Citizenship Ceremonies
By pgn
@pgntwo (22405)
Derry, Northern Ireland
November 27, 2016 11:55am CST
A fine morning at 09:30 on Friday 25-Nov-2016 saw a queue of people stretching around two sides of the Convention Centre, Dublin. These people were waiting patiently to be admitted to the first of two citizenship ceremonies that day, at which Irish Citizenship would be conferred upon half of them - the end, for some, of months of preparation.
Queuing aside, each ceremony was not much longer than about 50minutes. There was a musical preamble provided by An Garda Síochána band, itself made up of players from the length and breadth of Ireland.
Encouraging words at the earlier of the two ceremonies were from both the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality, Frances Fitzgerald, and retired judge Bryan McMahon.
The ages of those in the auditorium seemed to range from 8 weeks to 8 decades, with Irish Citizenship conferred upon 2000 individuals from 120 different countries across both sessions.
The news coverage below appears to be from the later ceremony, but you can see how happy everyone was to be at this event.
2,000 more foreign nationals are awarded Irish Citizenship papers, making them "New Irish".
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6 responses
@pgntwo (22405)
• Derry, Northern Ireland
28 Nov 16
It is a lot, yes, I thought that too. Some people I talked to had been living in Ireland for more than 40 years, becoming Irish because the need to travel farther to renew their own national passport was becoming impractical. Others had been through the school system, and even graduated from university in Ireland, becoming Irish to have voting rights where they live...
1 person likes this
@pgntwo (22405)
• Derry, Northern Ireland
28 Nov 16
@LadyDuck Renewal of some passports here requires a trip to London, inevitably involving an overnight stay, as well as finding an airline that will accept ID other than a passport in order to complete the outward and return legs of the journey...
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@moffittjc (128824)
• Gainesville, Florida
27 Nov 16
That's pretty awesome that so many people became Irish citizens! I know you said that there were people from over 120 different countries, but if you had to guess (or if the information was made available), what country were the most people from?
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@moffittjc (128824)
• Gainesville, Florida
27 Nov 16
@pgntwo Wow, Brazil and the Philippines are two countries I would have never suspected! If I had to guess, I would have suspected that there would be a lot of Syrians, and people from other war-torn areas.
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@pgntwo (22405)
• Derry, Northern Ireland
28 Nov 16
@moffittjc I cannot find the Ireland-only stats, but these EU stats are fairly current, if you want to see the split of who came from what country...
This article presents recent statistics on the acquisition of citizenship in the European Union (EU).
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@DaddyEvil (174208)
• United States
23 Dec 16
Do you attend these ceremonies, pgn? Or have you just read about them?
I don't believe I would attend... I hate listening to speeches for one and after seeing one ceremony like this, I would think they'd all look the same after that.
I might go if I knew someone being awarded their citizenship papers, sorta as moral support.
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@Inlemay (17712)
• South Africa
29 Nov 16
@pgntwo my cousins have tried for years now, and it seems that records here as well as there do not co-inside - ah well, it seems being an Irish South African is what I was meant to be - now my children are half french descendant and Irish - so they are not really interested
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