Should I renew my UK passport?

[Katharine]

Thanks to my Irish mother, I’m a dual national. Last week I had a holiday in Switzerland and for the first time didn’t take a British passport with me. I was last out of Britain in December 2019.

My British passport expires in about 3 months and I can’t decide whether to renew it or not. What are the arguments for and against?

[time please]

Do you feel like an Irish national? Have you been to Ireland? What connections apart from your Mother do you have?
Or is it just convenience? If that is so I am not sure the Irish will see you as a citizen!

[Katharine]

Just at the moment, I’m feeling very Irish and wishing I could be there for my aunt’s funeral on Tuesday. Lots of memories of trips there, and of her flooding back.

[MrEd]

I could have had an Irish passport had my grandmother got her act together, but it was not to be. In terms of the use of a UK passport over an Irish one, effectively there is no difference what with the Common Travel Area which has been in place since 1923. Whether you are applying for a job, proving your identity in a bank or for a letting, there are no practical differences between the treatment of UK and Irish nationals within the UK, I don't think that there are even any jobs that you need to prove you are a UK citizen for even if you are minded to look for work.

Of course, should the political situation viz-a-viz the Republic deteriorate dramatically (and given what has gone on over the past century, that seems fanciful) then you might want to keep the old passport if you should need to use one.

[Katharine]

As I see it, I’m not giving up British nationality by not renewing the British passport, but possibly saving money. As I’m over 70 I do have to renew my driving licence every three years, and I think they pick up the picture from the passport. I will, of course, want to keep my driving licence, but there must be thousands of drivers who don’t have a current British passport, so it can’t be a necessary condition.

[time please]

A small majority of people in the UK voted for Brexit and perhaps only now are starting to realize what it really ment. For a lot of people waiting in long lines at the airport seems to be the main gripe and to avoid this there are many who then rush to become a ' citizen ' of another country if they have the possibility, even though they may have never been in the country. To me being a citizen of a country is sacred and not just a convenience.
Both my parents were Irish but left in 1940, this means that I am as such an Irish citizen, but I have never been there and never will. The reason is simple: after the war my family was sent to Germany there I was born. This was to build up the country and presumably hold the Russians back.
My father was one of the most decorated airmen in the Pathfinders, but at the end of the war his dreams of moving back to Ireland were shattered by the hate of some of the Irish against the people who left to fight. We ended up in England and hence CH.
I should renew my UK passport next year, but after living abroad for fifty years what is the point? Apart from the lines at Gatwick or Heathrow!

[Katharine]

I’m sorry your parents were treated like that, time please. My family are Protestants from County Wexford, and two uncles were in the RAF during WW2, I never heard of hostility on their return. One returned to the family farm, the other ran a garage and car repair business.

I do feel tied to both countries and have always denied being English and insisting on the word British.

My Irish ancestors were brought from the Palatinate in Germany in Queen Anne’s time to bolster the Protestant population in the south of Ireland.

[time please]

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-16287211. is a link:

Small world! My parents were born in Gorey in Wexford

[Katharine]

I wonder if the difference in treatment is because my uncles hadn’t been in the Irish armed forces before joining the RAF, they’re both dead now so can’t ask, my aunt was the last left of her generation. The uncles were uncles by marriage.

My family are from the New Ross area.

My mother was the first of her family to leave Ireland coming to England to train as a nurse & midwife. While training she met my OB father and never returned to live in Ireland.

[scrub]

My British passport expires in about 3 months and I can’t decide whether to renew it or not. What are the arguments for and against?

For: IMO, it's always a good idea to have as many formal documents as possible which prove citizenship. Particularly for a country which has a track record of taking itself out of international agreements that facilitate easy trade and travel, then employs people with minimal training to work at border control points.
Also, if you are overseas and get into a spot of bother that requires consular-level help, it'll make things easier if/when time is a strictly limited commodity and the UK embassy/consulate is the closest one.

Against: takes time and money, plus paperwork is always a pain.

[sejintenej]

I am like many of those who have answered. Mother Co Louth (still family in the family farm there) and father County Down (got decorated in 1942 and my brother died 1942 over Germany) At my age I don't see the effective benefits to me of getting an Irish passport though I have all the documentation. However my daughter is going for it though no clear reason for that choice.

[time please]

My problem with getting another passport is the following: Brexit meant that many people scouted around to see if they were eligible to become a citizen of another country. Ireland is extremely generous when it comes to who is eligible. So why did many people suddenly want to become a citizen of a country ( not just Ireland ) that they probably had little knowledge or interest in?
Bit strange really when the British are well known for loving standing queuing.

[Katharine]

I think Brexit has made me feel more Irish than British, ever since I first learnt I was dual national, many years ago, I’ve declared my dual heritage. Yes I travelled on a British passport, I got my first one* before I realised I could have an Irish one. I just renewed that each time until I decided to finally get an Irish one.

*That first passport photo has me in CH uniform, but as I was in the VI form, at Hertford, it shows me in a blouse and tie not in current uniform!

[sejintenej]

Also, if you are overseas and get into a spot of bother that requires consular-level help, it'll make things easier if/when time is a strictly limited commodity and the UK embassy/consulate is the closest one.

Against: takes time and money, plus paperwork is always a pain.

Depending on WHY you are there. Working for a company with close ties with the local government I was told to get a visa and entry permit for a fourth country immediately. Instead of a week or more it took 5 minutes,

("fourth"? Brasil as employer, me, British, location - an African republic, the visa was for yet another nation.)
That reminds me - an appeal. Does anyone know of a family named Abbott from the Southwark area who lost a 14 year old in the late 1600's? He jumped ship and landed in Brazil where his sucessors have become important.

[scrub]

So why did many people suddenly want to become a citizen of a country ( not just Ireland ) that they probably had little knowledge or interest in?

At a fundamental level, it's to retain the rights and protections they had.

People love to tell me it's all about airport lines and skiing holidays and how that's a rich people problem and how in their day they just got on a ship, jumped port and worked and didn't need any visas so they don't know what the problem is, and all that, but the world we live in now, is vastly different to the one they were young in. Not even all that long ago (before the Schengen Zone existed), to travel, live, and work abroad you either had to be rich or connected, preferably both. I'm sure I'll get a slew of replies telling me how I don't know nothing or whatever, but (so far) in my short life, I've lived and worked in 3 countries, gone from migrant to citizen in one of them and currently in the residency visa cycle again. I've also helped people who've had to deal with the UK home office, and you all have absolutely no idea just how bad that is.

Living visa to visa in a country is, pardon my phrasing, absolute sh1t. If I was able to sidestep that by virtue of an Irish granny, I'd do it in a heartbeat.