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There has been much talk about passports over the last few weeks, with commentary surrounding the Irish passport holder Alexandr Ruzmatovich Bekmirzaev, who was detained in Syria for fighting with ISIS. Originally from Belarus, he came to Ireland in the early 2000s and obtained Irish citizenship and an Irish passport. Questions are being asked as to whether this precious piece of well-regarded identity should have been revoked when his support for radical extremism became known to gardaí and should the Taoiseach be offering consular assistance to this man despite his legal status.
As of 2019, the Irish passport is ranked as the joint-seventh most valuable passport in terms of visa-free access to destinations. According to Henley and Partners who compile and compare this information annually, this gives us access to 184 countries, one shy of the 185 countries, which our neighbours across the Irish Sea can access.
Despite the value of the UK passport at joint sixth, this has not stopped a huge rise in the number of Irish passport applications from the UK in 2018, most likely as a result of Brexit fears. The Department of Foreign Affairs figures revealed that in 2018 the Passport Service received 84,855 applications from Northern Ireland and 98,544 from Britain.
In 2009 I set off on a four-month journey around the world. At times I travelled solo, at times with friends from home, but I had also booked some set tours through which I have formed lifelong friendships. That year I applied for a new passport. I did this in the traditional way of queuing up in Molesworth St with many others, hoping to God I had brought all the right stuff and I wouldn’t be sent away to get another document before rejoining the queue. I applied for a few visas before I left, which I received without any hassle.
However, what I do remember was the constant advice and being told everywhere I went to mind it, wear it inside your clothes, never leave it in your room – always keep it on you, it’s precious. I probably only realised the importance of my Irish passport when in Africa.
As we crossed borders I saw that some of my travelling comrades were nearly always parting with their American dollars in exchange for the stamp that I usually got for free. It was only on the border of one country that I found myself handing over $100 while the majority of the bus were getting their free stamp. Our guide explained to me that we had some kind of deportation argument between our two nations and that he was sorry.
On the 19 January 2019, that 2009 passport with the much younger face will expire. The old passport has stamps on 19 of the 33 pages in the book and every stamp has its own memories. I was dreading getting a new one as I feared the effort but my new passport arrived in the post 10 days after I uploaded the information to the new expanded online passport renewal service, which was launched last November. The online application was almost completely pain free, it initially didn’t like my picture but once that was remedied, the process was very easy and now I can start planning the next trip for 2019. CL
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