evidence: The number of Irish passports being issued in the North has surpassed their UK counterparts for the first time on record, newly obtained figures reveal. [...] Last month, The Irish Times revealed more than a third of the North’s population currently hold an Irish passport, with at least 660,427 issued between 2012 to February this year – about 35 per cent of the region’s 1.8 million population. [...] Some unionist observers and politicians have suggested the surge in Irish passports being issued in the North was down to an increasing pragmatism since the UK withdrew from the EU.