‘No question’ of North’s Catholics renouncing their Irish identity

Suggestions that Catholics in the North might be forced to legally identify as British after Brexit are “a complete non-runner”, a prominent Northern priest has said.

Speaking to The Irish Catholic, Fermanagh-based Fr Joe McVeigh said British failures to clarify the issue are complicating matters needlessly, and called on the Irish Government to stand up for the Good Friday Agreement.

“It’s a complete non-runner as far as northern nationalists are concerned,” Fr McVeigh said. “Northern nationalists settled for the Good Friday Agreement: it was a compromise settlement and it respected their identity as Irish citizens and European citizens and – if they wanted to be – British citizens. There’d be no question of Irish nationalists in the North renouncing their identity or being denied their identity. Those days are gone.”

Fr McVeigh’s comments come in the wake of confusion and outrage after Derry-born Emma de Souza tweeted an excerpt from new UK immigration rules, which change the definition of a European Economic Area national, and appear to indicate that dual British nationals who are British by birth will not be considered EEA nationals in the UK.

Citizenship

Ms DeSouza, an Irish citizen, has been told she cannot access her EU right of residence for her US husband without first renouncing her British citizenship.

Although it is possible that the new rules Ms De Souza has quoted in declaring that the British government is imposing British citizenship upon the people of Northern Ireland, removing access to EU rights in the process, may not be intended to refer to Irish citizens, Fr McVeigh says British failures to clarify this are unwise.

“It’s not wise at all, and it’s certainly again somebody in the British home office or somewhere there stirring the pot to make matters more complicated than they already are with Brexit,” he said. “We have to be on our guard all the time, and the Dublin Government has to be strong and firm about protecting the Good Friday Agreement and the rights of Irish citizens in Ireland wherever they go.”

Fr McVeigh added that he was worried by how leading pro-Brexit politicians “have shown up to now very scant regard for the Good Friday Agreement”.