Do Great-Grandparents Count for an Irish Passport?

Short answer: not directly.

Long answer: they can, but only if the citizenship chain was maintained before your birth.

1. Standard Rule

Great-grandparents alone do not qualify you for Irish citizenship or a passport.

Ireland only automatically recognizes:

• Parents

• Grandparents

2. The Only Way Great-Grandparents Can Count

They count indirectly if:

• Your parent registered in the Foreign Births Register before you were born

This makes your parent an Irish citizen, which then makes you eligible.

3. If Your Parent Did Not Register Before Your Birth

You cannot use great-grandparents as the basis for citizenship.

Ireland does not allow:

• Retroactive transmission of citizenship

• Skipping lineage gaps

• Skipping unregistered generations

4. Why Great-Grandparents Don’t Automatically Count

Ireland’s citizenship framework requires:

• A direct, documented connection

• A continuous legal chain

• Proper registration timing

5. What You Can Do

Even if you don’t qualify:

• Your parent may still register

• Your children could qualify through them

Bottom Line

Great-grandparents only count if the generations between them and you followed the proper registration steps before your birth.

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