Britons apparently desperate to hang onto EU citizenship in the wake of the Brexit referendum result have been making record numbers of applications for Irish passports。

　　英国人显然想保住他们的欧盟公民身份：脱欧公投结果使爱尔兰护照申请打破记录。

　　Ireland’s embassy and post offices in Northern Ireland received more than 4，000 enquiries on Monday， compared with the 200 it normally receives， Reuters reports。

　　据路透社报道，爱尔兰驻北爱尔兰大使馆和邮局星期一收到超过4000份申请，而通常情况下每天只会收到200份。

　　Anyone born in the Irish Republic， Northern Ireland or with an Irish parent or grandparent， is eligible for an Irish passport – some six million people living in the UK。

　　任何出生在爱尔兰共和国、北爱尔兰，或者有爱尔兰籍父母或祖父母的人，都可以拥有爱尔兰护照。这样的人在英国有六百万人。

　　Ireland’s foreign minister Charlie Flanagan has appealed to Britons to stop rushing for Irish passports， as the surge threatened to overwhelm Irish consular offices。

　　爱尔兰外交部长查利•弗拉纳根呼吁英国人停止疯抢爱尔兰护照，因为这一激增对爱尔兰领事馆的运转造成了威胁。

　　In a statement he said： “An unnecessary surge in applications for Irish passports will place significant pressure on the system and on turnaround times。

　　他在一份声明中说：“爱尔兰护照申请的不必要激增将对系统和周转时间造成压力。

　　“The increased interest clearly points to a sense of concern among some UK passport holders that the rights they enjoy as EU citizens are about to abruptly end。

　　“（人们对申请护照）兴趣大增显然表明了一些持有英国护照的人的忧虑，这些原本享有欧盟公民身份带来的权力的人将突然失去这些权利。

　　“I want to state clearly that this is not the case。”

　　“我想说的是，事情并不是这样的。”

　　Ireland’s embassy in Paris has also been dealing with a record number of requests， Reuters reports。

　　路透社报道，爱尔兰驻巴黎大使馆收到的申请也创下纪录。

　　The stampede for Irish passports was also fanned by the Democratic Unionist Party MP Ian Paisley， who had campaigned for Brexit。 He tweeted： “My advice is if you are entitled to a second passport then take one。”

　　支持英国脱欧的北爱尔兰民主统一党议员伊恩•佩斯利也煽动爱尔兰护照哄抢事件。他说：“我的建议是，如果你可以申请第二份护照那就去申请一个吧。”

　　Last year Ireland issued about 670，000 passports， mostly to Irish citizens， while at least 500，000 of Northern Ireland’s 1.8m citizens hold an Irish passport。

　　去年爱尔兰发行了约六十七万本护照，大多是面向爱尔兰公民，而北爱尔兰一百八十万居民中有至少五十万人拥有爱尔兰护照。

　　Northern Irish citizens can hold both a British and an Irish passport。

　　北爱尔兰公民可以同时拥有一个英国护照和一个爱尔兰护照。