My grandmother was born in Canada at a time when both Ireland and Canada were a part of the British Empire. Vital statistics documents are clear that her “race” (their term) was “Irish,” although her parents and all of her grandparents were born in Canada.
Fast forward to the 1940s when Canadian citizenship was created, and like most other Canadians she is no longer a British subject. Clear enough.
My question has to do with Irish citizenship: were she and the other ethnic Irish of the Empire eligible for Irish citizenship when the Republic was created? It looks to me like the answer is no, that it was only for the Ireland Irish and the rest of the people in the empire were not considered, even though they continued to be classed as Irish by the British government. Was the issue ever discussed by Irish lawmakers?
I am willing to be corrected, but I do not think Ireland was considered part of the British Empire before independence. I think it was considered part of Britain. As such, I doubt whether your grandmother’s being classified as Irish by race had much legal significance (although it might have had social significance): no more than, say being a “hispanic” or a “white (non-hispanic)” American citizen (as entered on your census form) does. I would say that your grandmother was a British citizen, became a Canadian citizen, was never an Irish citizen, but throughout the whole process, since she was descended from long-time inhabitants of Ireland, she remained “racially” Irish (inasmuch as race in general, and Irish race in particular are meaningful concepts).
It looks as though one of your grandparents must be an Irish citizen for you to be entitled to claim Irish citizenship, and as none of your grandmother’s grandparents were born in Ireland, she wouldn’t be considered as Irish.
Thanks for the responses, but I’m still confused as to the logic behind this. It looks like people born in Northern Ireland were granted Irish citizenship, regardless of ethnicity, but not the ethnic Irish of Liverpool or London or further out in the empire. (irishgirl’s link keeps referring to “the Island of Ireland.”) Is that correct? If so, was the issue ever discussed? It seems odd that it just never occurred to anyone.
To be clear, I’m only asking about people alive in 1922. Obviously, once the Republic of Ireland exists, it’s a different ballgame. (Equally, I’m only using Grandma as a test case—she expressed no desire for Irish citizenship in life, and presumably would care even less in death.)
ETA: I’m using “Republic of Ireland” as shorthand for “Irish Free State” and all iterations following.
I’m not sure in 1922 whether those born in NI were granted Irish citizenship, the current island of Ireland provision dates to the Good Friday Agreement of 1922. With regard to Republic and the UK, my understanding was that there has always been an agreement in place that allows UK residents to become Irish residents and vice versa, now as for citizenship I don’t know. Beyond the former United Kingdom of Britain and Ireland, I think Irish citizenship only worked on the grandparent rule, and not on how people were ethnically identified.
Actually it’s more complicated than I said and I’m partially wrong, I remembered my dad talking about the 1949 cut-off before so looked it up. This wikipedia article has some details: