As restrictions continue to mount for Brits travelling to Europe post-Brexit, perhaps the least surprising news was that last year saw a record number of UK citizens applying for Irish citizenship.
According to a Home Office report, shared with the Financial Times, 2024 saw a 15 per cent increase in citizenship applications, as 23,456 Brits decided to become Irish. This was the highest figure since records began in 2013, surpassing the previous annual peak in 2019, the year before the UK officially left the European bloc.
The most popular route for Brits to attain Irish citizenship – and, perhaps more crucially, the passport that goes with it – is through the Foreign Births Register, which allows UK citizens with at least one Irish grandparent to apply.
It has been estimated that some 6 million Brits have at least one Irish grandparent and so could claim an Irish passport – something that would give an Irish government already crumbling under a chronic housing crisis some rather sleepless nights.
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