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'The UK government keep appealing until you give up': Rights activists hold rallies in Belfast and London

Emma DeSouza is challenging the Home Office’s argument that British immigration law supersedes the Good Friday Agreement.

RIGHTS CAMPAIGNER EMMA DeSouza is to lead a rally in Belfast tomorrow to raise awareness of how there’s no legal basis for the Good Friday Agreement in British law.

In a rally that will address people at City Hall, DeSouza and others will call on the Good Friday Agreement to be upheld in all its parts. 

DeSouza, a 31-year-old woman from Derry, is challenging the British government’s assertion that people born in Northern Ireland can’t declare themselves as Irish, but are born British and must renounce British citizenship to claim their Irish citizenship.

This is contrary to the Good Friday Agreement, but the Home Office’s assertion is that British immigration laws supercede that Agreement. DeSouza is challenging that argument; one British tribunal has found in her favour.

Since her case was put into the public eye, DeSouza has prompted an online campaign, with other Northern Ireland citizens who faced similar obstacles in accessing their Irish rights by tweeting their experiences out under the hashtags “I Stand With Emma” and “We Are Irish Too”.

“We keep hearing from the Irish government and the EU that the Good Friday Agreement needs to be upheld in all its parts, but that’s not what’s happening, and if anything we’re seeing a hardening against these rights.

We voted for that right, Northern Ireland voted 71% in favour of the Good Friday Agreement, to be able to self-declare as Irish or British or both.
There are 1.8 million citizens in Northern Ireland that can declare as British or Irish or both – because of Brexit, that’s kind of complicated for the Home Office to get their head around.

Numbers

DeSouza says that she’s not sure how many will be attending the rally tomorrow, and said that she organised it after people began asking her to, saying that it all happened “quite organically” through social media. The rally in Belfast is happening at noon at City Hall; a sister rally is taking place in London at the Northern Ireland Office.

Actor Siobhán McSweeney, who plays Sister Michael in Derry Girls, has expressed support for the London rally on Twitter, and DeSouza understands that some of those who worked on the show are going to attend.

She says that Northern Irish unionists got involved with the campaign too: “We got all these responses, with people sharing where they were born. So I know that I’m not alone, and the responsibility is on me to try to advocate on their behalf.”

The Good Friday Agreement is for everyone, we all have the same rights and benefits.

She says that since she started her legal battle against the Home Office, others have got in touch with similar stories about their struggle to access their right to citizenship.

DeSouza says that these problems have been going on for years, and the only reason we’re hearing about it now is that “a) we went public, and b) we’re the only people who have stuck with it”.

“They appeal, and appeal, and appeal again until you relent.

When I was speaking at Féile an Phobail in August last year, there was a man who had said he was in an appeal for 3 years when he gave up. He said that he had appealed for so long they couldn’t do it any longer because they had children. I’m sorry I didn’t get his name, because he kind of inspired me.

Parliaments

DeSouza first took the case against the British Home Office after her US husband Jake’s application for an EEA residence card was rejected.

In their refusal letter, the Home Office wrote: “…your spouse is entitled to renounce her status as a British citizen and rely on her Irish citizenship, but until that status is renounced she is as a matter of fact a British citizen”.

 The UK government effectively argued that DeSouza is a British citizen until she revokes it in favour of her Irish citizenship. As she is classed as a British citizen, but is an Irish passport holder, the UK government had classed her as having dual-citizenship, and cannot go through the UK immigration system as an EU national. On this basis, her husband’s application for a residence card was refused.

Her case has also been raised in the Dáil and in the House of Commons in recent months.

“I know that Tánaiste Simon Coveney has been talking to the Home Secretary about this, so it’s really good to see him publicly support the issue.”

DeSouza says that there’s a failing in the Good Friday Agreement that if the British government do something wrong, “there’s nothing to make sure they hold up their end of the bargain”.

This gap in the law is particularly relevant in the context of Brexit, where citizens in Northern Ireland are hoping that through their Irish citizenship, they can gain access to EU rights post-Brexit.

DeSouza says that if these rights are given to Irish citizens, then they should also be given to British citizens from Northern Ireland, or else that would also contravene the Good Friday Agreement: “One set of people can’t have a choice that others don’t.”

“The real purpose is to give people a voice,” DeSouza says. “On Saturday, myself and others will be making a very specific ask to uphold the Good Friday Agreement in all its parts. These words are not being translated and we need to make it clear that it’s time to address this issue.”

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22 Comments
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    Mute Frank Lloyd wright
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    Apr 19th 2019, 10:21 PM

    The British Government are not adhering to the Good Friday agreement.Leo said he would no longer leave Nationalists in the north behind. Time to stand up then Taoiseach!

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    Mute Derek Reilly
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    Apr 19th 2019, 11:01 PM

    It wouldn’t be like the Brits to renege on an agreement now , would it ?

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    Mute Cal Mooney
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    Apr 19th 2019, 11:05 PM

    @Frank Lloyd wright: What’s the bet that the FFG commenters stay off this thread. They hate it when articles like this show how Nationalists are still treated like second class citizens. They must feel some shame.

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    Mute Frank Lloyd wright
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    Apr 19th 2019, 11:08 PM

    @Cal Mooney: Forgive them Cal, they don’t have a clue.

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    Mute Liam Mernagh
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    Apr 19th 2019, 11:15 PM

    @Cal Mooney: Do you believe you have a monopoly on Irishness and are the only one qualified to speak on such matters?

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    Mute Gearoid Mag Lennain
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    Apr 20th 2019, 2:14 AM

    @Liam Mernagh: British reneging on deals since its existence!

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    Mute Cal Mooney
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    Apr 20th 2019, 3:11 AM

    @Liam Mernagh: So what is your opinion? Do you have one, or am I r8ght?

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    Mute Paul J. Redmond
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    Apr 19th 2019, 10:28 PM

    Bizarrely, this could also be very important for adoption rights in the Republic of Ireland. Adopted people in the north have open records and the current Adoption Bill in the south does not give us equal rights with northern adoptees. I’ll be following this closely…

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    Mute SFNutters
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    Apr 19th 2019, 10:57 PM

    Get off the fence…pick one or the other.

    29
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    Mute Cal Mooney
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    Apr 20th 2019, 3:13 AM

    @SFNutters: I am pretty sure the good Friday agreement spells out that anyone born in the North don’t have to pick a side of your fence. I can’t wait for you to prove me wrong.

    45
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    Mute Dave Walsh
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    Apr 20th 2019, 12:06 AM

    Very easy born in wales your welsh,born in Scotland your a scot.born in Ireland your Irish born in England your……

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    Mute Brian Ó Dálaigh
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    Apr 20th 2019, 2:18 AM

    @Dave Walsh: so, my aunt who was born in England to two Irish parents and who only spent the first 2 years of her life in England is English and not Irish, despite her brother and sister both being Irish by your very strict standards? Basically, all of her siblings, parents, and children are Irish except her because she just happened to be born in England.

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    Mute Dave Walsh
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    Apr 20th 2019, 6:33 AM

    @Brian Ó Dálaigh: our president was born in Limerick,yet he considers himself to from Galway…

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    Mute Martin Horan
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    Apr 20th 2019, 7:02 AM

    @Dave Walsh: Being born in a stable does not make one a horse.

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    Mute Jonathan Warner
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    Apr 20th 2019, 1:26 PM

    @Dave Walsh: Just being born in the UK doesn’t give you UK citizenship, although it used to be the case up until the 1980′s. Now, for automatic citizenship, at least one of your parents has to be a UK citizen. (I believe Ireland has similar rules.) Unless the Home Office ups it game, then post-Brexit another Windrush scandal looms – for children of EU parents who don’t get registered.

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    Mute Brian Ó Dálaigh
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    Apr 20th 2019, 3:07 PM

    @Dave Walsh: I don’t see your relevance. Neither Galway nor Limerick as a place of origin entails any sort of legal rights and responsibilities, whereas Irish or British nationality does.

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    Mute M Bowe
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    Apr 20th 2019, 9:13 AM

    https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/moving_country/irish_citizenship/becoming_an_irish_citizen_through_marriage.html
    Simple solution at finger tips of Irish government. Time to enforce the GFA over British intransigence!!!

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    Mute Orla Smith
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    Apr 19th 2019, 11:02 PM

    Not welcome until they legislate for SSM and abortion to be legalised, and disown certain backwards bakers.

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    Mute Orla Smith
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    Apr 19th 2019, 11:20 PM

    @Orla Smith: I should have said Northern Ireland, not these two individuals.

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    Mute Veronica
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    Apr 20th 2019, 12:26 AM

    @Orla Smith: still welcome and we will figure it out.

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    Mute Mushy Peas
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    Apr 20th 2019, 8:29 AM

    @Orla Smith: nothing would make King Billy prouder than if the DUP agreed to legislate for same sex marriage, considering his proclivities…

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    Mute Nigel Barlow
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    Apr 20th 2019, 12:32 PM

    I think most people in mainland UK and the republic are fast loosing patience with the problem child (NI). It’s had their chance of moving into the 21st century with a clean slate but it’s apparent the next generation have had the poison of bigotry installed in them. The NI politicians have been remarkable in their failure to bring the country together over the decades. Why put anymore effort into NI. Seal all borders (UK and Ireland) and let it sought itself out.

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