I am not aware that UK photo licences show place of birth.
As I understand it the requirements are like this :
The 1922 Common Travel Area agreement says no passport required when travelling between Britain and Ireland if you are a British or Irish national. This agreement is still in force. There is a requirement if you are from outside you must show it, but presumably only if requested as when travelling by sea or land (over into Northern Ireland) there are no checks at all and nobody to show it to.
This is still the case when travelling by air from Ireland to Britain. Many UK airports have specially designated channels for "arrivals from the Irish Republic", or just treat such pax as domestic. Not the least is Heathrow where gates 81-89 are always used for Irish arrivals and have no passport checking facilities at all.
The Irish government started, just a few years ago, requesting and then demanding passports at Irish airports on arrival from the UK. This appears to be against the Common Travel Area agreement but that fact seems ignored. It started when continental arriving flights began to be operated into areas of Dublin airport which were previously only used by UK flights, then it spread more generally. It also coincided with signficant numbers of non-Irish nationals coming to Ireland to work, a previously almost unknown situation which seems to have driven a political desire to be seen "checking them".
The boarding checks are a Ryanair feature and are aimed at revenue protection as opposed to anything to do with security. They were devised at Ryanair HQ in Dublin where it was simply said "photo driving licence". I do not believe anybody at Ryanair HQ realised that in the UK, unlike in Ireland, the bulk of driving licences do not have photographs on them.
This last is annoying for many reasons, not the least of which is that if (as happens frequently) my passport is off getting visas in it then I cannot fly on a wholly-domestic flight from London to a customer in Ayrshire, Scotland, Ryanair having the only service to nearby Prestwick airport. Nor can I make a sudden day return trip there from my office to deal with an issue when my passport is at home. These are invariably high fare £200-plus trips on Ryanair for such same day business travel but I get no concession for the substantial extra cost. There are a range of other inconveniences.
Last edited by WHBM; 13th Nov 2006 at 15:18.
Reason: Clarification