Almost a quarter of a million people living in the UK applied for an Irish passport last year, the highest number since the UK formally left the European Union.
Figures provided by the Department of Foreign Affairs show that 242,772 people applied for an Irish passport in 2024.
More than half of applications, 53%, were from people living in Northern Ireland.
The data also shows that the number of people living in Britain who applied via the 'Foreign Births Register' reached 23,456 last year, the highest number since the Brexit referendum in 2016.
This route allows people living in mainland Britain, who were not born in Ireland but have an Irish parent or grandparent, to apply for an Irish passport.
In 2015, prior to the referendum, the figure was just 873.
The number of Irish passport applications from people in the UK peaked in 2019, when 244,976 people applied for a passport, 49% of applications were from people living in Northern Ireland.
However, there was a significant drop-off in applications in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid-19 pandemic restrictions.
Rise in applications post-Covid
Applications began to rise again substantially once foreign travel resumed.
Chair of the Irish Immigration Lawyers Association Carol Sinnott, of Sinnott Solicitors, has noticed a trend of "future planning" recently.
"A lot of people in the UK that would be entitled to apply for an Irish passport, perhaps they might be in their 20s or 30s and they haven't yet had children but if they intend to have a family they apply for their passport before they have children because they want to ensure that their children will also be citizens of the European Union," she said.
CEO of Irish in Britain Brian Dalton said the number of passport applications is evidence of the number of people in Britain with Irish heritage.
"Between 1949 and 1989 it's estimated that about 800,000 people emigrated from Ireland. A lot of them would have come here. And so really... this is what intergenerational diaspora looks like. We have an awful lot of people here who have Irish heritage," he said.
Mr Dalton believes it should be seen as an opportunity.
"Our question to those people with new passports is how much do you want to connect with the Irish community because there's a whole architecture out there. You can dive as deep as you want and you'll be welcomed," he added.
Joe Brindle, who is manager at Ryan's N16 Bar in Stoke Newington, north London, is one of the many people applying for an Irish passport.
His grandmother was from Kenmare, Co Kerry, and he is proud of his Irish heritage, having worked in Irish bars most of his working life.
While he admits that post-Brexit travel complications are a motivating factor, for him applying for an Irish passport is also a way of reclaiming EU citizenship which he deeply regrets losing through Brexit.
"I left the [UK] for over a decade. I was European, part of the EU when I left, came back and that was no longer the case," he said.
Alison O'Sullivan, whose husband and children are Irish citizens, is also applying for a passport and admits that European travel is one reason.
She is eligible as her grandmother was from Cobh, Co Cork.
"It makes a difference at the airport for sure because my children are on Irish passports and my husband is. And frequently they end up zooming through passport control whereas I'm stuck at the back," she says.
