The husband of a Social Democrats TD is one of more than 4,600 people to become Irish citizens this week.
Dietmar Weiss, originally from Germany, has been married to Jen Cummins since 2008. The couple, who first met when Weiss moved to Ireland in 1997, have four children together.
Weiss became an Irish citizen at a ceremony at the Gleneagle Arena in Killarney, Co Kerry, on Monday.
Three such ceremonies were held on Monday and another two are scheduled on Tuesday. Weiss, who first applied for Irish citizenship more than a year ago, had not intended to move permanently to Ireland when he first came here over 30 years ago.
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One year after he moved to Ireland, he and Cummins started a relationship. It was briefly a long-distance relationship after Cummins moved to England, but the pair travelled to Australia together before returning to Ireland to settle down.
Cummins, the Dublin South-Central TD, said the ceremony had been “really, really” positive. “The Army band were playing. There was an Irish sign language interpreter and then there was a woman playing harp. It was gorgeous,” Cummins told The Irish Times. “There are people here from all over the world.”
She said that some freshly minted citizens were sporting flat caps in the wake of the ceremony.
“People are just looking so happy, and of course it’s really sunny.”
The couple had first discussed seeking citizenship for Weiss when their children were smaller, but put it off because of the cost. Cummins said it costs just under €1,000 to complete the process.
“When our kids were really small we would have liked to have done it, but we just didn’t have the money,” she said.
“We’re delighted – now he will have an Irish passport like the rest of us. It’s so lovely. He has lived here for so long, and I have to say he’s contributed so much to Irish society. He works in the prison service, he does a huge amount of voluntary work in the neighbourhood and, no matter what, if somebody asked him to do something, he’ll help out, and you know, it’s . . . amazing that he’s now been recognised as an Irish citizen today.”
The Department of Justice said applicants from 139 countries and across almost all 32 counties on the island would make “a declaration of fidelity and loyalty to the State and become Irish citizens” in the ceremonies.
Judge Paddy McMahon, who is presiding officer at the ceremonies, will confer the attendees with Irish citizenship. The new Irish citizens will commit to observe the laws of the State and to respect its democratic values.
Citizenship ceremonies were first introduced in 2011 as a way to mark the occasion of people being granted Irish citizenship.
Since first introduced, there have been more than 200 ceremonies, with people from over 180 countries receiving certificates of naturalisation.
