BELFAST City Council will petition the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs to include images from the Six Counties in the new Irish passport design.
The motion was put forward in the council's Climate and City Resilience committee by SDLP Councillor Gary McKeown.
In June, the public were asked for their say on the new Irish passport design, which is the first redesign of the Irish passport in over a decade. The new design will be available from 2025. The short online questionnaire asked the public to consider which Irish flora and fauna should be included in the inner pages of the new passport.
As well as communicating Irish culture and values, the passport redesign will include new security features.
Councillor McKeown said any redesign of the passport should include landscapes and scenes from the North as well.
“The re-designing of the Irish passport is an important opportunity to include imagery from our whole island in its content," he said. "There is a huge number of Irish citizens living in the North and it’s only right that locations in this part of the island are included. The current version has scenes from across the Republic, but not the North. That's not right. This isn't about politics – it's about respect and recognition," he said.
“It has been reported that the redesign will focus on the natural environment. I see no reason why some of our most outstanding sites of natural beauty couldn't be featured. We have places like the Giant’s Causeway, the Glens of Antrim and the Mourne Mountains on our doorstep and they should be considered alongside other parts of the island.
“I have got committee support for council to write to the Department of Foreign Affairs requesting that locations from the North are included in the new edition."
