Last year, I did an event at the Borris Festival in Co Carlow with the great South African artist William Kentridge. When I was chatting to him offstage, two things emerged. One was that he has been an Irish citizen for more than 40 years. The other is that this was his first time ever to set foot on the island.

There is nothing remotely wrong with this. Kentridge got his Irish passport through his wife’s ancestry. He wanted it because his family was heavily involved in the struggle against apartheid: his father Sydney was the defence lawyer for Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu and Steve Biko. The Irish passport afforded at least a modicum of protection against a vicious regime.

Shortly after John le Carré died, his son Nick sent me one of the last photographs of his father, taken in October 2020. The quintessential English novelist is wrapped from the neck down in a flag. It is the green, white and orange tricolour of the country to which, in his late 80s, he chose to belong, the Republic of Ireland. He acquired his citizenship through his mother’s birth in Co Cork.

Last week, Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration Jim O’Callaghan got Cabinet approval to draft “priority” legislation raising the residency requirement for people living and working here to become naturalised citizens from five to eight years.

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