'This is home': 950 people from 92 countries become Irish citizens

At 81 years of age, the oldest person to be conferred with Irish citizenship was film producer David Puttnam, pictured here at the Gleneagle INEC Arena in Killarney today with his wife Patsy. Picture: Sally MacMonagle

Almost 1,000 people became Irish citizens at the first in-person citizenship ceremonies to be held in over two years.

Some 950 people from 92 countries were conferred with Irish citizenship in Killarney today.

There were more applicants from the UK than any other nation, as has been the case each year since Brexit. Some 111 new citizens from the UK were conferred. This was followed by India at 97, Romania at 77, Poland at 72 and Nigeria at 55 and Brazil at 48.

At 81 years of age, the oldest person to be conferred with Irish citizenship was film producer David Puttnam.

His wife Patsy was also made a citizen.

The couple has lived in west Cork for 32 years.

“This is home,” they said.

Getting Irish citizenship brought together the affection for where they lived and for this country and what it represents, Mr Puttnam said.

The last few years he had seen the country he was born into "not become the country I was born into", he said.

It has ceased to have the values I really believed it to have, and this is a very painful thing to say.

It was very important for him to attend in person the ceremony in Killarney, he added.

Italians were among the nationalities at the ceremonies in Killarney, a town twinned with Castiglione di Sicilia in Sicily since 1987.

Irene Zolfo from Palermo, Sicily, said she felt like she was being “adopted" today and becoming an Irish citizen meant a lot to her.

“I have lived here for so many years. Sofia has a disability and this is the best place she could be,” Irene, an administrator, said of her beautiful daughter Sophia, aged 8, who wore her Holy Communion dress for the occasion.

Sophia is an Irish citizen already as she was born in Dublin.

Daniela Alas Delgado and Michael Byrne, from Dublin,  at the citizen awards ceremony at the Gleneagle INEC Arena in Killarney today. Picture: Sally MacMonagle.

Dulajano Mavankovic from Croatia had been a journalist with Croatian State TV, and had also been a signal man in the army during the former Yugoslav war. In 2014, he came to work in Cork for an IT company.

“It’s a state of accomplishment,” he said of his new status. The Croatian community was becoming larger in the southwest, he added.

Queuing excitedly were Radu originally from Bucharest in Romania and his wife Claire from Galway who are both now living in Dublin. The couple are expecting their first child in September.

“The Irish are pretty welcoming but this makes me more welcome,” Radu said.

Adejuwon & Ayobami, from Drogheda,  at the citizen awards ceremony at the Gleneagle INEC Arena in Killarney. Picture: Sally MacMonagle.

Mehvish Khan a doctor in Wexford, and her husband, also a doctor, Ahsan Saraz in Dublin were delighted with the ceremony.

She had grown up in London and they were originally from Pakistan.

“I don’t know why I am so emotional,” Dr Khan said tearfully.

Minister for Justice Helen McEntee with Siphathisiwe Moyo from Galway, at the citizen awards ceremony today. Picture: Sally MacMonagle

Justice Minister Helen McEntee heralded the "sense of joy" in the large auditorium, referencing Ireland's own history of emigration in her keynote speech at the INEC.

Speaking afterwards to reporters, the minister was asked about one-time plans for an English language test before Irish citizenship was granted, thus bringing this country into line with the requirements for local language proficiency such as in France.

Those plans have been shelved because “both Irish and English are official languages,” the minister said.