The best-selling thriller author Lee Childs, creator of the Jack Reacher series, has said he will apply for an Irish passport to avoid the risk of travel restrictions should the UK leave the EU next year, according to the Irish Times.

Mr Child was speaking at a European ‘friendship tour’ in Berlin along with other best-selling British authors, Kate Mosse, Ken Follet and Jojo Moyes. He told the Irish Times he did not yet have an Irish passport but would apply for one very soon. He added that he was not a huge fan of Britain as a country as he found it “silly and frustrating”, which was why he had moved to America.

Lee Childs’ real name is James Grant and he was born in Coventry. The author currently divides his time between the US and the UK.

Automatically entitled

As the son of a man born in Belfast, Mr Childs is entitled to an Irish passport. He is automatically an Irish citizen and as an Irish citizen he can apply for a passport. According to the law, people do not need Irish passports in order to be an Irish citizen but having an Irish passport provides evidence you are one.

If either of your grandparents were born in Ireland but neither of your parents were, it is still possible to become an Irish citizen, but you need to register your birth in the Foreign Births Register. Extended previous ancestry, i.e. ancestors who are not your parents or grandparents, does not count towards entitlement to citizenship.

Reaffirming cultural links to Europe

The author tour, Jojo Moyes said, was to reaffirm their “emotional, cultural and spiritual links to the rest of Europe”. They asked their European readers not to turn theirs backs on the millions of UK citizens aghast by Brexit. Kate Mosse warned that Brexit might mean the draining away o European cultural exchange and the departure of European creatives who had been able to enrich the UK’s art scene.

Ken Follett said Brexit would mean fewer young people moving to work in Europe, leaving them less cosmopolitan and not knowing as much about our neighbours on the continent.

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