The flight from Glasgow was late and by the time it landed in Dublin at about 11.30pm last Thursday we were tired and cranky. Just not as cranky as the two State officials who were barking to see everybody’s passports at the entrance to the terminal building only metres from the parked plane.
The two barkers did not announce who they were. They were clad in yellow high-vis jackets, which seemed to be all they needed to assert an air of formal authority. They stood at the terminal entrance like a pair of nightclub bouncers, blocking everybody’s path.
I was one of the first passengers off the plane. The more vociferous of the two officials demanded loudly to see my passport as he stared at me sternly, as if I had done some something wrong. Tired from several days of hiking mountains in the Scottish Highlands, my limbs ached and all I wanted was to get into a taxi and go to bed. So in pursuit of a quiet life I quickly flipped this man my passport when, really, I should have just flipped him the bird.
It was only as he stepped aside to allow me to pass that I looked more closely at the logo on his all-powerful high-vis jacket. The barking bureaucrat was a Customs and Excise officer. What business did he have demanding to see my passport? Border control is the responsibility of Border Management Unit officers*, not of the Revenue Commissioners’ customs division. Passport control is at the other end of the terminal.
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In any event, he had clearly never heard of the Common Travel Area (CTA), which is meant to legally guarantee unimpeded, passport-free travel for Irish and British citizens between the UK and the Republic. But in that regard, he wouldn’t be an outlier among State officials at Dublin Airport.
As a correspondent based in London for an Irish newspaper, I frequently find myself flying between various British cities and Dublin on quick trips home. One thing always stands out about the experience, depending on the direction of travel.
When passengers arrive from Ireland into any British airport, they waltz through a UK domestic channel without any checks. No delays, no bossy bureaucrats, just a free run to the exit. But whenever you go the other direction and land in Dublin after flying in from a UK city, you are herded into passport control along with passengers arriving from all over the world.
For all intents and purposes, the CTA does not exist when arriving in Ireland. In practice, only the British authorities show any sort of respect for this 100-year-old agreement, which should embarrass Irish officials given how much noise the State made about its supposed importance during Brexit talks.
The official response on the Irish side regarding the flagrant disregard for the CTA is always that Irish ports of entry don’t routinely segregate arrivals, which only prompts the question: why not start doing it, then? If a small airport like Glasgow can provide a dedicated channel for CTA arrivals, why can’t Dublin?
Irish officials insist it is still possible to fly into the Republic from Britain without showing a passport. Yet you still have to run the gauntlet of passport control. The official advice is that you can get away with showing a boarding card or “documentary evidence of name and nationality”. In practice, they ask for both if you are impudent enough to refuse to show your passport. In Britain, they ask for nothing.
Even though showing a passport should not be necessary for Irish and British citizens when arriving at Dublin Airport, in my experience immigration officers* still scan it on their machine when you hand it over. Presumably, this adds to some sort of official record of your travel between Britain and Ireland. Again, this seems to breach the spirit of the CTA.
It’s impossible for Irish citizens to fly Ryanair without a passport, which also undermines the CTA. But the airline is able to insist on this policy only because it knows State officials at airports also routinely negate the agreement. Also, passengers have the choice to fly with someone else. Aer Lingus, for example, doesn’t require passports for Irish-British travel.
As for the farrago around last Thursday evening’s flight from Glasgow, it felt more wearying than climbing Ben Nevis. The entire experience seemed like another example of the culture of disrespect for the passport-free provisions of the CTA among authorities at Dublin Airport. If they don’t show much regard for the agreement, why should anyone else?
* This article was amended on August 14th, 2024, to correct an error. Passport checks at Dublin Airport are carried out by the Department of Justice’s Border Management Unit.