Grianan of Aileach, the ancient fort just across the border from Derry in Co Donegal, is featured on the new-look Irish passport to be issued from this Thursday.
Grianan Fort
the redesigned passport does not feature any images from Northern Ireland it does, for the first time, carry a map of the whole of Ireland and Ulster-Scots poetry.
There are no images from Northern Ireland although it is understood there was discussion within the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs about including images from the North.
Landmarks such as the relatively new Aviva Stadium along with Samuel Beckett Bridge, Croagh Patrick, Kylemore Abbey, Croke Park, the Cliffs of Moher and the Rock of Cashel are featured.
Irish Foreign Affairs Minister, Eamon Gilmore, said latest security technology was combined with selected imagery in order to produce a passport which represented Ireland – “our culture, our history and our people.”
Mr Gilmore stressed the map on the new-look passport was a topographical map, not a political one.”
A Department spokesperson said the map “reflects the all-island basis for citizenship”.
The spokesperson added: “So too, does the inclusion of the text of Article 2 of the Constitution, which appears alternately in Irish and in English, throughout the new passport booklet. The emphasis in the images in the new passport booklet is on citizenship not territoriality.”
More than 630,000 Irish passports were issued last year, of which more than 40,000 applications were received through the Northern Ireland passport express channel.
All Irish passports issued from this Thursday, 3 October, will have the new design.
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