When are you an Irish Citizen?

A family I Know moved back from England. they have two kids 11 and 13 who were born in England. Both of the parents were born in Ireland and emigrated in the 1980s. My question is are the Kids Irish citizens automaticly or do you have to get a passport or something. The reason I am asking for them is that they have been filling up forms and the question of citizenship comes up

See:

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/c...ip/irish_citizenship_through_birth_or_descent

It's a right you can claim if you're entitled to it: you don;t actually have to do anything beyond that.

I was born in UK and moved here when I was 14 (I'm now 27), always considered myself Irish and have always had an Irish passport. Not sure if that's any help to you!

Thanks Guys found my answer on the site listed by Ang1170

"If either of your parents was an Irish citizen at the time of your birth, then you are automatically an Irish citizen, irrespective of your place of birth"
and Moondance like you they consider themselves 100% Irish but when questions comes up on official forms one wants to be 100% sure. I told them last night that during Jack Charltons reign as Soccer coach that half or more of the team were born outside Ireland

All that has changed with ammendments to the consitution.

There is now no automatic right to citizenship if born in Ireland etc. I have an english wife and it is mammoth task to get her naturilsed, not worth the bother, time and expense involved.

Also if we ever have children, we are unsure if they will be Irish citizens as one parent (her) is not Irish.

Moral Ethos said:

All that has changed with ammendments to the consitution.

There is now no automatic right to citizenship if born in Ireland etc. I have an english wife and it is mammoth task to get her naturilsed, not worth the bother, time and expense involved.

Also if we ever have children, we are unsure if they will be Irish citizens as one parent (her) is not Irish.

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I believe the amendment to the constitution referred to the birthplace of the child, not the existing citizenship of the parent. Previous to the amendment, there was automatic right to Irish citizenship to any child born on the island of Ireland regardless of parent's citizenship.

The situation regarding having at least one Irish citizen as a parent to be considered a citizen was not changed by the amendment.

So your children can claim Irish citizenship and probably British citizenship too.

Again AFAIK, there is a two generation limit to this, i.e. at least one grandparent must be a citizen (= 1 parent a citizen, = 1 striker not good enough for the English/Scottish team a citizen!).

Moral Ethos said:

All that has changed with ammendments to the consitution.

There is now no automatic right to citizenship if born in Ireland etc. I have an english wife and it is mammoth task to get her naturilsed, not worth the bother, time and expense involved.

Also if we ever have children, we are unsure if they will be Irish citizens as one parent (her) is not Irish.

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The Web site referred to above is up-to-date.

To answer your question: "If either of your parents was an Irish citizen at the time of your birth, then you are automatically an Irish citizen, irrespective of your place of birth (unless it was one of the special conditions relating to birth outside Ireland)." So, yes any children would be Irish citizens.

As a matter of interest, why does your wife want to be naturalised?

Assuming she's a UK citizen, she can pretty much do anything and has the same rights as an Irish citizen, including vote in all elections (except Presidential ones and referenda, from memory).

We were advised if we were going to adopt from a foreign state, eg China it would be better if we were both Irish. Dunno how true this is?

I've no idea, but I'd be surprised if it made a difference between UK and Irish.

Moral Ethos said:

We were advised if we were going to adopt from a foreign state, eg China it would be better if we were both Irish. Dunno how true this is?

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Advised by whom?

Moral Ethos said:

I have an english wife and it is mammoth task to get her naturilsed, not worth the bother, time and expense involved.

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I have Bosnian and Russian friends who became Irish citizens through naturalisation and it didn't seem to be an onerous, time consuming or expensive task for them.