Irish passports have outnumbered their British counterparts in Northern Ireland for the first time, figures show.
The shift was confirmed as Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein is expected to surge to victory in Thursday's local elections for the first time in Northern Ireland's 101-year history. A win for the party, whose aim is to reunite the island of Ireland, would throw the delicate power-sharing agreement with pro-British unionists into doubt.
At least 48,911 Irish passports were issued in 2020, while 48,555 people in Northern Ireland applied for British passports.
Northern Ireland’s 1.8 million inhabitants have the right to hold both British and Irish citizenship.
The statistics mark the first time more people in the region opted for an Irish passport over a British one.
The true number of Irish passports issued for the region is likely to be much higher as official figures are only available for those issued through Northern Ireland Passport Express (NIPX), and do not include citizens who apply directly from Dublin. The NIPX service is available from post offices.
The figures, obtained through a Freedom of Information request submitted by The Irish Times, showed last year saw a return to a majority of British passports in the region.
But the figures for 2020 are part of a growing trend in recent years of more Northern Irish people opting for Irish passports.
After the 2016 Brexit referendum, the number of Irish passports being requested by people across the UK shot up as many people, including Britons with Irish ancestry, sought hassle-free travel to the EU.
Fifty-two per cent of people in the UK voted to break ties with Brussels in the referendum, while 56 per cent of people living in Northern Ireland voted to remain in the bloc.
Opinion polls suggest this week's local elections could bring about a historic victory for Sinn Fein, which would entitle the party to nominate a first minister.
It would be the first time an Irish nationalist party has won the biggest share of the vote since Northern Ireland’s power-sharing assembly was born out of the 1998 Good Friday agreement, which largely ended decades of violence.
But a Sinn Fein victory could lead to the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) boycotting a power-sharing agreement at Stormont, rather than allowing it to happen.
In LucidTalk’s final poll for the Belfast Telegraph, Sinn Fein had 26 per cent support, compared with 20 per cent for the DUP. The gap was wider at just more than 8 percentage points in a University of Liverpool/The Irish News poll, with the DUP neck-and-neck with the centrist Alliance Party on 18.2 per cent.
Political leaders in Northern Ireland clashed in a TV debate on Tuesday ahead of the ballot.
Sinn Fein's vice president Michelle O’Neill said it would be “absolutely unfathomable” to tell the electorate that a new Executive would not be formed following the election.
She also said she still had not heard if unionist leaders will “accept the democratic outcome of the election”.
DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has not made clear whether he will nominate a deputy first minister to serve along with a Sinn Fein first minister in the joint office.
The resignation of former first minister Paul Givan in February left the Executive unable to fully function.
Ms O’Neill accused the DUP of “holding us all to ransom” with its position of refusing to go back into an Executive without action on the Northern Ireland Protocol. Unionists are against the clause in the UK-EU post-Brexit agreement, which aims to prevent a return to border checks between Northern Ireland and the Republic. The Protocol, they argue, effectively cuts them off from the rest of the UK because it stipulates that goods arriving in Northern Ireland must be subjected to checks at ports.
“While the rest of us want to put money in the people’s pockets and deal with the cost-of-living crisis, the DUP are telling people their identity is under threat,” Ms O’Neill said.
Sir Jeffrey responded by pointing to the resignation of former deputy first minister Martin McGuinness, a Sinn Fein stalwart, which saw the Assembly collapse for three years.
If they win power, Sinn Fein have pledged to give people a say over whether they want to remain in the UK or become part of a reunited Ireland.
A border poll would likely spell disaster for the Conservative-led government as a vote to join Ireland would mean Boris Johnson’s legacy being tainted as the prime minister who oversaw the splintering of the union.
Speaking to Sky News on Wednesday, Britain’s Environment Secretary George Eustice declined to be drawn on potential scenarios.
“A lot of the people I think in the Northern Ireland election this time are not voting, for once, through the prism of either being nationalists or unionists,” he said.
He said the government “will deal with whatever we’re faced with” and stressed that “Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom”.
“Of course we believe in democratic elections but whether or not to have a referendum is always a matter for the UK government.”
WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
SPEC%20SHEET%3A%20APPLE%20M3%20MACBOOK%20AIR%20(13%22)
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EPL's youngest
- Ethan Nwaneri (Arsenal)
15 years, 181 days old
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15 years, 235 days old
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15 years, 271 days old
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Series result
1st ODI Zimbabwe won by 6 wickets
2nd ODI Sri Lanka won by 7 wickets
3rd ODI Sri Lanka won by 8 wickets
4th ODI Zimbabwe won by 4 wickets
5th ODI Zimbabwe won by 3 wickets
How to invest in gold
Investors can tap into the gold price by purchasing physical jewellery, coins and even gold bars, but these need to be stored safely and possibly insured.
A cheaper and more straightforward way to benefit from gold price growth is to buy an exchange-traded fund (ETF).
Most advisers suggest sticking to “physical” ETFs. These hold actual gold bullion, bars and coins in a vault on investors’ behalf. Others do not hold gold but use derivatives to track the price instead, adding an extra layer of risk. The two biggest physical gold ETFs are SPDR Gold Trust and iShares Gold Trust.
Another way to invest in gold’s success is to buy gold mining stocks, but Mr Gravier says this brings added risks and can be more volatile. “They have a serious downside potential should the price consolidate.”
Mr Kyprianou says gold and gold miners are two different asset classes. “One is a commodity and the other is a company stock, which means they behave differently.”
Mining companies are a business, susceptible to other market forces, such as worker availability, health and safety, strikes, debt levels, and so on. “These have nothing to do with gold at all. It means that some companies will survive, others won’t.”
By contrast, when gold is mined, it just sits in a vault. “It doesn’t even rust, which means it retains its value,” Mr Kyprianou says.
You may already have exposure to gold miners in your portfolio, say, through an international ETF or actively managed mutual fund.
You could spread this risk with an actively managed fund that invests in a spread of gold miners, with the best known being BlackRock Gold & General. It is up an incredible 55 per cent over the past year, and 240 per cent over five years. As always, past performance is no guide to the future.
Specs
Engine: Electric motor generating 54.2kWh (Cooper SE and Aceman SE), 64.6kW (Countryman All4 SE)
Power: 218hp (Cooper and Aceman), 313hp (Countryman)
Torque: 330Nm (Cooper and Aceman), 494Nm (Countryman)
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh158,000 (Cooper), Dh168,000 (Aceman), Dh190,000 (Countryman)
Lexus LX700h specs
Engine: 3.4-litre twin-turbo V6 plus supplementary electric motor
Power: 464hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 790Nm from 2,000-3,600rpm
Transmission: 10-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 11.7L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh590,000
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Cinco in numbers
Dh3.7 million
The estimated cost of Victoria Swarovski’s gem-encrusted Michael Cinco wedding gown
46
The number, in kilograms, that Swarovski’s wedding gown weighed.
1,000
The hours it took to create Cinco’s vermillion petal gown, as seen in his atelier [note, is the one he’s playing with in the corner of a room]
50
How many looks Cinco has created in a new collection to celebrate Ballet Philippines’ 50th birthday
3,000
The hours needed to create the butterfly gown worn by Aishwarya Rai to the 2018 Cannes Film Festival.
1.1 million
The number of followers that Michael Cinco’s Instagram account has garnered.
match details
Wales v Hungary
Cardiff City Stadium, kick-off 11.45pm
Tree of Hell
Starring: Raed Zeno, Hadi Awada, Dr Mohammad Abdalla
Director: Raed Zeno
Rating: 4/5
The specs
Engine: 1.6-litre 4-cyl turbo and dual electric motors
Power: 300hp at 6,000rpm
Torque: 520Nm at 1,500-3,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 8.0L/100km
Price: from Dh199,900
On sale: now
In numbers: China in Dubai
The number of Chinese people living in Dubai: An estimated 200,000
Number of Chinese people in International City: Almost 50,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2018/19: 120,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2010: 20,000
Percentage increase in visitors in eight years: 500 per cent
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
Zayed Sustainability Prize
Company%20profile
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Skoda Superb Specs
Engine: 2-litre TSI petrol
Power: 190hp
Torque: 320Nm
Price: From Dh147,000
Available: Now
Islamophobia definition
A widely accepted definition was made by the All Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims in 2019: “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.” It further defines it as “inciting hatred or violence against Muslims”.
Top investing tips for UAE residents in 2021
Build an emergency fund: Make sure you have enough cash to cover six months of expenses as a buffer against unexpected problems before you begin investing, advises Steve Cronin, the founder of DeadSimpleSaving.com.
Think long-term: When you invest, you need to have a long-term mindset, so don’t worry about momentary ups and downs in the stock market.
Invest worldwide: Diversify your investments globally, ideally by way of a global stock index fund.
Is your money tied up: Avoid anything where you cannot get your money back in full within a month at any time without any penalty.
Skip past the promises: “If an investment product is offering more than 10 per cent return per year, it is either extremely risky or a scam,” Mr Cronin says.
Choose plans with low fees: Make sure that any funds you buy do not charge more than 1 per cent in fees, Mr Cronin says. “If you invest by yourself, you can easily stay below this figure.” Managed funds and commissionable investments often come with higher fees.
Be sceptical about recommendations: If someone suggests an investment to you, ask if they stand to gain, advises Mr Cronin. “If they are receiving commission, they are unlikely to recommend an investment that’s best for you.”
Get financially independent: Mr Cronin advises UAE residents to pursue financial independence. Start with a Google search and improve your knowledge via expat investing websites or Facebook groups such as SimplyFI.
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
