[6] As of 2025[update], Irish citizens are the only nationality in the world with the automatic right to live and work in both the European Union and the United Kingdom.

[8] Without reaching agreement with the UK, the Irish government issued its first passports to the general public on 3 April 1924,[11] using this description.

[13] The Irish authorities issued a circular letter to British consular and passport authorities agreeing that Irish passports would be changed so that they were issued by the Minister for External Affairs in the name of the king using the king's full title; would describe the bearer as "one of His Majesty's subjects of the Irish Free State"; and if passports were issued to persons other than subjects of His Majesty, that fact would be stated.

In a memorandum dated 1 March 1939 entitled "The Form of Eire Passports", the British Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs, Thomas W. H. Inskip, informed his government of developments which had recently taken place "regarding the form of passports issued by the Government of Eire".

[14] In the memorandum, the Secretary of State reported that "hitherto [the passports] (which have not, I understand, been amended since 1936) have borne two indications of relationship to the British Commonwealth of Nations".

These, the memorandum noted, were the reference to the king including his full title in the "request" page; and a front page, where underneath the words "Irish Free State" (in Irish, English and French) appear the words "British Commonwealth of Nations".

The Secretary of State proposed that he reply to the Irish authorities in terms that "His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom greatly regrets the proposed elimination of the king's name from Éire passports; that in their view, the omission, when it comes to be known, is bound to create a bad impression in the UK and to widen the separation which Mr de Valera deplores between Éire and Northern Ireland".

[14] The Secretary of State noted in his memorandum that to "say more than this might raise questions [relating to whether or not Ireland was still in the Commonwealth] which it was the object of the statement of the 30th December 1937, to avoid".

This was a reference to the communique published by Downing Street noting the adoption of the Irish Constitution, stating that in their view Ireland continued to be part of the Commonwealth and affirming the position of Northern Ireland as part of the United Kingdom.

While it retained the green colour and the embossed harp at the centre, the number of languages on the cover changed to three, with French joining Irish and English.

[21] Another was Norman Turner from Manchester, whose proposed investment was to build a casino in Dublin's Phoenix Park.

The tribunal considered that "The explanation advanced for the payment, namely that it was in consideration for the purchase of a yearling, is highly unconvincing and improbable".

[25] After the UK's Brexit referendum on 23 June 2016, tens of thousands of Britons as well as many residents in Northern Ireland, applied for an Irish Passport.

Richmond stated that "Embassy officials predict that based on this, 2018 will be the busiest year so far for Irish passport applications in the UK".

[28][29] 98,544 applications for Irish passports were received from Great Britain in 2018, an increase of 22% on the previous year.

The top of the cover page reads An tAontas Eorpach and the equivalent in English, European Union.

The latest Irish passport booklets have security features designed to make them difficult to forge or be mistaken as forgeries.

To prevent unauthorised parties remotely accessing the information stored in the RFID biometric chip, the machine readable zone of the identity page must be scanned to unlock it.

Later pages include such landmarks as the Cliffs of Moher, the Samuel Beckett Bridge and the Aviva Stadium; there are excerpts from poems in Irish (by Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill), English (by William Butler Yeats) and Ulster Scots (by James Orr) and from the score of the national anthem, Amhrán na bhFiann (Irish for 'The Soldiers Song').

[35][36] It conforms to international standards for biometric and machine readable travel documents promulgated by ICAO.

Although ICAO began preparatory work on machine readable passport cards as early as 1968, Ireland was the first country to issue one for air travel and the Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Charles Flanagan, highlighted the novelty and utility of Ireland's Passport Card at its 2015 introduction.

[5] Unlike national identity cards issued in other parts of the EU, an Irish passport card cannot be issued unless the bearer already has a valid passport booklet but, because of its convenient size and durable format compared to the Irish passport booklet, it will also serve purposes similar to that of national identity cards in other parts of the EU: identity and age verification, and intra-EU travel.

However, the passport card directly follows ICAO document 9303, which gives other biometric requirements on which Regulation (EU) 2019/1157 is based.

Irish passport cards have security features designed to make them difficult to forge or be mistaken as forgeries.

To prevent unauthorised parties remotely accessing the information stored in the RFID biometric chip, the machine readable zone of the identity page must be scanned to unlock it.

According to Charles Flanagan, the then Foreign Affairs Minister, this is the first time such a security feature was going to be used on travel documents.

[47] Ireland's passport card was joint winner of the 'Best Regional ID Document' at the High Security Printing Europe Conference in Bucharest, Romania in March 2016.

[52] Passports are travel documents and are not necessarily a full reflection of the complexity of a person's cultural and national identity.

[54] An Irish passport, legitimate or fraudulent, is viewed by many – including intelligence services and journalists – as a highly valuable and 'safe' document due to Ireland's policy of neutrality.

[68] However, the state may limit this right for purposes of national security, and courts also have the power to confiscate passports of criminal defendants.