Cad Mile Filte

The Republic [of Ireland] is extraordinary in that many of the people it now effectively deports are its own citizens. Some of the children are held in prison for days before they are sent back to the country of their parents’ birth. Under a loophole in its constitution (now closed), children born in Ireland were automatically granted citizenship until this year. However, a Supreme Court ruling in January of last year said that while an Irish-born child has a right to have the care and company of its parents, there is no right for this to take place in Ireland.