The Irish Independent has reported that increased demand for Irish passports in the North has resulted in 400,000 passports being approved since the Good Friday Agreement.
The Good Friday Agreement recognises the birthright of all the people of Northern Ireland to identify themselves and be accepted as Irish or British, or both as they may so choose, and accordingly confirms their right to hold both British and Irish citizenship.
The number of passport applications from people born in Northern Ireland rose by over 20% in 2007 to 60,000; since Irish passports last for 10 years, this represents a number of at least 600,000 people in the north who identify themselves as Irish. Since children often travel on their parents' passport, and since not every person has a passport, the figures show that a very significant proportion of the population in the north identifies itself as Irish – probably close to half, and rising. More bad news for unionism!
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3 comments:
Even people from Britain want an Irish passport if they can get one. The Irish are well liked abroad. The English are not.
And since the UK is over 80 per cent Englishmen, then most people associate British with being English. Hence it's not always useful to have a British passport.
Which is why John Simpson of the BBC uses an Irish passport in many parts of the world.
'The number of passport applications from people born in Northern Ireland rose by over 20% in 2007 to 60,000; since Irish passports last for 10 years, this represents a number of at least 600,000 people in the north who identify themselves as Irish...'
No. You can't multiply the number of recipients by 10. All these figures add up to is that 60,000 people will have an Irish passport for 10 years.
Re: anonumous, 27 June 2008 13:39 - I disagree. If 60,000 passport applications were received in one single year, and passports last 10 years, then it is quite valid to extrapolate to a figure of 600,000. I may be proved wrong, of course (in either direction) - the number may keep increasing so that after another 10 years we see perhaps 800,000 Irish passport holders in the north. Or the numbers may drop. Who knows? All we can say is that the numbers are increasing and can be validly extrapolated to suggest at least 600,000 people who consider themselves Irish in the north.
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