It seems the Irish passport office is being flooded with applications from UK and American citizens. Many are speculating that people from the UK and USA are anxious to avoid being singled out on holiday in the Middle East by terrorists.
Under Irish law, anyone with a grand parent from Ireland can apply for an Irish passport. Passport applications from the UK are already double those made in the last year and applications from the United States have tripled in the last five years. Both Ireland and the UK are members of the European Union, so getting easy permision to travel and work in Ireland isn’t an issue.
When British hostage Kenneth Bigley was captured in Iraq, his family publicly pleaded for an Irish passport. Sadly Mr Bigley was killed anyway, but it’s thought that many tourists travelling to the Middle East would feel safer carrying an Irish passport rather than an American or British one.