CatLondon wrote: ↑Sun May 31, 2020 12:19 pm
Would he automatically be classed as an Irish citizen, or would his birth need to be registered in Ireland to qualify?
Your best source of information on this would either be someone who's been in the same situation, or speaking to someone in the Department of Justice or DFA. However, another good source of information is the following Department of Justice webpage which has a questionnaire to determine whether you are a citizen or are eligible to be:
https://www.irishimmigration.ie/citizen ... r-descent/
In your grandfather's case, the questionnaire produces the following answer:
You are most likely entitled to Irish citizenship
Your answers indicate that you are most likely entitled to be an Irish citizen, because you were born on the island of Ireland on or before 31 December 2004.
There are some exceptions to this rule, eg if you were born to a foreign diplomat based in Ireland. Read about exceptions in the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Acts.
Contact the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to apply for a passport.
The thing to note here is that there's no mention of any requirement for him to get a piece of paper to say he's a citizen - he's just being told to apply for a passport straight away. So my interpretation of this is that he was automatically an Irish Citizen from birth, even though he never held an Irish passport. I would therefore expect that you would be able to successfully apply for FBR, using his British birth certificate.
If you want to do more research, look at Section 6 of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1956 here:
http://www.inis.gov.ie/en/INIS/INCA%20D ... ec2014.pdf
I've read through it and it seems to be saying that people born in Ireland are entitled to be a citizen. There are some exceptions to this rule listed under Section 6A(2), but none of these seem to apply to him.
