of Ireland?
The queues at Malaga must be massive.
By Kevin Meagher
Figures released last week by the Irish government got me thinking.
They showed that nearly quarter of a million Brits (242,772) applied for an Irish passport last year. Of these, 53% (128,669) were people living in Northern Ireland.
It’s not particularly earth-shattering as the trend has been heading in that direction for some time. According to FactCheckNI there were:
‘831,779 Irish passport applications (2010-19) represent[ing] 44.7% of the Northern Ireland-born population living in the UK at the time of the 2011 Censuses.’
Okay, let’s assume the figures from 2010-2015 and 2020-2025 contain some reapplications under the 10-year rule – impossible to determine how many – and instead focus on those from 2015 onwards.
Now when you add together the figures from 2015-2019 (523k) and those from 2020-24 (470k) you get 993k.
Now, as explained, that’s a conservative figure, but already represents 48% of people in Northern Ireland with an Irish passport. (By the end of this decade, on current trends, it will be two-thirds of the population).
Just think about that.
This disputatious place underwent 30 years of internecine warfare about which flag flew over it and to which state it belonged.
Yet nearly half of people in Northern Ireland – whatever their motives – have elected to apply for an Irish passport, thus also accepting citizenship of the Republic of Ireland in the process.
It would hardly be surprising if a majority of Catholic-Nationalists opted for an Irish passport – the Good Friday Agreement gave everyone the right to consider themselves British or Irish.
But that’s only part of the story.
What is perhaps more significant are the large numbers from a Protestant-Unionist background who are also applying for them.
I guess they will insist it’s nothing more than the ability to shave-off a 20-minute wait at Malaga Airport’s passport control on their annual hols. ‘Brexit convenience,’ if you will.
I’m not sure what their forefathers – who signed the Ulster Covenant in their own blood out of sheer hostility to the concept of living in an Irish state – would make of that?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for a bit of pragmatism and it’s likely that most middle-of-the-road small ‘U’ unionists that have an Irish passport think nothing of it. Many of them will of course have a British one too. Fair enough.
Perhaps what it shows is that many unionist voters who might not instinctively vote for Irish unity can nevertheless be won over by a rational argument?
Also, if they’re chilled enough about their constitutional status to obtain an Irish passport, then we don’t have to worry too much about the concept of ‘loser’s consent’ – when unionists eventually find themselves on the wrong side of a border poll result.
Moreover, the passport figures tell us that whatever heat and fury might be generated by a small minority of irreconcilable unionists as we move towards Irish unity, it will not be copied by their less politically committed confrères.
And while I’m on the subject, what does it mean for the Good Friday Agreement? Particularly the stipulation about a border poll being called only when it ‘looks likely’ that voters will opt for constitutional change.
Well, it does look likely, doesn’t it, when almost half of Northern Ireland’s population – of their own free will – has already volunteered to take of citizenship of the Republic of Ireland?
The queues at Malaga must be massive.