he decided to register his heritage with the Irish government when he was 22
Except for official purposes like applying for citizenship why else would the irish government care about your “heritage”?
He didn't understand that would automatically be treated as an application for Irish citizenship or, crucially, that he would immediately lose Australian citizenship as a result.
Mr Keogh received Irish citizenship and a passport
This clown “accidentally” applied for, and received irish citizenship, and lost Australian citizenship due to a law on the books for over 50 years
Between 1948 and April 4, 2002, Australian adults who got a second citizenship automatically lost their Australian citizenship.
And between November 1984 and April 2002, they didn't even have to be outside Australia when they took up their second citizenship to trigger the loss of their Australian rights.
Last month the 55-year-old was informed by Home Affairs that he had no Australian citizenship or visa, due to a law that was repealed more than 20 years ago.
"I'm no longer Australian and apparently I haven't been for the last 33 years," Mr Keogh told Raf Epstein on ABC Radio Melbourne Mornings.
Mr Keogh received Irish citizenship and a passport, which he held alongside Australian identity documents which technically were not valid.
Mr Keogh first realised he may be in trouble when he read an ABC article about another man whose citizenship was revoked because of a little-known, now-repealed piece of legislation.
When immigration officials eventually got in touch in February, they said Mr Keogh had likely lost his citizenship, and a few weeks later they confirmed the worst.
"What the average Australian views as unjust and most likely unconstitutional has been left unchallenged in the High Court, as to do so would be to risk financial ruin," Mr Niall said.
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