Originally Posted by
ibdublin
I would advise you to check that the passport issued is the new style machine-readable one...I know that even when we had those ones here that the one issued in Embassies/Consulates weren't this style. This may have changed but might be worth checking.
To be fair, the London embassy issues so many Irish passports that it is almost a passport office in its own right!
My Irish passport, issued in London last year, is both machine readable and has a biometric chip - looks just like the ones issued in Ireland (in fact, I understand some of the London passports may actually get issued in Ireland!). For the record, even the passport I was issued with in London in 1998 was machine readable.