Americans rush to apply for Irish passports after Trump’s re-election

There were 3,692 applications from the USA to Ireland in November alone.

In 2024, US applications for Irish passports jumped by 10% to 31,825, with 3,692 applications in just November.

Irish law allows US citizens to apply for an Irish passport through descent, so long as they can prove that a grandparent was born in the EU.

US citizen, Erin Clayton told RTÉ why she was looking to gain an Irish passport.

She said: "With the things that are going on in the US right now with the new administration, it's scary and I thought [a passport] would be smart to have just in case.

"I'd rather have it and not need it, than not have pursued it.

"I'm the daughter of an immigrant... I am not who they're targeting right now, but what does that mean? So, I just would rather be safe.

"Having the Irish passport would give me more freedom if I had to leave long term."

The UK has also seen an influx of American citizens applying for citizenship.

More than 6,100 US citizens applied last year, which was a record high since data collection began twenty years ago.

To be eligible for UK citizenship, applicants must have resided in the UK for five years or have parents who are British citizens.

Politics is not the sole reason for such a spike in applications, according to Madeleine Sumption, director of the Migration Observatory at Oxford University.

Sumption says that politics can often be a "third or fourth order factor" for those leaving "safe countries."