Irish Naturalisation - References

[Mateol]

Good morning Everyone,

I am applying to the Irish citizenship through naturalisation and one request is "Please supply three references from Irish citizens".

1-Can the references be originally from another country?
2-Can the references be originally from Spain but living in Ireland for 3/4/5 years (they are not Irish naturalized but spanish and living in ireland paying taxes for years)?
3-Can the reference be someone born in another country and naturalised irish?

Thanks!
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[Vadrar]

They need to be Irish. How they came to be Irish doesn’t matter. Ideally they should have an Irish phone number that is active - so likely living in Ireland, but current residence isn’t important beyond phone number.

The current guidelines don’t specify nationality, but the common view is that Spanish citizen (ie anyone not Irish) references won’t work. However they haven’t called references in a while (so there isn’t recent reference experience), but they could of course start again at any time.

Back when they were checking references issues were notorious for adding significant delays to an application. I wouldn’t risk it by using anything other than Irish referees.