It's not the Revenue's thinking; it's the provisions of the IRL/UK Double Taxation Agreement.
In general, a pension paid from Ireland to a resident of the UK will be taxable in the UK, and vice versa. However there's a provision in the Double Taxation Agreement that a pension paid by the Irish goverment to a UK resident in relation to service as an Irish public servant or local authority employee is taxable in Ireland, unless the recipient is a UK citizen and not also an Irish citizen. (And vice versa for UK public service pensions paid to residents of Ireland.)
This isn't a particularly Ireland/UK thing; there are somewhat similar provisions in many (all?) of Ireland's double taxation agreements with other countries. They are all based on a provision in the OECD model tax treaty, under which pensions for government service are taxed by the country that pays them, even if the recipient becomes a resident of another country.