Interrail for residents of Northern Ireland

Hmmm, that’s a good question. The conditions of use do not explicitly say that Northern Ireland should be seen as Ireland, and not the UK. The conditions of use also clearly state you cannot use the pass in your own country (which is the UK in your case). But on the other hand, the countries are clearly defined:

I think this means Ireland is to be seen as one entity and one country, so you should be eligble for the Great Britain pass. But before buying, best wait for confirmation of one of the Interrail staff members.

@Annie.@Camilo., is this the right way of thinking?

I am bumping this as an official answer is required.

Northern Ireland is the only place where an entire region of a country is valid with another country instead of it’s own for pass validity.

It should be made clear where residents of Northern Ireland stand with regards to “Home Country” status for buying and using passes.

Hm-the same could apply-granted these are even much smaller, for citizens of Monaco (regarded as FR?) or Lichtenstein (regarded as AT, as OeBB runs the trains), and Andorra and San Marino=both without railways. Though I very well understand the nr of people wanting to explore on passes EUR by train in all these will be very tiny little small

With a long Xmas weekend looming I dont think there will be an official reaction soon-plus that those pesky strikes and the results will likely also play havoc-keeping staff busy.You and also yorkie most likely will also know of the main UK forum railforums.co.uk, which also seems to have a lot of staff working on the trains on it- I kind of recall that same Q has been posted there, perhaps try if a search there leads to some results?

If that is the case does that mean a resident of NI can travel on unlimited travel days in Eire, Eire and NI or neither?

Equally can a resident or citizen of Monaco travel unlimited in France but not travel through Monaco outside the 2 day rule on the Nice - Ventimiglia line?

 

I wasn’t aware you were a fluent Gaelic speaker Yorkie.

Thank you @Camilo. for your response.

This is indeed confusing - it would be much clearer if there was a “Northern Ireland” residency option in the list when booking which would align with the way that the Interrail areas are structured.

Your answer raises a very interesting point, also referred to by @Yorkie. It appears that a resident of Northern Ireland can use Interrail to get unlimited access to their local trains (ie NI Railways) on the pass (if their ‘home’ network is actually Great Britain). Plus Irish Rail on the other side of the border. A Translink weekly or monthly ticket would be less expensive for someone only travelling in Northern Ireland (as the Northern Ireland rail network is not very big) but for someone working across the border regularly it could be less expensive to use Interrail rather than regular tickets. But I suspect that someone trying this would soon run into difficulties with ticket barrier staff and on train ticket inspectors as it just seems ‘wrong’! It would be helpful if the exact rules could be put on the Interrail website for people to refer to - and to show to ticket checking staff wen required.

Interesting thread. My own interest is that I’m curious about the flipside of this scenario. I’m a UK citizen living in England, so GB for the purposes of the list earlier in this thread. If I travel to Ireland will my pass permit travel through Northern Ireland without it being seen as domestic travel and therefore only allowed on two specific days of my pass? I believe from what I’ve read above that the answer is yes, but I’d like to be sure (I would be on a monthly pass so am not concerned about using a travel day, I’m just interested in the slightly crazy idea of travelling through Stranraer to make good use of one of my domestic travel days 😁)

I cannot see any other interpretation other than:

1. Residents of NI have a COR of United Kingdom (Not Great Britain). Since the NI rail network is documented as one of the operators of the Island of Ireland they can frrely travel in the island of Ireland without it being classed as 1 of your 2 COR days.
2. Residents of Northern Ireland can only use a pass in Great Britain (i.e England, Scotland and Wales) for a maximum of 2 days.

So they are almost unique in that they can travel in their own region in an unlimited way but only 2 days in the other regions of their home country. I did consider countries like Monaco, but that is a bit different as, because their trains and station are deemed to be France, they can theoretically use their pass in all countries including France.

Maybe the other way round is also unique - residents of Great Britain can use the pass in a region of the country of Residence (UK)

For those who never understood that Great Britain and the United Kingdom are different.

Great Britain is the three countries on the Big Island (England, Scotland and Wales) and the United Kingdom (All 4) is also often known as Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

What about the Isle oversees, like Jersey and British-Virgin-Isles? They are part of UK, but people of the last country would be considered like people from outside of Europe.

The same with people from the Dutch Antilles (Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao, Saba St. Eustatius and St. Maarten). They are people with a Dutch passport, but I think that Eurail-considers them like people outside from Europa ans gives them only a EURail-Pass.

Jersey is not part of The UK or Great Britain. It is technically a Crown Dependency and residents of Jersey have their own passports, although they are included as British. They should therefore be like states such as Monaco and able to use an Interrail pass in any country outside Jersey. It would be interesting whether Interrail interprets it the same.

islandidentity.je/report/island-identity-project/constitution-and-citizenship#:~:text=Jersey%20looks%20to%20the%20UK,issued%20in%20Jersey%20make%20clear.

What kind of “official documents” would do the job for this please? I’m looking to buy a pass for a 16 year old, so she has nothing like tax papers, driving license, etc. Everything for that property is in her Grandad’s name. Her current passport is British, she is entitled to an Irish passport but doesn’t have one right now. 

A document issued by a government.

If the passport matches with the country of residence, then you don't need anything else. If that isn't the case, then you'll need a document to prove country of residence, especially if you're travelling in the country of your passport.