3,914 people will be given Irish citizenship at ceremonies to be held today and tomorrow in Co Kerry.
According to Irish state broadcaster RTÉ:
This year’s Summer Citizenship Ceremonies at the INEC in Killarney will see applicants drawn from 139 countries make a Declaration of Fidelity to the Irish nation and loyalty to the State.
Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science Simon Harris will be preside over today’s ceremonies with Junior Minister Niall Collins presiding over Tuesday’s ceremonies.
Until 2011, citizenship was conferred at ordinary sittings in District Courts, but large-scale ceremonies were introduced by then justice minister Alan Shatter to provide dignity and ceremony to the occasions.
Since 2018, these large-scale ceremonies have been held in the Gleneagle Hotel/INEC in Killarney.
Since the ceremonies were first introduced there have been a total of 163 ceremonies, with people from over 180 countries receiving their certificates of naturalisation.
Responding to a question last month in the Dáil on why the naturalisation ceremony is only held twice a year, Mr Harris said that in March 2023, the Department for Justice held a smaller ceremony in the RDS in Dublin where some 1,300 candidates became Irish citizens.
Mr Harris said this event was used to trial a new format and to test the feasibility of increasing the number of ceremonies annually.
He said the outcomes are currently being assessed.
