Stripping an Islamist terrorist of his Irish citizenship

The Department of Justice is to introduce a new process for stripping citizenship from Irish citizens, three years after the previous system was struck down by the Supreme Court.

The system will allow the State to revoke the citizenship of Islamist terrorist Ali Charaf Damache, something it has been trying to do since 2018. A convicted terrorist, Algerian-born Damache is in jail in the US where his Irish citizenship helped earn him a shorter sentence through a plea bargain.

About 40 other revocation cases are also pending for a range of other issues, for example where an applicant has been later found to have given false information.

Irish Times crime and security correspondent Conor Gallagher explains how Irish citizenship can be revoked, how rare the move is, on what grounds it might happen and how the planned new system will change the process.