Am I right or wrong.........
You are wrong. That used to be the case under UK national arrangements but now, in the brave new world of JAR, an IR is valid for one year - end of story. In JAR-FCL there is no distinction between 'valid' and 'current'.
Even the CAA got this wrong for a while but, in LASORS 2006, they have changed the requirement to align with JAR-FCL. You now need a valid (i.e. revalidated within the preceding year) IR before starting a first MPA type rating course. A number of type rating applications have been rejected by the Belgrano recently because the applicant did not have a valid MEIR.