loss of citizenship by marriage (historic - 1940s)

[smalldog]

Hi all,

I've been an Irish citizen for around 20 years by FBR through my grandmother, who passed away in the 1980s. I've been going through some of her possessions and have found some items that make me question my eligibility (and my cousins') for Irish citizenship.

The item that surprises me is a letter from the Irish government in 1945 rejecting her application for an Irish passport. The letter explains that someone who marries a non-Irish spouse needs to declare their intent to keep their citizenship within one year of marriage or they lose their citizenship automatically - and my grandmother didn't do that.

The only other items relating to citizenship are an Irish passport which my grandmother used to travel between Ireland and England during the early 1940s (lots of exit permits and entry stamps), and a couple of British Visitor's Passports from the 1970s and 1980s (which I believe were issued without proof of citizenship). It seems that my grandmother lived basically as a stateless person for most of her life, but that didn't really impact her.

This has thrown up a lot of questions! I would appreciate anyone's insight into the following.

1. Did my grandmother really lose her Irish citizenship? I've looked at the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1935 which applied at the time and that does seem possible, assuming she automatically acquired the status of British subject by marriage under the British Nationality Act 1914.

2. How does this impact claims to citizenship of her grandchildren? I think my status is still safe as my mother was the first child, born less than a year into the marriage. However, I wonder how this might affect the claims to citizenship of my cousins whose parents were born later, at least one of whom already has an Irish passport.

[G Dog]

If she was born on the island of Ireland, then she would be entitled to citizenship through birth. You have already been accepted as an Irish citizen through the FBR process, so that has confirmed that you too are entitled to Irish citizenship, as you are the grandchild of a person entitled to Irish citizenship.