Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Grab a Guinness and celebrate life, your friends, your family, your fortune, your health. Here’s to the Irish in all of us this 17th day of March.
My great grandfather Jack O’Flaherty was born in County Sligo, Ireland and emigrated to San Francisco where he met my great grandmother, Nora Patricia Thorton, in the early 1900s. They had two children, my late grandmother Joan and my late great aunt Nora, who grew up in San Francisco. Then along came my late grandpa Elmer, who married Joan and had five children, one of who is my dad, Peter.
I’ve long been interested in Irish Citizenship by Descent, for which you can qualify when “citizenship derives from an Irish-born grandparent.” In other words, my dad would qualify. Once he has citizenship, the question is whether or not that would extend to me and my brother. Though it’s not likely, it’s worth looking into. How cool would it be to have dual citizenship and to be able to travel freely in the EU?
I’ve not yet been to Ireland, but have long wanted to go. I’m sure I will one day, and hope to get an even better understanding of my family’s roots before then.
Until then, we can all celebrate Irish pride on this day every year!
5 responses so far ↓
1 Seth // Mar 17, 2005 at 11:01 am
The idea of qualifying for dual citizenship is great. I think my mother’s mom was born in Ireland. It’s worth looking into at the very least. Thanks for the heads up Gabe!
2 Jonty // Mar 17, 2005 at 12:59 pm
It’s a long story, but Irish citizens (I believe… I’m only about 80% sure of this) carry Irish passports. They can move pretty freely through the EU, but so can anyone w/ a US passport. (British citizens get EU passports, BTW.)
-J
3 Jordan // Mar 17, 2005 at 8:33 pm
It is, of course, in violation of US law to have dual citizenship and US will not recognize it. Luckily, the rest of the world is happy to.
4 ben // Mar 17, 2005 at 8:53 pm
Sorry, Jonty, I have to disagree. The Brits have their own passports, as do most EU countries I believe (but I won’t bet on it)… check out these links:
http://www.ukpa.gov.uk/textonly/english/t_history_10.asp
http://www.ukpa.gov.uk/textonly/english/t_history_11.asp
5 ben // Mar 18, 2005 at 2:41 am
Um, the US does offer dual citizenship… and it is not illegal, but you may not want to do it due to taxation issues. This guy has a nice write up:
http://www.richw.org/dualcit/