Dominic Monaghan “delighted” to get Irish passport after Brexit “con”
Dominic Monaghan, the actor noted for his roles in “Lord of the Rings” and “Lost,” reveals he has gotten his Irish passport.
Monaghan, who was born in Berlin, Ger‐ many to British parents, posted a snap of him with his new Irish passport on In‐ stagram on April 23.
He has Irish connections through his dad.
“Brexit was a con, I haven’t heard ONE good thing about,” Monaghan captioned his post.
“Lies lies lies.
“It’s important to build bridges NOT walls.
“I reject completely the idea of separat‐ ing Europe and not being part of that group anymore, sharing trade, ideas, and building the future together as a collec‐ tive instead of clinging onto some bizarre idea that the British empire is still ‘a thing.’
“I am so DELIGHTED that due to my family history I was able to apply for an Irish passport giving me back the rights that were taken from me due to the Brexit vote.
“If you can do the same I would encour‐ age you to.”
He added the hashtags #f--kbrexit and #becurious to his post that has garnered more than 33 thousand likes. Comments on the post, however, have been disabled.
Though Monaghan’s parents are British, he has Irish connections on his dad’s side. The Emmy-nominated actor lived in Germany until he was about 11 years old until his family settled in England. Ireland's Department of Foreign Aff airs says that if a person or the person's parent was born on the island of Ireland before 2005, that person is an Irish cit‐ izen and can apply for an Irish passport without making an application for citi‐ zenship.
If a person, or their parent, was born on the island of Ireland on or after January 1, 2005, the person's right to Irish citi‐ zenship depends on the parents’ citizen‐ ship at the time of the birth and the res‐ idency history of one of the parents be‐ fore the birth.
In 2022, The Irish Times reported, citing documents from Ireland's Department of Justice, that the number of British peo‐ ple who had been granted Irish citizen‐ ship rose by a staggering 1,115% since the UK voted to leave the EU in 2016. Only 58 people from Britain were granted Irish citizenship in the year be‐ fore the Brexit referendum, rising to 98 in 2016 when Britain voted to leave the EU.
In 2017, that gure rose to 525, and in 2018, it again rose to 685.
The gures dipped slightly to 664 in 2019, before rising to 945 in 2020 when Britain formally left the EU.
A total of 1,191 British people were granted Irish citizenship in 2021, a rise of 1,115% since the year of the Brexit referendum in 2016 and a 1,953% in‐ crease since 2015.
Last December, Ireland's Tánaiste, Min‐ ister for Foreign Aff airs, and Minister for Defence, Micheál Martin announced that Ireland's Passport Service had received more than one million applications in 2023 .
The Passport Service also approved over 36,000 applications for Foreign Birth Registration (FBR), which is available to people who are born abroad and claim Irish citizenship through descent.
The Tánaiste further said that demand forecasts indicate that around 950,000 passports will be issued this year. Meanwhile, Ireland's passport is set to get a new design following a public con‐ sultation period last year.