<\/span><\/h3>\nArticle 9.1 of the Constitution provided that everyone who was a citizen of the Irish Free State in 1937 would become an Irish citizen. The acquisition of citizenship is to be regulated by law, subject to the proviso that no person shall be excluded from citizenship, on account of gender.<\/p>\n
Formerly, every person born in Ireland or in an Irish ship or aircraft became an Irish citizen at birth.\u00a0 Persons whose parents were not Irish citizens and were born in Northern Ireland after 6 December 1922, acquire citizenship by making a prescribed declaration.<\/p>\n
The amended Article 2 provides that it is the entitlement and the birthright of every person born in the Island of Ireland to be part of the Irish nation.<\/p>\n
Since a 2004 referendum, the amended Article 9.2 provides citizenship to those born in the island, , who at the time of their birth have one parent who either is or was entitled to become an Irish citizen. It appears that prior to 2004, that every person born on the Island of Ireland was an Irish citizen or entitled to become an Irish citizen. A person born on the Island of Ireland is an Irish citizen from birth if he would be otherwise stateless.<\/p>\n
A person who would be entitled to citizenship of any other country is entitled to be an Irish citizen if he or she does any act which only an Irish citizen is entitled to do. This is generally an application for a passport. However, the failure to do so does not create a presumption that he or she is not an Irish citizen.<\/p>\n
A person born on the Island of Ireland whose parents are entitled to diplomatic immunity is not entitled to Irish citizenship where neither parent is entitled to be an Irish citizen or is entitled to reside in the State or in Northern Ireland indefinitely.<\/p>\n
Irish citizens wherever born and are entitled to all the rights and privileges conferred by the terms of any enactment on a person born in the State. Most rights of citizens extend to British citizens and to a lesser extent, citizens of the EU, EFTA countries and Switzerland.<\/p>\n
The constitutional rights are applicable to citizens only. However, it has also been held that noncitizens enjoy most of the protections.<\/p>\n
Any person who at birth had an Irish mother or father who was an Irish citizen was automatically an Irish citizen subject to conditions prior to 2001.<\/strong> Since that time, where a child is born outside Ireland (the Island) and the parent through whom he claims citizenship is also born outside an Island, that child cannot become a citizen unless either the birth was registered or alternatively the parent was abroad in the public service.<\/p>\n<\/span>Requirement for Parental Residence<\/span><\/h3>\nA person born on an Irish ship or in Ireland after 1 January 2005 is entitled to be an Irish citizen if during the four years immediately preceding his birth, one of their parents was resident in the Island for not less than an aggregate of three years.<\/p>\n
The parental residence requirement does not apply to a person born before the commencement of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 2004. It does not apply to a person born on the island of Ireland\u2014<\/p>\n