Irish Passport - 1930s Controversy With The UK Over The Description of Citizens As Subjects

1930s Controversy With The UK Over The Description of Citizens As Subjects

The Irish Free State (as the state was known between 1922 and 1937) first notified the Government of the United Kingdom that it proposed to issue its own passports in 1923. The Irish initially proposed that the description they would give their citizens in their passports would be "Citizen of the Irish Free State". According to a report from The Irish Times the first time that Irish passports were used was by the Irish delegation to the League of Nations in August 1923. The British Government objected to this. It insisted that the appropriate description was "British subject", because, inter alia, the Irish Free State was part of the British Commonwealth of Nations. The Government of the Irish Free State considered the British viewpoint. The Governor-General of the Irish Free State subsequently informed the British Government that the description that would generally (there were some exceptions) be used would be "Citizen of the Irish Free State and of the British Commonwealth of Nations". Without reaching agreement, the Irish government issued its first passports to the general public on 3 April 1924, using this description.

The British Government was not satisfied with this compromise. It instructed its consular and passport officers everywhere, that Irish Free State passports were not to be recognised if the holder was not described in the passport as a "British Subject". This led to considerable practical difficulty for Irish Free State citizens abroad with many having to obtain British passports in addition to their Irish Free State passports. The British Consular Officers would also confiscate the Irish Free State passports, a practice the Irish authorities regarded as "very humiliating". The issue continued to be a thorny one until the early 1930s.

In 1939, two years after the adoption of the Constitution of Ireland renaming the state "Ireland" the Irish decided to make significant changes to the form of Irish passports. As a courtesy, the Irish authorities notified the British authorities. In a memorandum dated 1 March 1939 entitled "The Form of Eire Passports", the British Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs, Thomas WH Inskip informed his Government of developments which had recently taken place "regarding the form of passports issued by the Government of Eire". In the memoramdum, the Secretary of State reported that "hitherto (which have not, I understand, been amended since 1936 have borne two indications of relationship to the British Connonwealth of Nations". These, the memorandum noted were the reference to the King including his full title in the "request" page; and a front page, where underneath the words "Irish Free State" (in Irish, English and French) appear the words "British Commonwealth of Nations". The proposals notified by the Irish authorities included amending the replacing the reference to "Irish Free State" with "Ireland"; amending the "request" page to drop reference to the King; and dropping the reference to the "British Commonwealth of Nations". The Secretary of State proposed that he reply to the Irish authorities in terms that "His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom greatly regrets the proposed elimination of the King's name from Eire passports; that in their view, the omission, when it comes to be known, is bound to create a bad impression in the UK and to widen the separation which Mr de Valera deplores between Eire and Northern Ireland". The Secretary of State noted in his memorandum that to "say more than this might raise questions which it was the object of the statement of the 30th December 1937, to avoid". This was a reference to the communique published by Downing Street noting the adoption of the Irish Constitution, stating that in their view Ireland continued to be part of the Commonwealth and affirming the position of Northern Ireland as part of the United Kingdom.

Ultimately, the Irish proceeded with their plans including that the term "Citizen of the Irish Free State and of the British Commonwealth of Nations" would be replaced with "Citizen of Ireland". This has remained the description up to present time, with current Irish passports describing the holder as a "citizen of Ireland" on the request page and giving the holder's nationality as "Eireannach/Irish" on the information page.