This might be a bit of a recap for those of you who've listened to this week's episode - but I think it's worth addressing again. In the wake of Brexit there were reports of the Irish passport office seeing increases (of up to 70%) in passport applications from GB.

Now, controversially, as a result of the 2004 citizenship referendum, Irish citizenship law favours Irish ancestry, so people in Britain with an Irish grandparent are eligible for Irish citizenship, and crucially for my research group, an EU passport.

This helps to explain the increase in Irish passport applications. After Brexit, UK citizens will no longer have access to EU rights (the most important of these to my participants was freedom of movement) people are looking to secure these by accessing their Irish citizenship.

Some people see this as jumping on some sort of bandwagon, and as being in some way degrading of Irishness more broadly and diluting Irish citizenship. As a result, in some circles there has been backlash against these individuals.

Now, about 50% of the people who I interviewed already had Irish passports - their mothers evidently felt the same way as mine does about their offspring having a British one! Amongst the other 50, some people had applied already, some had decided not to do so + some were unsure.

Interestingly, within my interviews, there was a level of contempt from some of those who had always held an Irish passport for those who were applying now. It transpired that they felt they were less deserving in some way, despite them having the same heritage and entitlement.

This all points to a new policing of Irish identity (we'll talk about more sustained ones later!). People who have always identified - at least legally - as Irish are drawing boundaries around Irishness and distancing themselves from this new wave.

Some participants defined themselves as 'more Irish' than those who were motivated by Brexit to apply for an Irish passport, regardless of the actual level of cultural engagement of the individuals. This reinforces a hierarchy of Irishness with new applicants at the bottom

By negating claims to Irishness made by others during Brexit, 2nd + 3rd generation Irish are justifying their Irish identity, which for many has been contested and denied. They are + always have been Irish relative to those others who haven't always chosen to engage

I've discussed this more in this video :) https://prezi.com/v/z6ncemdbpk9z/