Part five

Alot has happened in the Brexit debate, even to summarise it here would take a long time. Right now the commonsn vote has been deferred into January. This seems to be a ploy to 'run out the clock' so that MPs are forced to chose between the 'negotiated' deal or no deal. To have a #peoplesvote there would need to be a law passed and there would be little or time to do that.
If it were a binary choice as implied then i would vote for no deal and take the hit, the 'deal' that has been negotiated is a trap which just defers the pain until a year or two later. Whenever we would leave we'd end up taking the blame for anything that happens including political violence.
All we can hope for today is that when the MPs do vote, they vote it down which in turn somehow leads to rescinding Article 50 or extending it. Again i could imagine extending would be the default option because it probably doesn't require a law to be passed and 'kicks the can down the road' (as any committee tends to do when faced with opposing views of the future).
I've supported the #peoplesvote campaign in a few small ways including posting leaflets to let people know what it is. I really like the way the campaign doesn't have any strong political views other than we need to have a vote because we've all learnt alot more. Lets hope it works.
Finally the EU itself has recommended that in the even of a No Deal there should be a period of Visa free travel, who knows how effective that would be. In any case, even if this whole process were cancelled i would be glad to be working on this project

Just before Christmas:
- I've recieved my grandfathers 'late registration of birth'
- I've recieved his new birth certificate

This means that I or my siblings can now in turn apply for our own late registration and then subsequently a passport.

The application continues - Part four

Brexit is going terribly, I'm personally a bit torn here when i think of the politics behind it. Recently it looked like there was momentum towards a second vote but at this time it doesn't seem likely. The truth, as i see it, is that the MPs simply don't have the backbone to do the right thing here, even when there is an apparent opportunity. More over it is we the people that should carry a large chunk of the blame too, do we protest ? Are the protests getting bigger every day ? Where are big voices calling for a change ? How comes the Lib Dems (the only party against this process) aren't really gaining support ?

Who knows ... anyway my paper journey continues.

• Previous birth certificates returned and refunded
• New baptism certificate received
• Late registration of birth form sent

In order to process the form they will need to look into my Great Grandparents births, marriages and deaths too (our documented family history doesn't go back that far).
If this part succeeds then i can apply for a copy of his birth certificate and then onwards.

Applying for an Irish passport - part three

Latest update:

• The Irish General Registration Office actually believe his birth was probably registered and the certificate i have is him. However since he was registered very late and there was a fine for doing this, many people gave false dates intentionally. In these cases they trust the baptismal certificate
• However the baptism certificate has really degraded over the last 100 years, so guess what, i need to apply for a new one of these too
• There is a positive benefit to this though, it does mean that mum won't need to send her original baptism certificate in order for me to get the birth certificate.

Applying for an Irish passport - The journey begins

If you've read my last post then you'll know some of the motivations for why i now need to start this lengthy process.

Like most people in Britain i have a mixed descent from the various nations that make up our shared history. My maternal grandfather was from Ireland and their laws this means that i am eligible to gain an Irish passport. As you may have seen many countries have seen significant increase in interest and applications for passports from UK citizens who may be entitled and realise want this would mean to their travel prospects.

So i've started to look into exercising this option and as you may guess, they haven't made it easy. Initially when i looked into this there were some generic messages about how this wasn't necessary because the various governments don't intend their to be problems. But its become clearer as time went on that that was pie in the sky.

So what do you need to do. Well in my case i need to prove the whole chain of entitlement that means:

1. Grandfather’s birth certificate (+notarised photocopy)
2. Grandfather’s marriage certificate (+notarised photocopy)
3. Grandfather’s death certificate (+notarised photocopy)
4. Mum’s birth certificate (+notarised photocopy)
5. Mum’s marriage certificate (+notarised photocopy)
6. My birth certificate (+notarised photocopy)
7. My marriage certificate (+notarised photocopy)
8. Certified/Notarised copy of the photograph page of current passport or state issued identity document (e.g. Driver's Licence)
9. Certified/Notarised copy of the photograph page of current passport or state issued identity document (e.g. Driver's Licence)
10. 2 x Proof of residence
11. 2 x Notarised passport photos
12. Notarised application form

So 14 different documents plus 7 notarised copies.

Then there is the costs. My family does have some of the originals needed for these applications but are hesitant to send them away in case they get lost in the process. So i've applied for duplicates alongside the main fees involved:

1. duplicate of Grandfather's birth cert €42 total.
2. duplicate of Grandfather's marriage certificate £9.25
3. duplicate of Grandfather's death certificate £9.25.
4. duplicate of mother's birth certificate £9.25
5. duplicate of parent's marriage certificate for mum and dad £9.25
6. official translation of my marriage certificate TBC
7. Foreign birth app fee is €278
8. Passport app fee is €80

5      TOTAL so far approx. £352 not including photocopies, translation fees and postage fees

There are benefits to this process though. I've learned alot about our family history in the process.

Anyway the process is ongoing. The latest is that it turns out my grandfather wasn't registered and this seemed to be an optional process over a hundred years ago so now i am following the so called 'late registration process' to register him over hundred years after his birth and many decades since his death. however to apply for this i will need to send the original copy of his baptism certificate, which we do have but are not keen on sending.

So lets just say this process is anything but (deliberately not?) cheap and easy. I'm impressed by the public records that exist and, dare i say it, both the UK and Irish Government websites which help you to find what you need to do.

Some useful links for anyone mad enough to try this:
http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/moving_country/irish_citizenship/irish_citizenship_through_birth_or_descent.html
http://www.inis.gov.ie/en/INIS/Pages/citizenship-grandparent-born-ireland
https://www.dfa.ie/passports-citizenship/citizenship/born-abroad/registering-a-foreign-birth/
https://www.dfa.ie/irish-embassy/great-britain/passports/how-to-apply-for-a-passport/
http://lifeevents.hse.ie/
https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/Login.asp
https://www.freebmd.org.uk

 

One word of warning, there are websites out that will charge you over the odds for certificates. Use the links above for the official sites.

Applying for an Irish Passport - The background (Or 'The reason i voted Remain was because i could see this mess coming')

Whatever you think about Brexit it is certain that things will never be the same again. If you voted for Brexit then you'll be able to blame all the negative ramifications on the EU itself, on the Government, or whoever takes you fancy, if you voted to remain then you'll know who to blame but won't be able to express it for fear of being shouted down.

I for one concluded at the time of the referendum that leaving would be bad because, i reasoned, it wasn't possible for 1 country to negotiate with 27 and 'get a good deal', they hold all the cards. It also has a rather profound impact on my family as my wife is from a EU country and our children have dual nationality, this as you can imagine has all kinds of potential impacts, the obvious being travel.
And finally my job role requires me to travel to Europe on short notice, anyone who thinks travel will be unaffected is simply naive.

That said i blame the 'silent majority' more than those who voted Brexit. In fact i blame two people more than them:
#1 is Tony Blair. His decision not to limit the initial immigration from ascending countries (when all other countries did) did alot to create the problems and perceived problems with have with immigration. Also the way he and his wife implemented and profited from the human rights legislation also caused so many people to feel that Europe is something that is done TO us rather than FOR us.
#2 is David Cameron. His arrogance and naivety almost lost the United Kingdom itself on one referendum but did he learn from it ? Did this cause him to think he should be more cautious in future ? He correctly setup the referendum itself as legally only 'advisory' but then sold it to everyone as if it wasn't. He also continued the trend of blaming the EU for problems that he could of resolved with domestic legislation. Also the referendum itself should have been a qualified majority, deciding such a big issue (and one that turned out to have Fake News manipulation to boot) on the basis of simple majority was madness. Ireland was allowed to vote three times on the EU constitution but for some reason if we voted again that would be 'undemocratic'.

Finally it seems that a referendum so framed was always a bad idea. Its always easier to shout down a reasoned argument for something with angry rants and slogans, especially those targeted at your pre-disposed biases.

The other thing that annoys me about this whole process is that for some reason you can't just vote remain because you think leaving would make a big mess. You need to drape yourself in one flag or another. The thing that scares me the most is that the more i listen to James O'Brien the more he seems to be right on some things.

So now that's off my chest see the next post for what i have to do next....