Brenda becomes an Irish citizen...after 53 years!
Well-known Dundalk resident Brenda Leary was among 5,000 people from all over the world who received their Irish citizenship at a ceremony at the Killarney Convention Centre, Co. Kerry, at the beginning of March.
Although she had been living in Ireland for 53 years, Brenda says it was Brexit which gave her the final push to apply for citizenship.
‘I was born in a little town called Urmston outside Manchester,’ she says. ‘When I was 14 my father took a job here to set up a metallurgical laboratory for the ESB.’
The family had no Irish connections and the ESB picked out a house for them and the family moved across the Irish Sea in 1967.
‘We lived outside Dalky and I went to school there as did my sister who is four years younger,’ she recalls. After studying at Trinity College, she qualified as a teacher and went on to teach science and German in a school in Dublin for many years, before taking early retirement in 2008.
‘We decided to move out of Dublin and as one of our daughters had got married up here, we started to look for a house and moved to Blackrock in 2009.’
Brenda joined the local ICA Guild as a way of making friends and getting to know people, and ended up serving as President for three years and was also Federation Secretary for Louth.
‘I got to know a lot of people that way, and then in 2017, I met Rita Alves, whose husband
Gerry is from Blackrock, and we opened The Crafty Rock.’
Brenda says that she had looked into getting an Irish passport when the children were smaller but had never followed it up.
‘I have three daughters and if I went to visit my sister in the United States I would be travelling on a British passport and they would have Irish passports.’
‘Brexit is really what pushed me to apply for Irish citizenship,’ she says, as if she hadn’t got an Irish passport she would have to go through a separate channel when travelling with her husband.
‘At this stage of my lie, I feel more European than English and I didn’t want to lose that.’
Brenda and her husband travelled to Killarney for the Citizenship ceremony.
For the occasion, she wore a Clones lace shawl which she had made herself.
‘A friend asked me if I was going to wear something green, but I don’t have anything green so I thought the Clones lace shawl would be ideal,’ she says.
At the ceremony candidates took an oath of fidelity to the nation, before receiving their certificate of naturalisation and becoming Irish citizens.
‘It was very nice,’ says Brenda, who was one of 982 people from the United Kingdom to become Irish citizens.
The Minister for Justice and Equality, Charlie Flanagan, welcomed the new citizens, noting that the day will be a milestone in their lives.