Not true. If you can prove that any of your 4 grandparents were born in Ireland, you are an Irish citizen. One of the benefits of citizenship is a passport. Regarding the citzenship through marriage thing versus the grandparent thing, here's the difference. If you marry an Irish citizen, you can only get Irish citizenship by living in Ireland for a set period of time. If you have any Irish grandparent, no matter where you live, you are an Irish citizen and eligible for all the benefits thereof.
sorry my original post was right. My next post tho it referred to grandparents should have stated great-grandparents. If your great- grandparents were born in ireland you can apply to be an irish citizen but only if your parents had applied to be irish citizens at the time of your birth. if your grandparents were born here, you are not automatically a citizen but wll be once you apply, sorry dunno what i was on about yesterday
I think we're roughly on the same page. Grandparents get you in, great-grandparents don't, save for the registration thing which is usually very unlikely. To get citizenship from your great-grandparents, assuming grandparents and parents were born outside the country, I believe that one of your grandparents or parents must have registered as citizens before your birth. The Foreign Births registration thing is merely a way of proving that you are a citizen, nothwithstanding what they said on the link from the embassy in DC. Citizenship is inalienable and innate; it's like being born with red hair. Proving an Irish grandparent is just a way of proving citizenship. All it means it that once you show an Irish grandparent, it means that you were a citizen from birth. But you must prove it. And then, as I said, one of the benefits of citizenship is a passport.
You need: A birth certificate from Ireland for your grandparent, A marriage license for the grandparents, A birth certificate for your mother/father, A marriage license for your mother/father A birth certificate for you. My wife's grandmother was supposed to have been born in County Cork, I sent off for the birth cetificate and of course they never heard of her. The letter said 'get a baptismal certificate from the local church'. which requires a trip. Or pay a lawyer $500 to get it.