People born in NI should not have to choose their citizenship

The case is ongoing and the judges will rule on the basis of the evidence. But one thing can be said in advance of that outcome: it would be unacceptable if a future political development meant people born in NI to a UK citizen had to choose their citizenship.

As our letter writer explains, and as ought to be self evident, there is a distinction between citizenship and identity.

There is also a distinction between being allowed to hold dual citizenship and automatic citizenship for people born in a nation that allows such.

As an example, the United States is a country that allows dual citizenship (some countries do not) but that acceptance of dual citizenship does not alter the fact that anyone born in the United States is automatically a US citizen.

If it does become the case that there is a campaign to allow people to choose their citizenship, it must be resisted.

Northern Ireland is fully a part of the United Kingdom.

It is a place where Irish and British identities are equally cherished but where sovereignty lies with the UK. That is why the UK pays for the Province (and handsomely too).

There have been several legal cases in which lawyers have attempted to argue the primacy of the 1998 Belfast Agreement, as if it trumps constitutional legal foundations that went before it. It doesn’t. And it cements consent.

Letter:Nationalist seem not to accept Belfast Agreement