In the autumn, we will be asked in a referendum to give all Irish citizens living outside of the Republic the right to vote in future presidential elections. It is the definition of that nice phrase, “Irish citizens”. On June 11th, 2004, we went to the polls for local and European elections but also to vote in a constitutional referendum on citizenship. This referendum was a disgrace to Irish democracy. These stories were, as the Irish Human Rights Commission (IHRC) put it at the time, “vague or anecdotal in nature”.

Source: The Irish Times July 16, 2019 07:07 UTC