Cork Views: Emigrants like me should get to vote for president

I am an Irish citizen. I will always be Irish. Yet there are times when I feel that Ireland has abandoned me.

Returning home from Florida, I am viewed as the Yank. While living in the U.S, I am viewed as the Irishman. And even though I am now a citizen of both countries, there are times when I feel that I am a citizen of none. That is the true story of the Irish diaspora.

The upcoming presidential election in Ireland will be another election that sees 20% of the Irish population disenfranchised from the right to vote.

Bunreacht na hEireann states that it is the “birthright of every person born in the Island of Ireland… to be a part of the Irish Nation”. It is the right of every person born on the island to call themselves an Irish citizen.

The fundamental right of a citizen is the right to vote. Is it wrong for a citizen to be able to have a say in who represents them as their president? Just because I live in Florida, am I any less of a citizen than someone living in Cork?

The moment the plane leaves the tarmac of Dublin, Shannon, or Cork, or the car travels into Tyrone or Derry or the north, it is as if you are instantly losing your right to have any say in the country. While you will always be Irish, when it comes to voting, you are essentially second-class.

How ironic is it that Mary McAleese’s husband was unable to vote for her when she ran for president because he lived in the north?

A situation where a citizen is deemed incapable of voting for its first citizen in this modern age is laughable.

The stark reality is that Ireland is bottom of the table in terms of voting rights in the EU as it has no absentee ballot process.

Detractors will suggest that the emigrant is not entitled to have a say in the affairs of the country, with the old adage, ‘no representation without taxation’. After all, why should those living abroad be afforded a voice in the affairs of the country, when they are not even living there?

With 20% of the Irish nation now living overseas, is it too much to ask for their input when it comes to selecting the first citizen of our country?

In terms of taxation, the reality is that only the U.S in the developed world places a tax on its citizens on foreign-earned income. Eritrea follows America’s lead. It is not demanded amongst any of our European counterparts and nearly every country has some form of emigrant voting rights.

Our greatest export is our people and the amazing young minds that have left the island to build a new life further afield. Very often we have left out of economic necessity, a lack of opportunity and a lack of hope.

We represent the people of Ireland every day in everything we say and do. Many of us want to return home, but cannot. Many more will want to come home in the future but will not be able to. Our hearts will forever be in Ireland.

We have become ambassadors on every level and have grown to the top levels in industry and business and society around the globe.

The Irish government has been happy to invite Irish-owned companies back to the Emerald Isle to set up and invest in the country. Surely it is not too much to ask to allow those of us living abroad a say in who represents us as leader of the country?

Those of us oversees long for home. Yet the absence of voting rights is even harder to comprehend when people in the North are not able to vote. They live on the island. The constitution states that everyone born on the island is an Irish citizen. Yet these citizens have been abandoned and their fundamental right to vote has been jettisoned with little or no discussion.

The constitutional convention recommended a referendum on extending voting rights to those living outside the state. In recent years, the topic of voting rights has also been included in successive programmes of government, yet it has failed to materialise.

Leo Varadkar, who has recently sought to position himself as a leading voice on Irish unity, had the opportunity to introduce a referendum on voting rights when Taoiseach. He also had the opportunity to follow through on his ambitious reform of the Senate to include more voices from the north and the diaspora. He failed to grasp these opportunities.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has talked about his Shared Island initiative and yet this programme fails to mention voting rights for those in the North.

In addition, hundreds of thousands of Irish citizens living in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Australia, and myself in the U.S have also been left out of the Shared Island initiative. We have all been disenfranchised.

The whole concept of voting rights has been abandoned completely in the current programme for government. Indeed, as Taoiseach, Micheál Martin had the opportunity to reappoint the Senator for the Diaspora, Billy Lawless from Galway, and chose not to do so. Lawless was the lone voice in the Seanad calling for voting rights.

The Easter weekend drove memories of the centennial celebrations in 2016. To suggest that the dreams and ideals of our 1916 heroes have been fully achieved would be ignorant of the fact 20% of all Irish citizens are disenfranchised from the right to vote as soon as they set off from the loneliest of airports.

Is it too much of a dream to give our loved ones away from home a say in selecting our first citizen? Surely it is their country as much as ours?

Two signatories of the Easter Proclamation were emigrants (Thomas J. Clarke and James Connolly) and fought for the rights of Irish men and women around the world. They will never be forgotten in Irish history.

Let us take this opportunity to ensure we never forget those who have left our shores, while also ensuring all those born and living on the island are heard also.

Our voices have been silenced for too long.