After yesterday’s post looking at where @Ireland’s followers are, I thought it would be interesting to ask about voting rights for Irish citizens overseas. It started with a tweet:

It took a couple of stabs but eventually a steady stream of replies came in (and are still coming in as I write this). After a few hours I started to build a Storify of the conversations, attempting to piece them together so they made sense.

So what did people think?

From the conversations I had, there was certainly an willingness to debate the issue. The discussion revolved around residency and citizenship, with people debating which had more relevance. There was also some discussion on the relative lack of voting rights for immigrants here.

I was also taken by a question on the concept of choice – do people who are on the dole here and leave for work elsewhere really have a choice when they decide to emigrate? Are they being forced to leave when they don’t want to? Interestingly, some who had left the country felt they were more connected with Irish politics after they’d left.

One tweeter also felt the Australian model of compulsory voting would have benefits for Ireland.

The majority seemed in favour some form of representation for the diaspora, although to what extent was hotly debated. There was also some consensus, possibly perceived by me rather than scientifically accurate, that citizens should retain full voting rights for around two years after they leave the country.

I’ve added the Storify below and I’ll update it with the rest of the discussion as soon as I can.

If you’ve got anything to add, leave a comment or talk to me on Twitter at @Ireland. I’ll be there until Sunday.