
Originally Posted by
Conchúr
There is another issue here though that hasn't really gotten as much attention as the border -- bearing in mind that the CTA was actually never fully formalised in a legally-binding agreement (because the eventual development of EU free movement law negated the need to ever really cement the CTA). Now, we could just surmise that the UK and Ireland will simply move to formalise the CTA post-Brexit to maintain a free-movement zone between them. But there is a major, major issue to be resolved -- and one which might be at best a legal headscratcher, and at worst a seriously divisive bone of contention:
Rights of Irish citizens in Northern Ireland
People born in NI have a right to dual nationality (as I have) so can hold an Irish passport and Irish citizenship. If they have Irish citizenship though, this means that post-Brexit they will remain EU citizens. What that effectively would mean is that a person born in Northern Ireland could choose at will to be an EU citizen via their right to claim Irish citizenship. But how could that actually work in practice? How can you have a country where one section of the population can extend their rights as citizens at the EU level simply by claiming Irish citizenship?
One could simply say that it couldn't work in practice -- that people born in Northern Ireland should be treated effectively as immigrants -- with no EU citizen rights. But this situation is different from immigration because under current law, Irish nationality is now a legal birthright of people born in NI. But if they cannot avail of the full benefits of their Irish citizenship, then it is essentially a second-class citizenship.