Great Grand Mother Irish. Father to be Irish by descent soon from her. I still can't be Irish by descent.

[WildAtlanticResident]

Hi

My great grandmother is Irish by birth 1860s. My father is soon to become Irish by decent from her (his father never registered himself as Irish). There is a caveat that unless my grand parent or parent registered as Irish before I was born then I can't become Irish, even if they subsequently become Irish after my birth. Is there any way around this except for naturalisation?

[PasadenaTom]

The law seems pretty clear in the case when a child is born before the parent obtains entry in FBR (the same restriction also applies to my son and daughter).

According to the DFA website, it is possible that the Minister for Justice and Equality can waive conditions of naturalisation. That would seem to be the only means to get an exception:

"If you are of Irish associations, the Minister for Justice and Equality has absolute discretion to waive the conditions for naturalisation. Irish associations means being related by blood, affinity or adoption to an Irish citizen".

I have no idea how you would go about petitioning for such a waiver, or how likely you would be to succeed.

I also read a blog post about this specific issue from a firm that appears to provide naturalisation consulting services. In that post, they suggested that there may be a legal basis for challenging the law. But they said it would require someone to litigate the issue in the Irish legal system. I assume that would be costly. And there is no guarantee the legal argument will be successful. Only you would know if it is worth the cost. Perhaps someone else will eventually initiate such a challenge, and that precedent will benefit others in this situation. When or if that ever happens is anyone's guess.

I will not post a link to the consultant's website, as I do not want to risk violating the Terms and Conditions of this site. But you can likely find it yourself by searching for something like "Irish citizenship by descent challenge" or "Irish citizenship by descent loophole".

[WildAtlanticResident]

Thanks very much for the information. I won't be able to make that legal challenge myself but it would be great if somebody did. It looks like I'll have to attempt to naturalise and see how it goes.