Orange Lodge of Ireland have renounced their British citizenship and are now embracing being Irish and European in the middle of a DUP crisis over the NI Protocol
November 15th, 2022.
Since 2012, tough new UK laws meant that anyone who applied to bring a foreign-born spouse to live in the UK had to prove that they earned at least £18,600 a year.
However, Irish citizens living in the North of Ireland could apply to bring a spouse or relative to the UK under European Union regulations, which did not have a minimum income requirement or a costly application process.
One Orangeman told The Detail investigative website that led to him surrendering his British passport to enable his Thai bride to enter Northern Ireland.
Reverend Mervyn Gibson, Grand Secretary of the Orange Order, said it's a process that isn't overly concerning
“Sometimes to get what you want at a certain point in time you have to make the choice,” he said.
“It’s not uncommon. There are many cases where members who may be heading around the world to work in places like Afghanistan have given up their British passport in favour of an Irish one for family reasons.
“It’s not a case of them suddenly not being British overnight and becoming Irish instead.
“We don’t see it as an identity issue.”
One Orange Order member from Co Armagh said he only gave up his British passport so he could bring his Thai-born wife into Northern Ireland.
“I’m from Northern Ireland, I am British, but I had to do it because it was family at the end of the day,” he revealed.
Another Orangeman, from Larne, said he spent thousands of pounds trying to secure UK visas for his Ukrainian-born wife and her son, before he later gave up his British citizenship and applied under EU rules.
“I’ve spent nearly £10,000 on various schemes,” he explained.
He said he had wrestled with the decision to give up his UK citizenship.
“That was the most difficult question. I knew I had to. They put me in an impossible position,” he said, though he didn’t tell his family at the time in case some in his community would disapprove.
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“I live in a predominantly Protestant/unionist area and I was a bit worried. I never ever told anybody, never even told my family,” he said.
“I was a bit wary about telling them, in case of... not retribution but sort of (being) ostracised if I had.
“It was probably the paramilitary ones that would be running around the street that you’d be more worried about.
“The bitter ones, who might look on you as some kind of traitor.”
With many thanks to the: Belfast Telegraph and Mark Bain for the original story.
Follow this link to find out more on this story: 'DESIST' | Taoiseach condemns Loyalist threats over joint Irish and British authority in North of Ireland
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