Can you become Irish?
It’s a reasonable question for us here.
After all, we are the quintessential diaspora nation.
Our unfortunate location beside the island that created the first transglobal imperium in human history was never going to work out well for us.
From the New Model Army campaign to An Gorta Mór, we have lost people to like no other part of Europe.
During Cromwell’s campaign, 41% of the Irish population perished.
His policy of ethnic cleansing (“to Hell or to Connacht”) meant that the poor land west of the Shannon had to sustain a large number of the “mere Irish”.
According to the 1841 census, this island had a population of 8.18m.
In 2019 the Republic of Ireland had a 4.904m and Northern Ireland 1.885m.
So, this island would need to increase by another 1.39m to get back to 1841 levels.
As I said, we have had no luck with the neighbours…
Scattered to the winds, there are so many people with Irish heritage, and some of them have little or no knowledge of that.
However, when they DO find it, something can happen to them over and above acquiring a rather handy travel document in these post-Brexit times.
“On his last birthday, I gave him an Irish flag, and so one of the last photographs I have of him is him sitting wrapped in an Irish flag, grinning his head off. He died an Irishman.”
These are the words of Nicholas Cornwell speaking on BBC radio about his late father.
The world knows his dad as John le Carré, that was the chosen pen name of David John Moore Cornwell.
In his literary work, he forensically examined the Post-Suez condition of Englishness.
His masterful creation of George Smiley carried the burden of duty and the loss of Empire with him like a back-breaking weight.
This was no testosterone-fuelled Bond fantasy.
Rather, Smiley was a crumpled man weighed down by what was expected of him by a changing world.
In one memorable passage of brilliant prose, Smiley visited the retired Connie Sachs.
She had been the hard drive of the MI6 research department.
Blessed with an amazing memory, she was able to give Smiley the information that he wanted.
However, before she did that, she lamented:
“Poor loves. Trained to Empire, trained to rule the waves. Englishmen could be proud then, George. They could… All gone.”
Those who wish to be writers are told to “write about what you know.”
Well, John le Carré was certainly well placed to write about the world of British Intelligence during the Cold War as he lived it.
In 1960 he was working undercover in West Germany as an MI6 officer.
His career as a British spook came to an end when Kim Philby betrayed those cover identities to his KGB handlers.
By that time, he was already a published author and was using that pen name because of Foreign Office regulations.
Many believe that Philby was the inspiration for “Gerald”, the Soviet mole hunted by George Smiley in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.
Published in 1974, it is his greatest work.
So how did this quintessential Englishman die a happy Irishman?
Like many things recently in this archipelago, it is connected to Brexit.
This from 2019 gives some background to the journey that took Nicholas Cornwell to this island.
John le Carré had to travel to West Cork where his paternal grandmother was raised.
He consulted a local archivist for information on the family. “After spending silent minutes at her computer, she looked up with a charming smile and said: ‘Welcome home.’”
The writer spoke in 2019 that:
“I think my own ties to England were hugely loosened over the last few years. And it’s a kind of liberation, if a sad kind.”
Acquiring an Irish passport can open the door to looking at your identity anew.
That was certainly the case for Spike Milligan.
Since the UK voted to leave the European Union in 2016, there is a new addition to the lexicon of Hiberno-English, the “Brexit Paddy”.
Indeed, even in the northeast of this island, people who are violently convinced that they are Bradaish have been quietly acquiring one of these very handy travel documents.
Indeed, there was a clamour for them in self-defining loyalist areas of the Six Counties.
Of course, it is too early to gauge the long-term psychological and emotional impact for the thousands of folks from Narne Arne being acknowledged at passport control as Irish Citizens.
For some, the process is nothing more than an administrative procedure to facilitate their travel plans and residency rights to the European Union member states now that the UK is a third country.
However, for others, it will be the start of a journey that they themselves did not think much about.
That will be a matter for each individual as it suits them.
For the avoidance of doubt, it never occurred to your humble correspondent to have anything other than an Irish passport.
I remember the envelope arriving from my embassy in London.
I was all of 19.
Unlike Mr Cornwell, I didn’t need a genealogist’s services or to go through any administrative hoops.
Because my late mother had the good sense to marry a man from Mayo, I was automatically an Irish citizen from the moment I first saw the light of day in Fair Caledonia.
My old green passport was a gorgeous thing to behold.
Of course, it wasn’t my fault that I had the misfortune to be born in the most pathologically anti-Irish part of the Anglosphere.
That was the dark days of the 1950s, but surely it is better now?
Sadly, it appears that it is still perfectly acceptable in Fair Caledonia to punch down on Paddy.
I was asked to talk on the subject of the Second Generation Irish (2GI) experience at the ChangeIn Scotland conference in Ullapool in 2011.
During my talk, I was gently heckled from the sidelines by a chap with a laptop.
Apparently, he appeared to find the proposition that I was, in any way Irish, mildly risible.
He has since become an elected member of the regional assembly in Edinburgh.
Note, the Holyrood legislature is not a national parliament as it does not have a seat at the United Nations or the ability to issue passports…
Westminster remains sovereign over Scotland, which is why parties like the SNP send their people there to swear allegiance to the Saxe-Coburg family.
I noted that a couple of years ago that the chap in the audience at Ullapool proudly announced on Twitter that he was now the proud owner of an Irish passport.
I replied to him to ascertain whether he had changed his perspective on my talk at Ullapool.
He didn’t reply.
Still, he’s one of our own if he wants to be, and John le Carré’s son was indeed correct.
His late father did indeed “die an Irishman”.
It is important that our essential truth is acknowledged at the end of our time.
My own funeral will be a quiet family affair, and my brood has their instructions.
When that day comes, it will be apparent to any onlooker that this is the final journey of Duine Éireannach.
Give that it will be in Contae Mhaigh Eo, I expect them to stop for a moment as one of their own passes by.
1951 and all that…
I’m sure that my fellow Irishman John le Carré would appreciate the dramatic import of that wish.
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Sickening that British farmers in Northern Ireland could assume Irish identity during the foot and mouth crisis 20 years ago. And 100% Irish blood like me can’t get a passport…crazy.
I’m a couple of hundred percent more Irish than Eamon de Valera, have to go back several generations to find one ancestor who hasnt an obvious Irish name. But I’m not entitled to a pass port. Oh I wish I could have one, I really do.
Aye, Ah ken the feelin … I was born in an Irish family in the West of Scotland just under 70 years ago, and brought up there, so, like yourself, I got to experience the anti-Irish, anti-Catholic sentiments of much of the local populace at first hand, and often painfully. Having an Orange Walk come down your street and slow to a stop when they know there are several Catholic households close together tends to make you feel just a tad unwanted.
We were, of course, under the “protection” of a police force whose fundamental principle was that everyone is innocent until proven Catholic.
When I heard 30,000 huns belting out “the Famine is over, why don’t you go home?”, I thought, “F___ it, why don’t I?”
I can’t put into words how happy I was to get that Irish passport, and to move to a village in Co Galway. I went back to Scotland on a brief visit a couple of years ago, and the first thing I saw when I got off the boat and drove into Stranraer was three teenage lads wearing “Rangers” strips. It took me right back, and not in a good way.
When I go to France, I get a pleasant smile from the Passport Officer at the airport – I don’t think that would be the case if I handed over a British passport these days. It feels great to say to people, “Je suis irlandais”.
Phil, out of curiosity, I see if a grandparent was born in Ireland you qualify for an Irish passport, my grandfather was from County Down in the north, would I qualify?
Yes
I have Irish grt grandparents on both sides and I live opposite the house in Scotland where my paternal Irish grt grandparents lived and died. Sadly their family were all born in Scotland. I wish that there was some rule that would consider me for an Irish Passport 🙁 My husband had an Irish mother so we’re getting him one.
You are entitled to an Irish passport but first will have to register with the Foreign Births register. Just Google Can i become an Irish citizen. Welcome aboard.
I once heard there are only two ‘peoples’ in this world…the Irish and those who wish they WERE Irish….
I have to say that my desire to see an independant Scotland has more to do with its impact in the six counties. Im not so sure that Scottish indrpendance is necessarily a good thing for thise of Irish descent in Scotland. It remains a bigoted place and whatever equality it enjoys does not, in my view, come from within Scotland. Sadly, and just like the six counties, it required English intervention to bring about a modicum of equality.
Sadly it wasn`t the English intervention that brought about a modicum of equality here, in the six counties, rather it was the intervention of England that was the cause of the strife. The modicum of eqality we enjoy now was brought about by an entirely different grouping.
If Europe keeps HAVING to borrow at the rate it has had to in recent years that Green Passport might be making a comeback sooner than you think Phil best keep it handy just in case.
As Westminster’s grasp on your Irish past decreases Central Banks grasp on your immediate future gets tighter by the month.
How you will ever hold the EU to account in the future is anyone’s guess?
They are after all unaccountable.
https://ec.europa.eu/info/strategy/recovery-plan-europe_en
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eurozone-eurogroup-solvency-idUSKBN2AB0SJ
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ecb-policy-loans-idUSKBN23P1JZ
Developing story as you might say..
My great grandfather was born in a ‘townland’ called Agadouhey (probably spelled that wrong). It’s near Colraine, and I went there once in search of my roots. They’ve got this statue of Bertie Peacock in the square. He is described as a’gentleman and sportsman’. No mention of the Celtic connection. Since my great-grandfather came here with a wife, who died, I assume she too was Irish. When Brexit happened I inquired about an Irish passport, but was told grandparents were the nearest kin required, and that citizenship could not be passed on to offspring. Shame. If things change, though, I’ll bung in an application.
Another thing about Colraine, they have the kerbstones painted red white and blue. And the Catholic church is set high on a hill and surrounded with houses sporting those same colours. I couldn’t work that one out, You would expect a Catholic Church to stand in or near a Catholic community. But then I noticed that the houses were of recent design, and I got it. Silly me.
It’s spelt Aghadowey it’s between Coleraine and Kilrea the home village of Martin O’Neill.
Phil,
My situation is identical to Michael’s and its my great grandparents who were Irish by birth and hence no access to an Irish passport for me. My wife’s the exact same and her family came from Co.Fermanagh. It hasn’t stopped me from feeling and identifying as Irish my entire adult life although born and raised here in Scotland. Like Michael I have a wish for Scotland to realise its ambition to be independent, however, fear that the cards are stacked against us by a powerful pro-union loyalist majority which includes many state institutions and the UK mainstream media. I understand your comments denigrating those that will take the Queen’s silver whilst saying they want away but please don’t class us all the same. We are trying to achieve something and to be supported in that is great, to be constantly put down is disheartening.
My 8 great grandparents were all Irish but sadly I’m pretty certain none of my grandparents were born in Ireland so no rights to an Irish passport. Genetically I’m100% Irish but I recognise I am Scottish by birth and upbringing and support Scottish independence. In my country there are people with the same narrow mentality as some of you’re fellow Irishmen in the North East Counties of the island of Ireland, like them they are a 5th column in Scotland against Scottish Independence from Perfidious Albion. Unfortunately they are joined by some people who sing songs of freedom for Ireland but support the Unionist cause in Scotland. I just can’t get my head around it.
Phil. I like your writings, including your novel but I am growing increasingly weary of your constant attacks on Scotland.
I, like you have an Irish parent and am the proud owner of an Irish passport despite being born in the Republic of Coatbridge. I spent years of my youth in Corcaigh and still have that lilt to my speech.
I have made Scotland my home, having married a Glasgow girl and have brought my children up here. They too, have an Irish passport.
We are trying to make this country better, starting with a break from perfidious Albion. I am a firm believer in abstentionism from Westminster and would hope that our elected members will eventually take that step.
When the inevitable independence comes, our next move is to rid ourselves of the Windsors and their heirs. That is a logical step that I suspect many of England’s former colonies will also take on the death of the current incumbent
We can do without the put downs. Scotland will also look towards her exiled children throughout the world and her gallant Allies in Europe when our independence is granted. Assistance in getting there is also welcome.
Encouragement, not denigration please.
would all them stuanch men with irish passports would they have a vote for the union
As someone who also has an Irish passport, am I the only one who finds that reference to “one of our own” has connotations of tribalism and racial superiority.
I doubt that unionists in the 6 counties come into that category.
In catalogueing the undoubted injustices done to Ireland in the 19th century, it’s probably also worth remembering that for the 50 years following the establishment of the Free State Ireland was a backward, right wing theocracy, sometimes highly corrupt during the Haughey years, and whose main export was people.
It’s also worth remembering the complicity those in indentured servitude from both Scotland and Ireland had in the invention of race used by wealthy imperial elites to crush the solidarity and coalescence those indentured formed with the west African chattel slaves first in Barbados, then Jamaica then Virginia.
When the prospect of uprising and overthrowing came they elected to, as blindboy succinctly put it in his excellent podcast episode with Dublin born Emma Dabiri last week, take the soup and side with the masters in subjugating the chattel slaves. Siding with the masters to punch down was a trope which was loosely continued amongst Irish labour activists who didn’t want to see abolition in the US for fear they would have a new labour market taking their jobs through to the formation of the police force, which had an Irish majority in many cities and who’s role was largely subjugating populations of black people and people of colour. This continues to today with Police forces employing the Miami Model of policing BLM protests, a model developed by Dublin Born John Timony as recently as the 1980s
There is no white exceptionalism, Scots or Irish, when push came to shove too many on both sides of the Irish sea elected to side with oppressors agains oppressed.
If you haven’t done so already I’d listen to Blindboy’s interview with Emma Dabiri.
If you know your history and all that.
I would love nothing more than all the Celtic nations, and Plaid Cwymru calling for a referendum today was heartening today freed from a union which has always been toxic, but while it was toxic for Irish, Welsh and highlanders alike, it was infinitely more toxic for those whose skin tone wasn’t pale enough and all nations within these bloody islands have to acknowledge their part in that and find a way to coalesce rather than finger point.
probably worth remembering that Ireland more specifically the Irish were made impoverished by taxes for decades by a vindictive crown in britain.
Ireland under british crown had the worst poverty in Western europe, deprived even of self pride,
So worth remembering al that about colonial Ireland, and a Ireland now mostly free of direct british crown influence, is a far better healthier wealthier (do compare GDPPP, & quality of life indexes old chap!) generally just a better place than the colonial terrorist empire it shook off.
Far from perfect but compared to the so called ukl! lol
I would love to be Irish , but unfortunately my family flirted back and forth from the farm in Ducharry and Parkhead so my grand mother was Scottish, mother Scottish but brought up in Dungloe.
Sure if you feel Irish and want to be Irish, then CÉAD MÍLE FÁILTE. But what about your fathers side. Name certainly widespread in Ireland. A passport does not make you Irish, its what is in your heart soul and blood that does the trick. Once met a Polish American who asked me to check out his name when I got back to Ireland. Cant remember what it was but it was as Polish as Phil’s name is Irish.. Might have been pushing it a bit to call him Irish though
Agreed Terry.
My point on the passport issue was that even when you’re recognised as Irish by that internationally agreed travel document many in Fair Caledonia still have a problem with the Irish in their midst self-defining as such.
Scotland has abnormalised itself apropos the Irish and Irishness.