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BRITISH WRITER LEE Child, creator of the Jack Reacher thriller series, is reportedly applying for an Irish passport due to Brexit.
Child, whose real name is James Grant, is a best-selling author of thriller novels, who has sold more than 100 million books.
He lives between the UK and the US but is entitled to an Irish passport as his father was born in Belfast.
The author said he wants an Irish passport to avoid the possibility of post-Brexit travel restrictions in Europe.
“I haven’t got the passport yet but I will do very soon, it feels like I’m cheating to be honest as I will get in the back door,” Child told the Irish Times.
He was speaking in Berlin as part of a European “Friendship Tour”, where Child and fellow British authors Kate Mosse, Jojo Moyes and Ken Follett spoke out against Brexit.
I am not a huge fan of Britain, even though I was born there.
“It’s a silly and frustrating country, which is why I moved to America,” Child said.
He also criticised Prime Minister Boris Johnson, portraying him as an elitist:
If he had gone to my school he would not now be Prime Minister.
The author’s pen name “Lee” comes from a family joke about a heard mispronunciation of the name of Renault’s Le Car, as “Lee Car”. The surname “Child” places his books on bookstore and library shelves between crime fiction greats Raymond Chandler and Agatha Christie.
Child’s new book, Blue Moon, has just been released.
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Really need to tighten up on our passport requirements; you should, at the very least, have to live here for a time to be eligible.
@Shaner Mac: yes and if some people get their way all Irish passport holders will have the right to vote in Ireland!
@John Horan: Well in fairness could they do any worse .. look at all the gombeens that repeatedly get voted in
@Shaner Mac: I don’t know about that. His Father was from Belfast. If I moved out of the country and had children born abroad are they not entitled to be Irish citizens? Lee has every right to it through his father but I must admit his reasons are uninspiring.
@Tommy C: In that scenario they, your child, should be entitled to Irish citizenship but not automatically granted it. Maybe if he or she came to live in Ireland for a minimum of, say one year they could apply. This is opposed to 5 years for other people residing here.
@Shaner Mac: well under thise circumstances we had better cancel all American/Irish passports. Pull back all the Irish diaspora, cancel our annual White House visit. Put out a statement to all ethnetically Irish people that we are not now that welcoming country. Tell the diplomats and the IDA that they wont have much to play with soon. Then take our seat with the propper poor small countries of the world where you would gave us belong.
@Tommy C: what a ridiculous, pureile rant. Come back to me when you have a proper, thoughtout response.
@Shaner Mac: what? Like people who are the sons and daughters of Irish citizens should not be entitled to citizenship if born abroad? And I’m the one with the I’ll thought out rant??? Haha you’re having a laugh!! Your playing jenga thinking there is no risk!! Joker of the highest proportions.
@Tommy C: I didn’t say that sons and daughters of Irish people should not be entitled to Irish citizenship, in fact I said the complete opposite to that: they should be except with slightly more requirements. Brexit has shown that the current lax rules are being exploited. And you can tone down the hysterics.
@Shaner Mac: the entitlement to an Irish Passport should be only granted if you agree to pay some tax in the state or have paid some tax towards the upkeep of the Irish state !!…
@Shaner Mac: let me rephrase it, They should be entitled to citizenship without exception, conditions, place of residency or any other potential stioulation. A person born of an Irish mother or father or both is an Irish citizen with full rights should they choose. End of for me. End of by law and thank god greater minds aligned to make that so.
@Shaner Mac:
Agree. Almost all countries including the UK, US, Australia have tests which must be passed before citizenship is grantedained. These would include questions on the history and culture of the country, as well as an English language test.
Only Ireland gives nationality based solely on where your granny happened to be born. Leprechaun geography!
Most of these British applicants would very little knowledge of Ireland. Some call it “Southern Ireland” or Eire (no fada of course).
Time to introduce an obligatory test before handing out citizenship.
@Shaner Mac: my daughter is Irish, she’s also French, as her Mother is French. We, for work and personal reasons, live in France. Who are you to deprive my daughter of my nationality?
@Shaner Mac: You want to cop yourself on, what about children born abroad to Irish parents – if you had your way neither Paul McGrath nor Phil Lynott could hold an Irish passport!
@Tommy C: Yes any child born abroad to an Irish parent is entitled to Irish Citizenship and an Irish passport.
@Grainnewhale: Read what I said! Of course they would be entitled. Just require an extra, small, requirement to get it. Paul McGrath and Phil Lynott both lived in Ireland so there wouldn’t be any issue there. The rule was okay back in the day but in this globalised world I thing we need extra precautions.
@Shaner Mac: They were both born in UK – typical idiotic posting – you don’t have to live I’m Ireland to be an Irish passport holder
@Shaner Mac: I did read what you said – your point is that children born abroad to Irish parents should not qualify for Irish citizenship or a passport unless the live in this country – well how are they going to get into this country in the first place – what an idiotic comment – well I’m glad that you dont call the shots in this country.
@David Stapleton: I totally agree with you, I have two children born abroad also, both Irish citizens and Irish passport holders – Its not their fault that they were born abroad as I was working abroad at the time. Yet many of the numptys on this site would deprive them of their Irish nationality and citizenship.
@John Horan: On the bright side they might vote out the rabble we consistently vote in
We can claim him now. Give it him.
@Engine No. 9: Brits claiming to be Irish is the new “coming out”
He ruined the Jack Reacher books by allowing Tom Cruise to play Reacher in the movies. So I say, leave him over there.
@Al Madzer: dont know if I should say this….but I liked him in the movies…
@Dan: Should have been Vince Vaughn. Saw him in Brawl in Cell Block 99. Perfect fit.
@Al Madzer: I dont get why they pick him either Jack Reacher is meant to be this big 6ft 5″monster of a man and they let him cruise have the part
@Al Madzer: apparently Lee Child didn’t like Tom Cruise in the role and there will be a more accurate Reacher in the TV series.
@Al Madzer: I am huge fan of Lee Child, have most of his book, but it was a joke having Tom Cruise play the part of Jack Reacher. I certainly don’t object to Lee Childs becoming an Irish citizen!
And he should be told no.we cant cope with what we have.deal with the problems we have first instead of inviting more in.
@Seriously stunned:
I doubt he’ll be much of a burden…
@Seriously stunned: You get that when you are an Irish citizen you don’t actually have to live in Ireland right?
@Seriously stunned: he’s looking a passport, not a house and the dole!
@KalEll: When you naturalise, you DO have to remain living in Ireland, in fact, part of the Oath makes you promise that Ireland will be your home. Something similar should apply to those who get it by descent
Pure passport of convenience
@Seriously stunned: really?
@Christy Dolan: where did you get that piece of information? Look it up, you’ll find you are wrong.
If he thinks Britain is a silly and frustrating country,he’s in for a shock if and when he arrives here.
@Ananya Sharma: he’s not moving here. He’s just getting a passport.
@Ananya Sharma: hopefully, there will be loads of red tape and delays at the passport office
@Ananya Sharma: I love Ireland
Is it true guys this get an Irish passport easily. Yet a Polish/Latvian/African person etc who’s worked their arses off for a decade in this country have great trouble and have to pay thousands?
@David Jones: same for any citizen who has lived here ‘for years ‘ – im here 23 yrs ,worked ,paid my dues , even employed a few other people at one point – yet if i want an irish passport i have to take a ‘citizenship’ course and that costs over a grand – money i simply do not have nowadays . the ‘system changed across the e.u a few years back when some pen-pusher realised governments could make a good few euros selling citizenships and passports. from what i was told it used to be that you had to reside in the country for 5 years – then you could apply for an irish passport -and pay just for a passport – that was changed to needing a certificate of citizenship -which costs a grand and takes about 6 months to complete – i have proven irish ancestry but it doesnt count because it is for my great grand parents not my grandparents ! yet this guy -and plenty of others including uk ministers of state and mps – can rock up and get a passport because of their parents place of birth – they have no intention of living here or contributing to ireland via tax’s, jobs or any other way – seems like a very unfair system to me – the right to a passport should depend on residency and contributions to the state .
@Eric Davies: if you think about it, the current system is quite sinister and racist. You get special rights if you can demonstrate your “purity” by ancestry.
@Eric Davies: it chaned because of all na e do wells coming in and living off tax peyers.
@acallkelly: funny that because not one of all the british people i know -english ,scots or welsh – came here to leech off the irish taxpayer – some were already ‘retired’ and had a uk pension and therefore would not have been entitled to any irish state benefits , others like myself came here to open or run a business or to take jobs that irish employers could not fill from irish nationals either because of a lack of qualifications or skills . i personally do not know 1 british person who came here to live on the dole – i do however know quite a number of irish families who have spent their entire adult lives doing just that -and have continued it for 2 or 3 generations !
With the types of plots in his books, I am surprised he is not getting one without even having up apply
Admitting possibly obliviously that he’s taking advantage of the system that was put in place for Irish Nationalists in the North. 30% of Brits here are already claiming welfare, far higher than any other nationality. Leave him there.
@Cormac Ó Braonáin: can you provide stats on that claim please? Thanks
@Dermot Foley: evidence*
Jack Reacher set in rural Ireland !!!
@JohnMcKenna: His new city is Cork. He’s a Lee Child
Isn’t it funny that the UK courts have decided that people born in Northern Ireland are British, whether they like it or not, while true british people are free to apply for Irish passports ?
An average English footballer can get an Irish passport if his granny drank Guinness
@Thomas Devlin: or stood next to someone who did !!
tax break on the horizon?
@Shane Cormican: do some research.
Would love the next Jack Reacher novel to be set in Jackie Healy Rae country! Our hero would sort out the local gangster clan.
Its too easy to get an Irish passport. If you are born in many countries that is not enough, your parents must both h old pports.
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