DANA ROSEMARY SCALLON has produced documentation that she says proves she received American citizenship in 1999 – not 1997, during her previous presidential campaign.
She said on Friday that her status as a dual citizen of both Ireland and the United States does not present a problem to her election campaign, and that it is in fact an advantage.
Last week, the Irish Times reported that Scallon had taken US citizenship in 1997, shortly before her first run for the Presidency of Ireland.
It said that it was decided not to disclose that citizenship before the election.
The report by Colm Keena cited a court case involving Dana’s family in Iowa in 2008, which outlined a meeting between her sister, brother and husband.
It was said that during that meeting it was decided that it “wouldn’t look very good” if people knew of Dana’s dual citizenship before that time.
However, on RTÉ’s This Week radio programme on RTÉ 1 this afternoon, Scallon produced a document from the US Immigration and Naturalisation Service which she said refutes this claim.
Scallon also said she would have no problem giving up her US citizenship if the people of Ireland wanted her to do so.
She told presenter Richard Crowley that the document, the Certificate of Naturalisation issued in Atlanta Georgia, confirms she received citizenship in 1999 – not 1997.
She also said she was saddened by the details of the “private family difficulty” being released, adding she did not like being depicted as trying to deceive the Irish people.
She said that what was said under oath during the court case in Iowa “was not correct” and produced the document related to her US naturalisation that bore the date 8 October 1999.
She said she didn’t become a US citizen until that date, and that she was not part of any conversation in 1997 about US citizenship.
My husband and brother had no recollection of a conversation taking place of that nature in 1997.
I said it was probably misremembered and I have to say it was incorrect.
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