The primary law governing nationality of Ireland is the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act, 1956, which came into force on 17 July 1956. Ireland is a member state of the European Union (EU), and all Irish nationals are EU citizens. They are entitled to free movement rights in EU and European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries, and may vote in elections to the European Parliament for the three Irish constituencies.
All persons born in the Republic before 1 January 2005 automatically received citizenship at birth regardless of the nationalities of their parents. Individuals born in the country since that date receive Irish citizenship at birth if at least one of their parents is an Irish citizen or entitled to be one. They are also entitled to citizenship if a parent is a British citizen, has no time limit on their stay in either the Republic or Northern Ireland, or has been domiciled on the island of Ireland for at least three of the preceding four years. Persons born in Northern Ireland are usually entitled tobut not automatically grantedIrish citizenship, largely under the same terms. Foreign nationals may become Irish citizens by naturalisation after meeting a minimum residence requirement, usually five years. The president of Ireland may also grant honorary citizenship, which entails the same rights and duties as normal citizenship, although this is rare.
Ireland as a whole was previously part of the United Kingdom, and Irish people were British subjects. After most of Ireland gained independence as the Irish Free State in 1922 and departed from the Commonwealth of Nations in 1949, Irish citizens no longer hold British nationality. However, they continue to have favoured status in the United Kingdom and are largely exempt from British immigration law, eligible to vote in UK elections, and able to stand for public office there.
Terminology The distinction between the meaning of the terms citizenship and nationality is not always clear in the English language and differs by country. Generally, nationality refers to a person's legal belonging to a sovereign state and is the common term used in international treaties when referring to members of a country, while citizenship usually means the set of rights and duties a person has in that nation. This distinction is more clearly defined in many non-English-speaking jurisdictions than in the Anglosphere. In the Irish context, there is little distinction between the two terms and they are used interchangeably.
History
Pre-independence context
Since the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland in the late 12th century, England has been politically and militarily involved with the island. English control was tenuous until the Tudor conquest in the 16th century, during which the entire island was absorbed into the Kingdom of Ireland. After passage of the Acts of Union 1800, Ireland was merged with the Kingdom of Great Britain to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Accordingly, British nationality law applied in Ireland. Any person born in Ireland, as a constituent part of the United Kingdom, or anywhere else within Crown dominions was a natural-born British subject. Natural-born subjects were considered to owe perpetual allegiance to the sovereign, and could not voluntarily renounce British subject status until renunciation was first permitted in 1870.
British nationality law during this time was uncodified and did not have a standard set of regulations, relying instead on past precedent and common law. Until the mid-19th century, it was unclear whether rules for naturalisation in the United Kingdom were applicable elsewhere in the British Empire. Colonies had wide discretion in developing their own procedures and requirements for naturalisation up to that point. In 1847, the British Parliament formalised a distinction between subjects who naturalised in the UK and those who did so in other territories. Individuals who naturalised in the UK were deemed to have received the status by imperial naturalisation, which was valid throughout the Empire. Those naturalising in colonies were said to have gone through local naturalisation and were given subject status valid only within the relevant territory; a subject who locally naturalised in Canada was a British subject there, but not in the UK or New Zealand. When travelling outside the Empire, British subjects who were locally naturalised in a colony were still entitled to imperial protection.
The British Parliament brought regulations for British subject status into codified statute law for the first time with passage of the British Nationality and Status of Aliens Act 1914. British subject status was standardised as a common nationality across the Empire. Dominions that adopted Part II of this Act as part of local legislation were authorised to grant subject status to aliens by imperial naturalisation.
Partition and lingering imperial ties
Resistance to the Union and desire for local self-governance led to the Irish War of Independence. Following the war, the island of Ireland was partitioned. Southern Ireland became the Irish Free State in 1922, while Northern Ireland remains part of the United Kingdom. When the Constitution of the Irish Free State came into force on 6 December 1922, any individual domiciled in Ireland automatically became an Irish citizen if they were born in Ireland, born to at least one parent who was born in Ireland, or living in Ireland for at least seven years prior to independence. Any person who already held citizenship of another country could choose not to accept Irish citizenship.
Under the terms of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, Northern Ireland was included in the Irish Free State on independence, but had the right to opt out of the new state within one month of its establishment. This option was exercised on 7 December 1922. The 24-hour period in which Northern Ireland was officially part of the Irish Free State meant that every person ordinarily resident in Northern Ireland on 6 December who fulfilled the citizenship provisions in the Constitution had automatically become an Irish citizen on that date.
At its inception, the Irish Free State gained independence as a Dominion within the British Empire. Imperial legislation at the time dictated that although individual Dominions could define a citizenship for their own citizens, that citizenship would only be effective within the local Dominion's borders. A Canadian, New Zealand, or Irish citizen who travelled outside their own country would have been regarded as a British subject. This was reinforced by Article 3 of the 1922 Constitution, which stated that Irish citizenship could be exercised "within the limits of the jurisdiction of the Irish Free State". From the British government's perspective, any person born in Ireland remained bound by allegiance to the monarch. The retention of these constitutional ties, rather than a full separation from the Empire, was the central cause of the Irish Civil War.
When Free State authorities were first preparing to issue Irish passports in 1923, the British government insisted on the inclusion of some form of wording that described the holders of these passports as "British subjects". The two sides could not reach agreement on this issue and when the Irish government began issuing passports in 1924, British authorities refused to accept these documents. British consular staff were instructed to confiscate any Irish passports that did not include the term "British subject" and replace them with British passports. This situation continued until 1930, when Irish passports were amended to describe their holders as "one of His Majesty's subjects of the Irish Free State". Despite these disagreements, the two governments agreed not to establish border controls between their jurisdictions, and all Irish citizens and British subjects continued to have the ability to move freely within the Common Travel Area.
Delayed citizenship legislation Although the Constitution provided a definition for who acquired citizenship at the time of independence, it contained no detail on how to acquire it after 1922. This created a number of anomalies, including the inability to grant citizenship to foreigners resident in Ireland and foreign spouses of Irish citizens.
By the end of the First World War, the Dominions had exercised increasing autonomy in managing their own affairs and by then each had developed a distinct national identity. Britain formally recognised Dominion autonomy at the 1926 Imperial Conference, jointly issuing the Balfour Declaration with all the Dominion heads of government. The Declaration stated that the United Kingdom and Dominions were autonomous and equal to each other within the British Commonwealth of Nations. Full legislative independence was granted to the Dominions with passage of the Statute of Westminster 1931.
Legislation clarifying Irish citizenship acquisition was delayed due to the government's desire to negotiate an exemption from British subject status with the rest of the Commonwealth. Ultimately no compromise was reached, and Ireland did not pass its own nationality legislation until after passage of the Statute of Westminster 1931. The Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act enacted by the Oireachtas in 1935 provided a full framework detailing requirements for obtaining citizenship. Under the 1935 Act, any individual born in the Irish Free State on or after 6 December 1922, or overseas to an Irish father who himself was born in the state, was a natural-born citizen. Children born abroad to an Irish father who himself was not born within the Free State had to have their birth registered within two years. Northern Ireland was treated as outside of the Free State for the purposes of this Act.
Any person born in Ireland before 6 December 1922 who did not automatically acquire citizenship under the Constitution due to their residence abroad on that date could acquire it, along with their children, by becoming domiciled in the Free State. Irish-born individuals continuing to live overseas became eligible to acquire Irish citizenship by registration, provided that they had not voluntarily naturalised as citizens of another country. Foreign nationals who resided in the Free State for at least five years could apply for naturalisation. Irish citizens older than age 21 who acquired foreign citizenship automatically lost Irish citizenship, and any Irish child who was registered in the Foreign Births Register was required after reaching age 21 to make a declaration of their intention to retain Irish citizenship and state that they had renounced all other nationalities.
Conflicting definition for "Irish national" During the period before passage of the 1935 Act, the government enacted several pieces of legislation that restricted certain types of economic activity to "Irish nationals". Under the Control of Manufactures Act 1932, Irish companies were required to be majority-owned by Irish nationals. Because no legislation had yet been enacted defining who was a national, this Act provided a separate definition: an Irish "national" was either born within the borders of the Free State or had been domiciled there for at least five years before 1932. This definition continued to be used even after the 1935 Act was enacted. Significant portions of the Northern Irish population came to be treated as foreigners in commerce as a consequence of these provisions.