They want in.
Since the UK voted to leave the EU, there has been a huge rise in the number of applications – and subsequent rejections – of UK residents applying for an Irish passport.
According to the Irish Times, only one application from a British person for an Irish passport was rejected in 2016. Last year, 15,074 applications from UK citizens for an Irish passport were denied.
The number of global applications for Irish passports rose from 190,905 in 2016 to 227,223 last year; as of September 2018, this figure stands at 191,271.
The rise in demand for Irish passports from Northern Irish citizens is even greater than that of Britain.
In 2015, there were almost 99,944 applications from Britain and Northern Ireland, a figure that rose to 131,035 the following year.
In 2017 there was a further increase of over 30,000 applications to 163,026, while 91,860 applications were made by May of this year.
The number of people from Northern Ireland who applied to the Irish Embassy in London for an Irish passport also increased from 53,715 in 2015 to 67,582 in 2016, rising again to 82,274 in 2017.
By May this year, 46,898 people in Northern Ireland had applied for Irish passports.
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