February 13, 2001

After two years of living in Tralee and Waterford, refugees from Kosovo were granted the right to become Irish citizens on February 13, 2001. In 1999, almost 1,000 Kosovar refugees first arrived in Ireland. They were displaced due to the ethnic war  and “cleansing” taking place in their homeland, and fled to Ireland under the United Nations Human Rights Council protection programme. Of the 1,000 refugees, most returned home after the Kumanovo Treaty in June of 1999, but 140 of the refugees remained in Ireland and were granted full citizenship in their new homeland on this day in 2001.