It is a wonderful feature of our age that “EU citizens” can travel, reside, and work, in all member states automatically.
But, alas, from an Irish perspective ones employment opportunities are limited as continental employers do not have much use for Anglophone employees, well not monolingual ones anyhow.
Thus the romantic young Irishman, in search of adventure and fortune, will head to the United Kingdom, where he can enjoy the right to work within the European Union. However the “adventure” may soon end, as the climate mimics that of Ireland, and daily life does to.
He may thus cast a glance at the remainder of the Anglosphere, which is embodied in the Commonwealth of Nations. While this organisation is still associated with British Imperialism by the masses in Ireland. Today a voluntary, cooperative, loose association of independent countries, most having past connections with the United Kingdom.
It is of note that Ireland has not been a member since 1949, when the member known as the “Irish Free State” became the “Republic of Ireland”, at the time Republic’s did not accord with the membership rules.
This later changed, and India is now a member, yet given the delicate nature of Anglo-Irish relations any talk of rejoining since has been swept under the carpet by those who deride what they call the “British Commonwealth”.
The members extend priviliges to each other. These are not as wide ranging as those within the European Union, for example the right to work and live permantly are not given, however the right to work temporarily, and live temporarily are obtainable with a greater ease to the Commonwealth citizen then the “Rest of world” citizen. To put this in more concrete terms lets say the hypothetical young Irishman wishes to travel to New Zealand. His Irish passport allows an automatic three month visa. However if he had a United Kingdom Passport (or to be specific a British Citizen passport) he could live there for size months. Also if he was there on a British Citizen Passport he could vote in elections.
On a larger scale Commonwealth membership would allow Irish athletes to compete in the Commonwealth Games. Recently Sonia O’Sullivan entered the games, but representing Australia (she has dual citizenship) and not Ireland, unfortunately a hamstring injury forced a stepdown, but for other athletes could still enjoy the opportunies of membership.
More…
- http://www.reform.org/TheReformMovement_files/article_files/articles/leavcw.htm
- http://youngirelander.blogspot.com/2005/05/irelands-role.html
- http://dossing.blogspot.com/2005/11/reform-movement-and-ireland-in.html
“ones employment opportunities are limited as continental employers do not have much use for Anglophone employees”
Not in my experience!
You’ll find thousands … indeed tens of thousands of English speakers working all across continental Europe and beyond. English is the international business language, good English speakers with qualifications shouldn’t have much difficulty finding work.
As for the Commonwealth, I have yet to see a good reason for re-joining. Waste of time in my own humble opinion.