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Surge of interest in Irish passports after Brexit vote

Jim McCafferty the Subpostmaster at the Kennedy Centre post office in west Belfat has said there has been a rush for Irish passports since it was announced Britain would leave the EU. Picture Matt Bohill
Jim McCafferty the Subpostmaster at the Kennedy Centre post office in west Belfat has said there has been a rush for Irish passports since it was announced Britain would leave the EU. Picture Matt Bohill Jim McCafferty the Subpostmaster at the Kennedy Centre post office in west Belfat has said there has been a rush for Irish passports since it was announced Britain would leave the EU. Picture Matt Bohill

The unexpected Brexit vote in Thursday's EU referendum has sparked an unprecedented surge of interest in people acquiring Irish passports.

The Kennedy Centre post office in west Belfast distributed as many as 500 Irish passport applications yesterday as Northern Ireland woke up to the news that it will no longer be part of the European Union.

While online GoogleTrends said UK searches for "getting an Irish passport" jumped more than 100% after the Brexit result came through.

Jim McCafferty the sub-postmaster at the Kennedy Centre post office told the Irish News that staff had never given out as many applications in one day before, but noted travel money "had died a death" due to the weak pound.

"It's been very busy, there's been something like the guts of 500 applications issued today so it is a huge number. We're busy most of the time with the submission of passports, but we've given so many out in one day by a long way. Normally we give out over a week maybe two to three hundred applications and get back about half that. People are coming looking for four or five at a time."

The post office at High Street in Belfast city centre also reported a huge uptake in applications, going through 15 boxes, with one staff member declaring them the day's "best seller".

Charity worker Anne had to queue at the Howard Street post office in Belfast yesterday despite arriving at 9am.

"I went this morning first thing and got an Irish passport form for myself and my partner. I have always thought of getting an Irish passport, but essentially the EU referendum result made me think I want to remain an EU citizen. When I was getting the form there was actually two people in the queue getting the same thing and there were people behind me in the queue at the post office, she said.

Elsewhere data from Google showed queries on citizenship in the Republic began to increase on Thursday evening and peaked in the early hours of the morning.

Likewise from lunchtime on referendum day searches on the web for information about moving to Ireland began to heat up and peaked in the early hours of Friday.

While the data analysts would not reveal the exact number of searches for information on the Republic's citizenship rules, they said most interest was shown in Northern Ireland with the normally unionist heartland of Holywood, Co Down, taking top spot.

Figures from Ireland's Department of Foreign Affairs earlier this month showed the total number of Irish passport applications from Britain this year is 3,334 - up very slightly from 3,239 over the same period last year, with 200 extra temporary staff taken on to cope with the extra demand.

A Senator in the Irish parliament, Neale Richmond, urged passport officials to be ready for the so-called Cascarino effect, recalling Jack Charlton's tactic of picking British footballers with Irish heritage when he managed the Republic of Ireland.

Mr Richmond, who has two English cousins who recently applied for Irish passports, said: "British citizens with Irish grandparents applying for Irish passports could now move from a torrent to a flood."

Under normal circumstances an Irish passport application would take two to three weeks to be processed, but due to a surge in demand in recent months there are increasing delays, with an application now taking as long as six weeks to be completed.