Question - England to Ireland

[DavidTaylor]

In the early 1900's would you need to applay to go from England to Nothern Ireland to live? Would there be travel records? I'm looking for the Reid Family

Dave & Louisa

Children - Eric, Cecil, Gordon and Harold who went from Hackney to Ireland (Portadown, I think) in about 1925

Thanks

[JDG]

Until the Republic of Ireland was formed, the whole of Ireland was under british control, so you could move anywhere within the British Isles, inc all Ireland. Later, when Ireland split, Northern Ireland remained under British control and the remainder became Southern Ireland, and as far as I know you can move from the UK into Southern Ireland without any form of visa.

When I did my Degree, I used a book called the Making of Modern Ireland, which was excellent, and should be available from bookstore, a search of Amazon should reveal its ISBN, as I do not have my copy to hand.

[Hackstaple]

England and Northern Ireland have been technically part of the same Union for a very long time. There has never been any restriction on the movement of citizens of the "mainland" to move within the 4 component countries nor on Ulstermen coming to and residing in the mainland. No passport control has been needed to enter Eire or come from Eire to the mainland since the formation of Eire in 1922. Travel may nowadays be much by air but until recently it was by ferry. That is much like a bus service and records are not registered anywhere.
That freedom of travel has nothing to do with the European Union.