Now we’ve abandoned our own

IT was with sneers of glee that I saw the amendment to the constitution passed - even though I voted against it.

Being the son of Irish emigrants to England I had always worn my Irishness with pride. The idea that two Irish parents make an Irish child seemed a safe conclusion to me until it met with resistance from a source I had not expected. My mother began to explain to me that because I was born in the UK I was, in fact, English. I thought her nerves were at her.

Although English people had no problem seeing me as Irish, when I returned to Ireland in my 20s my cousins and neighbours were not so convinced. Perhaps English fairies had switched me in the cot with an English baby.