February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
The issue of citizenship has been rising in political importance since the 1990s, when Ireland experienced a sudden increase in numbers of immigrants and asylum seekers, particularly from Eastern Europe and African countries such as Nigeria.
Currently, any child born on the island of Ireland is ineffably Irish, even if the child’s parents are from somewhere else.
This right was first made law in 1935. It was then buttressed as part of the Irish constitutional changes that were part of the 1998 Good Friday agreement. Opponents of the referendum and others have suggested that a referendum win for the Irish government, by restricting citizenship rights, would violate the 1998 accord.
Nonetheless, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern is pressing ahead, saying that asylum seekers were abusing this right more and more. The government said that 60 percent of female asylum seekers, according to its own statistics collected at maternity hospitals, arrive in Ireland pregnant. Currently, foreign-born parents of an Irish newborn must be allowed to stay in the country to care for and raise the child. The issue of citizenship is highly contentious and has potential to divide the country. Protests by a group calling itself Campaign Against the Racist Referendum took place in Dublin today to coincide with Ahern’s announcement.
A spokesman for the campaign said the referendum would be a backward step and an attack on the rights of children.
On the other side of the argument, a group called the Immigration Control Platform, set up in 1998, claims to have significant support.
“I firmly believe that there’s no way the Irish people want to go as far with immigration as Britain has gone,” said its spokeswoman,