Charlie Cole has got it all wrong. Across society there are legitimate concerns over the British establishment’s obsession with importing millions of economic migrants combined with their steadfast and fair-mindedly bi-partisan total incompetence at stopping further illegal arrivals or deporting illegal immigrants already here. Charlie has done yeoman work at exposing the full costs of Boriswave, but not content with attacking the true villains (the aforementioned establishment) he’s now decided to take it out on those poor unfortunate souls, namely us: the Irish.
The Home Office recently announced a new streamlined process for Irish citizens resident within the United Kingdom — that’s me — to become fully sworn-up subjects of His Britannic Majesty the King. Basically, if you’re a law-abiding Irish citizen who has lived in Great Britain or Northern Ireland continuously for the past five years, instead of having to go through the expensive process of applying for naturalisation, there will be a cheaper process of applying to register yourself as a British citizen.
Charlie professes himself “staggered” that the Home Office would allow such a scheme to go ahead, arguing that the Republic of Ireland’s more lax allowances for ostensible refugees to become citizens will open a massive backdoor for migrants to gain the benefits of UK citizenship and further add to Britain’s existing burdens. But this wasn’t the Home Office’s call at all: it was Parliament’s.
Last year the British Nationality (Irish Citizens) Act was proposed, not by the then-Conservative government nor by the Labour opposition now in power, but by parliamentarians of Ulster’s Democratic Unionist Party. The DUP argued that long-standing residents of Northern Ireland who were born in the Republic after it left the Commonwealth in 1949 should not have to face (as Lord Haye of Ballyore put it in the debate) the “lengthy and costly process” of applying for naturalisation as a British citizen. The initial draft of the bill only applied to Irish citizens born after 31 December 1948 who are resident in Northern Ireland, but discussions at committee stage widened this to Irish citizens of any age residing anywhere in the United Kingdom. The final bill passed both houses of Parliament and received final assent just days before the dissolution required for Rishi Sunak’s general election last year that landed Britain with the Starmer government.
In practice, the Act does little more than remove the need for Irish nationals to complete the Life in the UK test or prove English-language proficiency — requirements that are not only redundant for native English speakers, but slightly absurd for those who vote and stand in our elections and serve in the armed forces and civil service. It also reduces the application fee for this specific category of applicant. These are practical adjustments, not political statements. What the Act does is offer people like me a path to regularise what is, in all but name, already full participation in British civic life.
Cole suggests that this amounts to an unearned privilege or even a threat to border integrity. But if anything, the Act reinforces the legitimacy of our immigration system. There is no special entry pathway created by the Act. Applicants still must meet strict requirements: five years’ lawful residence in the UK with limited absences, good character, identity checks, and Gordon Brown’s cringemaking and fundamentally un-British citizenship ceremonies. In short, this is not a free ride: It is a fast lane for those who are already on the motorway.
Irish citizens are not like other foreign nationals, and we never have been. We are uniquely placed in British law and history. When the Fine Gael-led government decided that Éire would leave the Commonwealth — a decision taken by the Taoiseach on a 1948 visit to Ottawa without consulting his cabinet colleagues because Canada’s British governor-general the Earl Alexander of Tunis was so rude to him at an official dinner — Whitehall recognised that forcing every Irish resident in the United Kingdom to register as a foreigner was an administrative, logistical, and political nightmare. The solution was to pass a law recognising that while Ireland became a republic outside the Commonwealth on 1 January 1949, Irish citizens like me living in the UK are uniquely the only non-Commonwealth people not considered “foreign”.
The shared institutions and legal traditions that span our islands are recognised not only through the Common Travel Area but through reciprocal voting rights, health access, and social protections. Much though many republican nationalists might dislike admitting, Irish citizens in the UK are more akin to returning family than to foreign guests or unwanted interlopers. The Act is not a dilution of immigration standards but an expression of political realism and historic continuity.
Citizenship is never something to be handed out lightly. But nor should it be withheld through inertia or outdated assumptions
The idea that illegal migrants might exploit the Irish system to get into Britain via this route is illogical. Why enter the back door when the front door is wide open? Economic migrants seeking to game the system don’t wait many years in a country with its own immigration laws and enforcement to then begin another bureaucratic process under British jurisdiction. If such migrants wished to enter the UK illegally, they can — and do — attempt to cross the Channel directly. Or apply for spurious educational visas. Or exploit the existing provisions of the Common Travel Area. The Act offers them no incentive or advantage.
Citizenship is never something to be handed out lightly. But nor should it be withheld through inertia or outdated assumptions. The British Nationality (Irish Citizens) Act 2024 is not radical. It is, if anything, underwhelming. It does not open doors to the world. It recognises one that has been open, securely and respectfully, for generations. In a time of increasing migration pressure and policy polarisation, this modest piece of legislation affirms an old friendship, regularises a shared reality, and makes good administrative sense. That should be welcomed, not feared.
