Updated at 4.30pm

THE KILLARNEY CONVENTION Centre hosted three citizenship ceremonies today which saw approximately 3,500 people from over 120 different countries become citizens of Ireland.

“On becoming Irish citizens you will have the same rights, the same duties and the same responsibilities as every other Irish citizen,” Minister for Justice and Equality, Charlie Flanagan, told the new citizens.

“We ask you, as we ask all our citizens, to participate actively in our communities, to be good citizens and to uphold the law.”

Claude Cooke from the UK, who was born in January 1925, was one of 339 people of UK nationality who was granted Irish citizenship.

The highest number of new citizens come from Poland, followed by Romania, the UK and India.

The Presiding Officers at the ceremony was retired High Court Judge Bryan McMahon and retired District Court Judge Paddy McMahon.

It’s the first time that large scale citizenship ceremonies have been held outside of Dublin.

Today’s ceremony brings the total number of naturalised citizens to over 119,000, from 181 different countries, since Citizenship Ceremonies were introduced in 2011.

The top ten nationalities of persons naturalised in that time are: Poland, India, Nigeria, Romania, Philippines, Pakistan, China, Ukraine, South Africa and Bangladesh.