“This is the house,” they said after being awarded Irish citizenship at a Co Kerry event on Monday. The couple applied for citizenship three years ago after Brexit, but, as Mr Puttnam put it, Covid-19 then “got in the way”. He was among more than 900 people who were awarded Irish citizenship in Killarney as ceremonies were held in person for the first time since the pandemic began in early 2020. Mr Puttnam resigned last year as a member of Britain’s House of Lords, warning at the time that democracy was facing multiple threats and accusing Prime Minister Boris Johnson of running a “populist government that violates rights and conventions for the sole purpose of doing so”. to tighten its grip on power “. Reflecting on his decision to become an Irish citizen, he said that in recent years his homeland had changed for the worse and that it was no longer “the country in which I was born”. “She has lost the values I really thought she had, and that’s very painful to say,” the 81-year-old told The Irish Times. “I will tell you something – there are no queues like this in England,” he said of the young people who were eager to be welcomed into the wider Irish nation. Mr Puttnam, whose films include The Mission, The Killing Fields, Chariots of Fire and Midnight Express, said the granting of Irish citizenship raised his and Patsy’s affection for the area where they live, for Ireland more broadly and for what the country represents. People from the United Kingdom were the only largest group to receive Irish citizenship at the event, representing 111 of the 950 successful applicants from 92 different countries at Monday’s ceremony. Justice Minister Helen McEntee emphasized the value of EU citizenship for Irish citizens. Asked if this was the reason for the regularly large number of applicants in the UK, especially after Brexit, she said there had always been a significant number of Britons applying for Irish citizenship. “This reflects the fact that we have such a comprehensive history and it continues,” McEntee said, adding that there were “many reasons” why people tried to become Irish citizens. “Whatever it is, we welcome them very much,” he added.
