# Getting An Irish Passport



## Yorick (Jul 4, 2017)

We qualify initially as our grandfather was Irish. I don't need it now as I am a full Spanish resident now.
But my younger brother is looking at it now as it will help him.

Google agrees that the Irish Grandfather is enough but I have found a couple of stumbling blocks 

A couple of sources state that you have to live in Ireland for 3 years first.
And another states that your grandfather must have an Irish passport when you are born. Hmm, he died before my brother was born.

Does he have any chance of getting one. Has anybody else been through the process?

Any help or information gratefully received

Gracia


----------



## Joppa (Sep 7, 2009)

I am not an expert on this, but AFAIK the crucial condition is your relevant parent was registered as Irish by being placed on the Irish Foreign Birth Register before your brother was born. Then he can have his name added, and he becomes Irish citizen. Currently there is a long backlog due to covid, Brexit etc, so the wait time is around 2-3 years before he can get Irish passport.


----------



## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

At least a couple of our regular members have been through the process, so will hopefully see this & reply!


----------



## ccm47 (Oct 15, 2013)

Hmm, I got an Irish passport almost as soon as Brexit was announced.
My grandfather was probably born in 1885, I very much doubt if he had a passport. You didn't need one to travel between Ireland and the mainland in those days, it was all one country. Not that his cattle farming let him travel anywhere! 
In 1922 the public record office was burned down by those seeking independence, hence the Irish officials take a more relaxed attitude to official paperwork. 
My grandfather barely managed to register my mother's birth in 1915, I had her baptismal certificate which I used to register her death in England in 1988. This showed she was born on one day in August, by the time my grandfather got around to doing a state registration of birth he'd moved it by a day and omitted one of her name's. English was a foreign language to him as they spoke Gaelic at home. I suspect he only even went to the registrar because my uncle was born some 11 months later. The Irish authorities did not even query this discrepancy. They were satisfied that my mother had been born in Ireland at X address where my grandfather also lived!
I have only ever been to Ireland for a weekend and I am unlikely to go again.
Follow only the official Irish passport website guidance.https://www.dfa.ie/passporthelp/.
Waiting times also seem to have ben reduced from their peak to about 8 weeks now.which is how long I waited.
Best of luck.


----------



## Megsmum (Sep 9, 2012)

I have an Irish passport but based on parents






Irish citizenship through birth or descent


You are not automatically an Irish citizen if you were born on the island of Ireland. You may be entitled to Irish citizenship if your parent(s) or grandparents were Irish. You may be entitled to Irish citizenship if you were born outside of Ireland, but you may need to register your birth.




www.citizensinformation.ie





This tells you what you need to know and do

Good luck


----------



## dancingspider (Mar 4, 2018)

ccm47 said:


> You didn't need one to travel between Ireland and the mainland in those days, it was all one country.


You must be confused about the mainland which is Europe, as the UK is just a little island off its coast.

Furthermore, not sure why we refer to the British Isles are called that, as they are no longer entirely British.

And don't get me started on the English Channel.


----------



## ccm47 (Oct 15, 2013)

Yep I was semantically sloppy : I couldn't decide between UK mainland and mainland UK, so I left UK out as a way of describing the 1 island that is 3 countries, each of which has borders with the Irish sea and ferries to Ireland.

Can't see a problem with The English channel (which I didn't mention) if using English to communicate with, or do you also object to The Irish Sea and The Bristol Channel? Ship navigators have always needed a name to describe bodies of water, these terms have been in common use for many years. One word to unify a set of GPS points is sooo much easier for the brain to cope with. Alternatively you could try creating your own nomenclature but unless you have the manpower available to you that Rear Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Beaufort did I can't see it being taken up by the rest of the world.


----------



## Barriej (Jul 23, 2012)

Yorick said:


> We qualify initially as our grandfather was Irish. I don't need it now as I am a full Spanish resident now.
> But my younger brother is looking at it now as it will help him.
> 
> Google agrees that the Irish Grandfather is enough but I have found a couple of stumbling blocks
> ...


Make sure you have all the paperwork needed.
My wife is (was) able to get an Irish passport as her mother and grandmother were born in NI and her Grandfather was born in Ireland.

However, and this may be a totally unique thing, my wife was born in Kenya (her parents were in the RAF) and obviously has a Kenyan birth certificate (although she was registered in the UK a year after her birth). 
She has been married and divorced and we got married in Barbados (so we have a Bajan wedding cert). 
Her mother got divorced from her father and remarried so has had name changes.
When looking at my wife's mothers birth cert, her fathers full name doesn't appear.

We spoke to the department in Ireland and they advised that she would get a passport as long as we could supply full supporting documents for everything. 
They also suggested the wait would be around 3 to 5 years (we looked into this in early 2019) as they would need to check all of the documents to confirm, this was before covid, so I can only guess how long it might take now..

Didn't bother in the end as we moved before Brexit and to be honest she didn't think it worth the hassle, if we move country again an Irish passport wont be of any more value than a Uk one.

Hopefully you wont have any of these issues but make sure you have everything you can think of before applying.


----------



## Megsmum (Sep 9, 2012)

Barriej said:


> Make sure you have all the paperwork needed.
> My wife is (was) able to get an Irish passport as her mother and grandmother were born in NI and her Grandfather was born in Ireland.
> 
> However, and this may be a totally unique thing, my wife was born in Kenya (her parents were in the RAF) and obviously has a Kenyan birth certificate (although she was registered in the UK a year after her birth).
> ...


Why not...if we move to another country within the EU we'd move using my Irish passport and my other half as my spouse. Maybe your referring to outside the EU


----------



## Barriej (Jul 23, 2012)

Megsmum said:


> Why not...if we move to another country within the EU we'd move using my Irish passport and my other half as my spouse. Maybe your referring to outside the EU


I was referring to outside the EU, inside obviously its worth doing if its not too complicated. We just couldnt be bothered with the hassle..


----------



## Max Rigger (Aug 2, 2020)

dancingspider said:


> You must be confused about the mainland which is Europe, as the UK is just a little island off its coast.
> 
> Furthermore, not sure why we refer to the British Isles are called that, as they are no longer entirely British.
> 
> And don't get me started on the English Channel.


Good enough


----------



## dancingspider (Mar 4, 2018)

'Greater Britain' would have been more apt than 'Great Britain', but that is just my opinion...

But then again, hindsight is a wonderful thing.

There we go now.


----------

