NORTHERN IRELAND'S Court of Appeal has dismissed a challenge by a person of both British and Irish citizenship to be recognised as an Irish citizen only. The court decided that this right is not protected by the Human Rights Act.
Earlier this month the court turned down Caoimhe Ní Chuinneagáin’s application for a judicial review in the matter.
They court ruled last year that if you are born in Northern Ireland you are British. However you can have dual citizenship — that is, legitimately be an Irish citizen.
The court rejected claims that the British Nationality Act 1981 unlawfully interfered with Ms Ní Chuinneagáin’s rights under the European Convention of Human Rights.
Ms Ní Chuinneagáin, the appellant, is a Belfast-born woman who lives in Northern Ireland. She is a British citizen by virtue of the 1981 Act, but has objected to this on cultural and related grounds.
While she is also an Irish citizen and while she has available to her a legal mechanism for renouncing her British citizenship, her aim was to secure a legal status which would recognise her as an Irish citizen only.
She accordingly pursued a legal case against the Secretary of State for the Home Department, the minister responsible for citizenship and immigration matters.
The court ruled that the effect of the British Nationality Act 1981 is that every person born in the territory of the United Kingdom (enacted January 1, 1983) becomes a British citizen provided that at birth their father or mother is a British citizen or is legally settled in the UK or in a qualifying territory.
The court therefore ruled that Caoimhe Ní Chuinneagáin is a British citizen by virtue of this statute, having been born in the UK, specifically Northern Ireland.
But Ms Ní Chuinneagáin objected to this on cultural and related grounds.
The court was told that Ms Ní Chuinneagáin is an Irish citizen and has an Irish passport on which she has travelled abroad on a number of occasions. Her parents are also Irish citizens and she has a number of relatives who live in the Republic as well as in the border area.
In her affidavit evidence she states that she has a keen interest in Gaelic and Irish culture, and believes she is “fully immersed in all aspects of Irish national culture.” Irish is her first language and she is a player of traditional Irish music.
She also told the court that she has never presented herself as a British citizen in any context or for any reason and added that she would not do so. She objected to the notion of ‘British citizen or subject’ being applied to her.
Although the appellant accepted that it is open to her (particularly now that she has attained the age of 18) to renounce her British citizenship, she has claimed that she does not wish to do so as this would represent an acceptance that she was born a British citizen —in addition to having to pay the administrative cost involved.
Ms Ní Chuinneagáin’s argued the European Court of Human Rights conferred upon her a right to respect for her status as an Irish citizen only.
But the Court of Appeal disagreed, and her submission was not accepted.
